As LBS continues to flourish, location-based advertising has picked up major steam as well.  New data out from ABI Research suggests marketers will spend $1.8B on the medium in 2015, up substantially from the $42.8M expected for 2010.

While the concept has been around a while, marketers were unclear how to best leverage the technology.  As LBS apps continue to define advertising models and rewards programs based on location, options for marketers are becoming better defined as well.  “For a number of companies, especially ones with physical stores, the value in knowing a prospect’s location is the opportunity to drive that person to a store, and thus increase foot traffic,” said Neil Strother, research analyst at ABI Research, adding that the industry is now “seeing the first shoots” of location-based advertising being commercialized. “Once in store, the retailer has a high probability of converting that visit into a sale, which is the ultimate objective.”

The report noted that analyzing customers’ mobile and location habits is a good strategy for marketers to begin taking on location-based advertising, as well as determining which platforms are best for a particular brand.  Location-based advertising (LBA) is unique compared to other methods in that each campaign is highly targeted and relevant to a particular audience, meaning marketers need to take the time to plan and optimize for the best results.

“There is a value exchange between marketers and consumers that goes along with location-based advertising,” said Strother.  The consumer is asked to share his location via phone in exchange for something of value from the marketer, which could be information about a nearby store, a coupon or a special offer, he explained.

Google continues to work hard in trying to bring a rich mobile search experience to its users, and new ad-units rolling out today are a perfect example of the evolution.

Back in July, we covered Google’s introduction of expandable ad-units that incorporate maps for click-to-call and other rich functionality.  While it was a great first step towards driving calls and foot traffic to physical locations, the targeting of the ads were still attributed to IP addresses.  While it works, it’s certainly not ideal.  With today’s introduction, the same functionality is now available within Google Maps for mobile, bringing with it the enhanced targeting capabilities found in the mapping application — such as GPS and triangulation.

Google announced the new addition using Sprint stores as an example.  A user initiates a search for “Sprint” and sees sponsored icons on the map, for instance.  Clicking on the banner or any of the location icons sends you to a Google Place Page for Sprint, which then gives you the ability to call a store or get directions.  It also integrates seamlessly with Google navigation.  The ad can literally take users “from search to store.”  For the retailer, Google won’t charge for the click on the map icon or banner, only for calls or clicks on a URL.

According to the latestNetApplications report published this week, iOS now is the third most-used operating system on the internet.

Based on the findings of the “Global Market Share Statistics,” browsers powered by iOS comprised 1.13% of the total last month, bumping “all flavors of Linux” – which accounted for only 0.85% – and surpassing Android-based browsers, which cling to only a 0.2% share.

In reference to the aging, 20-year-old Linux, Vince Vizzaccaro, vice president of Net Applications, says “it’s something to take note of when a mobile operating system passes something that’s been around forever.”

“Mobile is becoming quite a phenomenon on the Internet,” he added, pointing to the swelling growth of internet traffic via mobile devices. “That’s massive when you think about it.”

Still, the top player in the platform world is Windows, which (all versions included) represents 91.34%. Mac OS X is second, with 5.00%

According to ComputerWorld, however, Net Applications’ numbers “don’t reflect devices sold or operating systems licensed or installed,” but they do show how much browsing people do using specific hardware and operating systems.

In June we reported that the National Wildlife Federation had launched a mobile donation campaign to benefit creatures affected by the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Today I’ve heard some of the results of the text-messaging, or SMS, campaign that go beyond raising funds.

While the NWF declined to give exact monetary figures, it has seen a significant increase in year-to-year donations  thanks in part to SMS. The organization saw a 53 percent increase in July 2010 from the previous July, and a 48 percent increase in June 2010 from June 2009, according to Mike Ricci, Vice President of Mobile Solutions for Merkle, the marketing agency that ran NWF’s fund-raising efforts for Gulf animals affected by the April 20 spill. He said that 35 percent of all money raised to help the creatures is due to the “Text WILDLIFE” campaign.

