Mobile Roundup: Apps pushing engagement, Latin American adoption to skyrocket

In today's mobile roundup: where the next mobile hotspot will be (hint: it's generally warm there) and how brands are engaging now - and how they should act in the coming months.

by Kristina Knight

First up, from Nexage, a new report which shows the importance of location for mobile brands. According to their data location data is pushing branded spending in the mobile space; one CPG advertiser increased their spend nearly 400% (Q2 2014).

Rich media and video are also leading the way. Nexage's data shows interstital ad requests increased 194% while rich media requests increased 346%. Video was the hottest ticket with a 516% increase in requests.

As for apps, they're hot. Publishers are pushing farther into the app space as more consumers look to mobile devices to watch and read content.

"Advertisers and agencies are adapting to a mobile-centric, app-centric world--where mobile will soon exceed desktop in ad spend and 80% of mobile traffic is app traffic. In other words, if advertisers are going to reach the mobile consumer, they will need to reach them through apps. This pragmatic view is coupled with greater familiarity and comfort in the performance of brand-safe app traffic sold on the Nexage Marketplace," writes the company.

Meanwhile, new data out from Millennial Media suggests Latin American may be where mobile brands want to focus their efforts over the next couple of years. That because Latin American smartphone ownership is expected to increase at a rate of 29% per year through 2017. Along with new smartphone owners come new ad opportunities and because of the sharp uptick in adoption the mobile ad spend is also expected to skyrocket, increasing 73% (average) per year through 2017.

Other interesting predictions from the Millennial Media report include:

• Argentina's mobile spend is expected to increase more than 100% per year through 2017
• 72% of impressions (Millennial Media's network) in Latin American are from Android devices
• Venezuela, Ecuador and Dominican Republic mobiles are most likely to use Apple devices

Image via Shutterstock

Tags: Millennial Media, mobile marketing, mobile trends, Nexage, smartphone trends, smartphone usage