A recent survey of the top 300 advertising agencies in Brazil, Argentina, and Mexico, which was undertaken by Nielsen on behalf of the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) in Latin America, underlined the tremendous growth potential of mobile media in the region.

According to Thiago Moreira, director of Telecom for Nielsen in Brazil, the purpose of the research was to determine how much advertising agencies in these three important Latin American markets knew about mobile marketing and what kinds of campaigns they typically undertook.  “What we learned is that while mobile marketing is just emerging as a marketing discipline in all three countries, it is taking on very different characteristics in each of these markets, with Brazilian agencies being the most active in mobile marketing.”

Brazil

• 83 percent of agencies in Brazil believe that mobile marketing is a channel that can be better exploited.
• 62 percent of the agencies surveyed in Brazil launched mobile marketing campaigns in 2010, a figure that is expected to increase to 87 percent in 2011.
• Most mobile marketing initiatives in Brazil use multimedia with games and music and video downloads, and for 2011, 50 percent of campaigns will reach iPhones users alone.

Argentina

• 65 percent of agencies in Argentina believe that mobile marketing is a channel that can be better exploited.
• 43 percent of Argentinean agencies will develop mobile marketing campaigns in 2011 aimed at iPhone users
• The most used content within mobile campaigns: Product information and alerts, sales and offers (30%), games (26%) and music and video downloads (21%).

Mexico

• 59 percent of agencies in Mexico believe that mobile marketing is a channel that can be better exploited.
• 41 percent of agencies in Mexico are expected to direct their mobile campaigns to iPhone users
• The most-used content within mobile campaigns: Product information, alerts, sales and offers (32%), music and video downloads (27%) and games (20%).