The campaign, in which donors are asked to text the keyword WILDLIFE to the short code 20222, also shows how mobile fits into an overall digital marketing strategy, perhaps driving engagement on other platforms accessible by smart phones. Eighty percent of NWF supporter activity came from new donors opting into an email database. Social marketing techniques drove membership, with a 60 percent increase on the NWF Facebook fan page, from 15,920 on April 30 to 40,206 on August 15; a Facebook cause that has so far raised more than $109,000 with more than 1.2 million page members; and a 40 percent increase in Twitter followers between April 20 and August 15, from 20,234 to 34,000.

It’s still too early to say just how effective text-messaging has been for the NWF fundraiser, which is ongoing. But consider the Red Cross’ SMS campaign, eight months strong, to help victims of last January’s earthquake in Haiti. As we reported a few days ago, the Red Cross said it received donations via SMS from 3 million unique donors, of which 95% were first-time donors; in total, it  helped raise $32 million in relief aid to victims of the Haitian earthquake.

Even if the NWF doesn’t see this kind of money due to SMS alone, text-messaging is an important part of its overall strategy.

Brightkite has teamed with McDonalds and Visa to power a unique rewards program centered around checking-in to McDonalds locations to earn a $5 Visa gift card.

Following similar programs with brands like Starbucks, The CW, Sharpie and Dentyne, this rewards campaign marks the largest brand play to date for Brightkite.  McDonald’s and Visa got together to launch the ‘Easy’ badge for Brightkite users to earn by checking in to their nearest McDonalds.  The first 500 people to earn the badge  receive a $5 Visa gift card, courtesy of Visa and Brightkite.

To highlight the campaign, Brightkite is also running a location and activity targeted ad campaign that launches an on-screen spinner that highlights the McDonald’s dollar menu.  The Brightkite campaign is integrated with other media including online and out-of-home.

While the rewards campaign is unique in and of itself, the ad-creative built into the Brightkite application is innovative as well.  The ads are targeted to fast-food places and activities and clicking them launches a custom spinner that highlights items from McDonald’s dollar menu.  Clicking again links to the Brightkite page to help the user find their nearest McDonalds where they can earn their badge and its subsequent reward.  The campaign is limited to the first 500 qualified users, so head on down to your nearest McDonalds, check-in using Brightkite and take advantage of the offer while you still can.

A new survey out by Pew Research suggests American adults are just as addicted to text messaging as the younger generation, with the amount rising substantially over the past year.

The survey found that roughly 72% of adult cell phone users send and receive text messages these days, up from 65% in September 2009.  This still falls short of the 87% of teen cell users who text.  The research shows teens text 50 messages a day on average, which is five times more than the typical 10 text messages sent and received by adults per day.

“Texting among adults has reached the mainstream and the charge is being lead by African-Americans, Hispanics and young adults,” said Amanda Lenhart, Senior Research Specialist and author the report. “Of course, none of these adult groups hold a candle to teens when it comes to texting, who swamp adults in messages sent per day by a factor of 5.”

For the results, Pew used data from telephone interviews conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International between April 29 and May 30, 2010, among a sample of 2,252 adults age 18 and older.  Though the research pretty much tells us what we already knew, SMS has become the primary ubiquitous technology across any age group and any demographic.  It’s no wonder SMS remains the most used mobile marketing tactic around.

The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) announced recently that its beginning to reposition itself within the mobile marketing industry to better “promote and enable the global mobile marketing opportunity” and provide stronger benefits to its growing list of members.

In a press release issued yesterday, the MMA said the move is aimed at enhancing the association’s effectiveness at the global, regional and national levels to keep up with the fast evolution of the mobile marketing industry.  The repositioning is based on feedback from a survey of members and non-member companies across four regions regarding a global market assessment, the MMA’s challenges and opportunities and the expanded MMA global presence.

In a statement, Federico Pisani Massamormile, the MMA’s Global Board Chairman and Interim CEO, explained the need to better position the MMA for the future: “In its formative years, the MMA placed great emphasis on helping build a global industry, creating standards and guidelines to support the growth of a new industry,” he said.  “In many ways, the need to act as evangelists for the mobile channel has evolved into to a need to get brands and agencies to increase spend on a channel they’re now aware of. Marketers understand the need to include mobile in their plans, but still need support to find the right role for mobile in the marketing mix. We aim to make mobile an indispensable part of the marketing mix.”

