We came across a compelling piece of research, 'Mobile Life', and article published this week by TNS:

One in ten UK consumers now use ‘mobile wallet’ whilst one in five use mobile banking

The use of ‘mobile wallet’ technology amongst UK consumers has more than doubled in the last 12 months with more than one in ten people now making payments via their mobile, says Mobile Life, a TNS research paper into use of mobiles in the UK. Moreover, one in five UK consumers now use their mobile to perform basic banking functions such as checking their account balance - also up more than 100% on last year.

Thanks largely to the surge in smartphone technology and the accessibility of such products to the wider market, in the UK 11.9% of consumers now use their mobiles to make payments online. The figure, up from only 5.9% twelve months ago, means more than one in ten of us now uses mobile wallet technology. The percentage of people who regularly bank via their mobile is now 20.4%, up from 9.7% in 2010, again demonstrating the rapidly growing adoption of mobile technology.

Mobile wallet technology allows the consumer to use their phone like a debit or credit card to pay for items online or in-store. It doesn’t require a bank account and can be topped up with money to store in order to facilitate easy transactions at any time. Mobile banking encompasses the more basic functions of online finance, like checking your account balance or making purchases securely, both of which can be performed either through apps or mobile internet.

Stephen Yap, Group Director at TNS Technology, said, “The huge increase in the use of mobile wallet technology in the UK shows the dramatic effect technology is having on our lifestyles. The incredible success of the smartphone is encouraging people to migrate many of their key online activities onto their mobile. In the last twelve months in particular the openness of the Android platform has increased handset competition and driven down prices, meaning that more and more people are able to use their handset as a payment tool.”

“As we become more familiar with smartphones and as mobile networks improve, we should see this number increase further, until mobile is the primary platform for most everyday online functions, including making payments,” said Yap. “Soon we could be seeing phones as our primary portals for all online needs, particularly as the growth of the cloud will place less emphasis on storage space and more on mobile access points.”

On the rise in mobile banking, Yap said, “The increase in mobile banking is a further proof point that mobile is the coming platform. Banks need to get their house in order to ensure that their mobile offer is as strong as their online one, as this could rapidly become a key differentiator for consumers.”

Source: TNS 'Mobile Life' 2011

A big thank you to everyone who joined us on Wednesday for our first 'Google Loves Mobile' Financial Services event at The May Fair hotel. The feedback so far has been really positive and we hope to run more events like this in the future and make them even better, so please do take a moment if you were at the event to let us know what you thought.

We had a day full of great speakers - we heard from Simon Andrews, founder of Addictive!; Google's Ian Carrington and Amanda Rosenberg; then Jon Mew, Head of Mobile for the IAB; Daniel Rosen of AKQA and lastly Reto Meier from Google, before heading into an engaging panel session. Jedward were also seen wandering the hotel, so a day of big hitters ;)

You can revisit the presentations from the day (for the speakers who used slides), and download them here

You can also watch video versions of Amanda's mobile Search and Display demos:

Thanks again to everyone who contributed, and we hope to see lots of you at the next Google UK Finance event!

After a quiet period on the blog, we're back with some exciting new research from a partnership with Deutsche Bank and GfK. We've been speaking to advertisers for a long time who have been trying to gain an understanding of how their purchase cycle works, and how they can attribute value correctly to each marketing channel. We know that there is a definite 'research online, purchase offline', or 'ROPO' effect, but many clients struggle to understand the real value that online marketing brings to their business.

Deutsche Bank, GfK and Google recently carried out a cross-channel path-to-purchase study for German financial services purchases. Please get in touch with your account team for more detail, but a few highlights:

• The majority of offline purchases are preceded by an online research process, therefore counting the number of contracts concluded online understates the role of the internet

• ROPO effect applies to 48.6% of new contracts: these are a combination of offline purchase preceded by an online research process and pure online research and purchase

• Pure online sales (10.8%) thus significantly understate the importance of the internet marketing in gaining new contracts

• The ROPO figure is much higher than typically concluded and shows that many consumers themselves underestimate their levels of internet activity

• Google is used by more than one third of all bank customers who do research on the internet before signing a contract

• Research conducted by Google users is more intensive: they visit more than twice as many domains as other users

• The average research process begins 7 1/2 weeks before the actual contract signing - so it is not the last click that counts. A continuous supply of helpful information can strengthen customer loyalty.

Source: GfK, Deutsche Bank Research & Google

You might have seen NMA's vertical focus piece on Finance from the 26th August. It's chock full of advertiser points of view from the sector, and raises some interesting discussion points. Our own head, Ian Morgan, was asked to comment on some trends and issues affecting the financial services market, such as social media, consumer interaction, keyword management, and mobile marketing. These are all key issues and ones we're bound to be discussing further in coming months.

Key discussion points:

• The UK financial services industry is back to its fastest growth rate since September 2007 (Source: CBI)
• The financial services industry has been slow to take up social media, due to concerns over regulation and the traditionally conservative nature of finance sector marketing
• Some advertisers have managed to break the mold and lead the way with successful social media campaigns, for both traffic acquisition and brand awareness/engagement
• Consumer appetite for conversation and reassurance is strong, raising a challenge for all financial services advertisers to formulate a response to this demand
• Strategic search management is vital. Keeping abreast of online consumer demand and reacting by appearing against relevant keywords (including longtail) and providing tailored adtext will allow advertisers to gain cost effective leads. Using new ad formats such as Sitelinks will allow better traffic management and help guide users to the most relevant of your products or offers.
• Mobile marketing is a clear opportunity for financial services advertisers. Again, some advertisers have innovated early, whilst others are lagging behind.

We encourage all financial services advertisers to have discussions around these important areas. Innovate where you can, learn from others in your sector, and most importantly, test and learn!

Cross Post from Google Barometer Blog, by Christoffer Klemming and Robin Morgan, UK B2B Marketing

YouTube has long been a place to come to look for information and to connect with other people with similar interests. In the spirit of this, we are proud to launch think with Google - our new platform for sharing business insights and viewpoints delivered in bit-sized, inspiring and actionable videos.

The channel has some of UKs leading thinkers offering their insights on creativity, marketing, business strategy, trends, consumer insights and more; helping you navigate in our dynamic business landscape. Contributors already include Amazon’s Marketing Director Brian McBride, Confused.com’s creative CEO Carlton Hood, innovative author and speaker Don Tapscott and London Mayor Boris Johnsson.

As always, viewers will be able to rate videos, leave comments, subscribe and offer up video responses. The hope is that this will become a thriving business community in the spirit of YouTube – so head to the channel, listen to the thinkers and feel free to make your voice heard.