Ball State bringing mobile marketing education to the masses

Marketing professionals and ad agencies in Indiana and elsewhere across the country are turning their focus to the emerging mobile technologies and the promotional opportunities the channel offers.

Ball State University recently announced it would be starting an education initiative, through the Institute for Mobile Media Research, to create a new organization for networking and learning about mobile communications.

The program, called Mobile Indiana, aims to bring together mobile developers, marketers, academics, industry executives and "influencers" in order to drive the mobile industry in the state.

"The need has existed for a few years for a group like Mobile Indiana, but now the marketplace is mandating that businesses understand how mobile devices will impact and change how they do business and what the opportunities are with mobile," stated institute director and Ball State advertising professor Michael Hanley. He said the program would also serve companies by helping them learn about the mobile technologies' capability of being a commercial and marketing tool.

Other groups in the U.S. are also working to expand the knowledge of mobile marketing. At the end of September, marketers, internet executives and others involved in the online digital environment will meet for the Digital East 2011 conference to learn about the best practices in digital marketing.