The repositioned MMA will concentrate its efforts on what it believes to be the five building blocks of the industry. The MMA will:

If the act of whipping out your cell phone to checkin on Foursquare has gotten to be too much of a hassle, Vlingo has you covered.  The voice-triggered app for Android now allows complete voice-based control over Foursquare, including checkins, shout-outs and other socially-related voice-commands.

Using just your voice, the app allows you to update your location status on Foursquare by saying something like “check into Starbucks,” or locate your friends with commands like “where are my friends?” and “who’s nearby?”  In addition, the app also lets users update their status on Facebook, Twitter and/or Foursquare at the same time by saying “social update” and saying the message.  Pretty cool.

Available only for Android devices sporting 2.0 or higher at the moment, Vlingo plans to add the functionality to its other apps in the near future.  In addition to the new social functionality, Vlingo still offers users the ability to do a number of other voice-based tasks including sending text and email messages, searching the web, navigating Google maps and more.

Distimo, a startup focused on providing app store analytics, has published its latest report detailing the mobile app ecosystem across the Apple App Store for iPad and iPhone, BlackBerry’s App World, the Android Market, Nokia’s Ovi Store, Palm’s App Catalog and the Windows Marketplace for Mobile for July 2010 in the United States.

Similar to previous reports, Distimo primarily looked at pricing characteristics across all major app stores to determine the proportion of free vs. paid apps and the average cost of which, which continue to rise.  The Android Market continues to have the largest share of free apps compared to the others, with 60% of the total, compared to just 29% for Apple’s App Store for iPhone and 26% for the iPad App Store.  Android has more than double the amount of free apps than any of the other six App Stores in the report.

In terms of pricing, the report states the average price of the 100 most popular apps in the Android Market and Palm’s App Catalog is higher than the average price of the entire catalogue of applications.  While the average price of all apps is only 16% higher in the App Store for iPad over the App Store for iPhone, the average price of the 100 most popular applications is nearly three times as high for iPad apps.  Over 60% of apps are priced below or equal to $2 in the App Store for iPhone, Android Market, Nokia’s Ovi Store and Palm’s App Catalog, while the proportion of apps priced below or equal to $2 is much lower in the App Store for iPad and Windows Marketplace for Mobile.

As usual, you can find much more info, data points and graphics in the actual report, available for download here.

The Corpse Princess has set her sights on smart phones.

The anime series of the same name is coming out on DVD September 14, and distributor FUNimation Entertainment is using the mobile advertising network iVdopia to get the word out. It’s all about engaging fans of anime, a genre of animation with roots in Japanese manga, or comics.

Something called the Viper Ad lets users swipe away an entire screen-takeover with a fingertip, unearthing the next image. With mobile social media, users will be able to share Corpse Princess videos with friends on sites like Facebook and Twitter. Fans will also be able to view multiple clips from the series on their phones.

The campaign for the DVD release of the show, titled Shikabane Hime in the original Japanese, is a natural progression for a business that has long understood–and even encouraged–fan sharing. For example, the Internet is rife with fan-translated chapters of popular manga long before they’re released in English–which copyright owners allow to remain out there, knowing that these translations increase consumers’ interest for a book’s official release. While other video content owners fear allowing copyrighted material to be viewed on mobiles, the anime/manga industry gets it.

“Mobile video viewing is on the rise and we want to offer the anime experience to the entertainment audience wherever they are,” Catherine Kim, Media Manager at FUNimation Entertainment, said in a release.

“This is a perfect opportunity to target a niche set of audiences on the go, and creatively combine the latest in video and mobile technology to reach and engage such consumers,”  added Saurabh Bhatia, Chief Business Officer at iVdopia.

The rabid nature of anime consumers makes them a natural target for mobile marketing and its “anytime, anywhere” nature.