NEW YORK – An executive at the IAB MIXX Conference and Expo said that 90 percent of his company’s clients now request location-based advertising in their campaigns.

The executives spoke at the “How location and commerce are shaping mobile advertising” panel and discussed the growing need to include location in mobile advertising. Additionally, the panel presented best practices and case studies involving location-based technology for participants.

“Every few weeks there are new changes to mobile, but if you take a look at the overall spend on campaigns, the majority is coming from local,” said Mort Greenberg, head of America media sales at Navteq, Chicago.

Navteq is a subsidiary of Nokia and provides location-based solutions for maps, traffic and location data.

Also on the panel was Asher Dubas, manager of interactive ad ops; Jason Field,  southwest sales manager and Michael Somers, marketing manager.

In-store companion
According to data Mr. Greenberg presented, 92 percent of retail sales are still made in-store, which makes mobile an ideal platform to capture shoppers with location-based deals and offers.

Mr. Greenberg also said that 70 percent of mobile spend is in local.

In particular, hyperlocal advertising will be a trend to watch in the coming months for marketers and mobile features that give consumers the nearest retail location will continue to be a growing trend.

Calls to action are also especially effective in location-based marketing, including click-to-call and click-to-download features.

However, marketers need to be careful about choosing a post-click activity so consumers will stay immersed in the ad.

Michael Somers, marketing manager at Navteq, Chicago

According to Mr. Greenberg, 30 percent of people take a post-click engagement.

As an example of a campaign that used an effective post-click, Navteq recently worked on a campaign with Taco Bell that highlighted the food chain’s late-night hours.

The campaign involved in-app mobile banner ads.

Once consumers were served an ad, they were given a targeted offer and could find the nearest Taco Bell location.

Better check-ins
With the rapid increase of location-based services from companies such as foursquare, check-ins are up to par with consumers.

Now the challenge will be to build on the success of check-ins for consumers to do more with them.

“From a commerce perspective, we are looking to help brands and retailers unlock a check-in, but do it a way that consumers are going to get a unique experience with more than just points out of it,” Mr. Greenberg said.

“Location will play a more robust function in the future,” he said.

Navteq is not the only company that believes check-ins are becoming less effective.

Mobile experts agree that check-ins need an extra level to hook consumers (see story).

Privacy is always a concern with location, and will be an issue to watch.

According to Mr. Greenberg, Navteq’s technology does not save user information and consumers must opt-in with their location each time they open an ad.

“In addition to location and commerce, you will hear more about data exhaust in future with location-based services,” he said.

Final Take
Lauren Johnson is editorial assistant on Mobile Commerce Daily, New York