In November, Forrester released its mobile predictions for 2016, highlighting how mobile will act as a catalyst for business transformation and explaining why the battle for mobile moments will redefine the vendor landscape.

Let’s now take a closer look at how mobile will impact marketing in 2016.

A year ago, Forrester argued that most brands would underinvest in mobile in 2015. This is likely to remain the case this year, since too many marketers still have a narrow view of mobile as a “sub-digital” medium and channel. This is good news for the 20% of marketers who told us they have the budget they need and for the 33% who said they know how to measure mobile ROI. In 2016, this growing minority of leading marketers will start to fully integrate mobile into their marketing strategies. These mature mobile marketers will measure the impact of mobile across channels, see a clear opportunity to differentiate their brands, and increase their investments in mobile initiatives. Here’s what else we expect to happen:

  • Integrating mobile into your marketing strategy will become a key differentiator. While most brands are trying to mobilize their ads, few are going the extra mile: serving their customers in their mobile moments by transforming the entire customer experience. Only those that do go that extra mile will differentiate their brands via mobile. Leaders will also start measuring the impact of mobile on offline channels and will end up allocating up to 20% of their marketing budgets to mobile.
  • The line between the mobile Web and apps will start to blur. Consumers will continue to spend their time in fewer apps. UK and US consumers use an average of about 25 apps per month. However, the typical smartphone owner spends more than 88% of their app time on just five downloaded apps; they give most of their attention to messaging apps, which are set to become standalone application ecosystems. However, the gap between mobile web and app experiences will slowly start shrinking, and it will become easier to move between these environments.
  • Mobile will enable brand innovation via artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and the IoT.While it’s still early days for adjacent technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), virtual reality (VR), and the Internet of Things (IoT), mobile will start using them to drive brand innovation. AI and voice-based personal assistants will inspire conversational apps. VR will start opening up experimental opportunities for brands ― primarily in gaming and entertainment but also for automotive companies, travel brands, or high-street retailers. Lastly, consumer adoption of wearables and smart home products will reveal new opportunities for B2C marketers.

To know more, Forrester clients can download our full report “2016 Mobile And App Marketing Trends” here.