With all the growth in ecommerce, 96% of retail sales still occur in stores within a 30-minute drive of home. By targeting people on mobile devices with real-world messaging and information, brand advertisers are getting closer to closing the loop.

You already know that digital technology is getting smaller, cheaper, more powerful and more prevalent. You also know that almost everything and everyone can now be connected wirelessly. But you probably don't realize the degree to which these four disruptive forces work together to make it easier for customers to act smarter.

The 30-second pre-roll is the blink tag of our era. It's the ad format that drives users crazy, and it's just not right for Web or mobile. Here's how to fix video advertising and make online video profitable for everyone.

Mobile and Web advertising is where real growth is happening. It’s essential for advertisers to start exploring new ways to serve ads in mobile search, within apps, and on various social media networks to truly understand what budgets are required to achieve specific campaign goals.

From the presentations at the summit and from speaking with other executives in the mobile business, it is clear that larger brands are taking steps to address the radical shifts in Web usage taking place. The reality is that if they haven't already, brands need to also address mobile in their overall marketing mix and acquisition strategies.

Walgreens was drilled into my brain and I liked it because I was watching a fun show on TV that featured the company and playing a related game on my iPad. Yes, I’m a walking, talking example of how second-screen branding works.

Fragmentation is not the end of Android, but means Google has lost control of both the Android platform and the Android brand. Google is desperate to compete in the phone and tablet spaces, and while Android is a perfectly suitable technical platform to build on, as a brand it is atrocious.

Samsung has the potential to one day earn the Apple-like following they covet, but to do so, they need to divert their energy from making smarmy commercials to making truly great products again.

As marketers, we are embarking on a reinterpretation of what it means to do branding. And as part of that, mobile is not just an evolutionary change in behavior, but a revolution in the way consumers get satisfaction from the brands they choose to do business with.

This is an exciting time to be working in retail, a.k.a shopper marketing, a.k.a. promotions or marketing services. Technology has breathed new life into the field, and there’s an emerging class of digitally-empowered shoppers waiting for you.

Forrester's look at the biggest and best mobile marketing companies has one big problem: it looks only at the biggest and best. This enterprise-focused approach is the wrong one to take in a world where dozens of innovative startups are tackling the idea of mobile marketing with fresh ideas and eager teams.

The Timeline is here, and mobile ads are coming. Is this combination going to make advertising too personalized, or will it make Facebook ads more useful?

Recent technology change, and the resulting changes in human social behaviors, is leading us to a complete disruption of the marketing industry as it has been established over the last 100 years. Everything you have learned about how to do effective 20th and early 21st century broadcast marketing will collapse into a black hole of irrelevance

What data do we have that supports the premise that mobile marketing is the next big thing? Glad you asked. Here are 9 amazing facts and figures about mobile marketing that’ll help you wrap your head around why mobile is going to be bigger than radio, TV, and the personal computer -- combined.

If you follow the trend lines and the investments, you see the world of commerce is expanding to handle smarter and ubiquitous cell phones, and brick and mortar shops are now able to cash in on the latest technologies and channels. The challenge becomes how to market to and engage with and manage so many new potential customers and channels and do it on a budget which makes your CXOs happy.

Every time someone at RIM decides to change careers, the move is taken as something bad for RIM. But the company's in a transition period, and changes are to be expected. Here are some recent RIM management change stories placed in a more positive light than you may be used to.

Generally developers and publishers have attempted to make in-game ads as unobtrusive as possible. But when you die in Artix's AdventureQuest Worlds, you're going to be marketed to.

Foursquare is not making any money off this deal--no advertising fee or percentage on the transactions, at least not yet.

If you want to be creative, ask what entirely new business models might emerge from the dust of this collision between smart phones, smarter buyers, almost-ubiquitous wireless internet services and retail.

While reading Google's study about smartphone users, this author replaced the term "smartphone" with "dumbphone" and found the results still made little sense.

Instead of shoving messages down the gaming world's throat, EA's new ad guy Dave Madden wants to give away free stuff, including console DLC games, sponsored by brands. Will consumers get the message?

Colors has the opportunity to be the first breakout application fueled by the concept of "augmented reality."

Companies are pushing 3D in a big way, but who really wants it? Sure, the gaming side will appeal to those players looking for the next graphical leap. But beyond this group, is the general public really demanding to watch (much less record and share) 3D movies on their mobile devices?

Because of the smartphone becoming so dominant, the mobile browser is going to become more prevalent, and as a result of that wewill start to see the mobile web begin to eclipse the app world in the next couple years.