By Julia Dimambro

YNOT – What will make the big waves — and bucks — in mobile adult entertainment during 2012?

Obviously, depending on the industry sector (billing, affiliation, chat, content, technology, etc.), opinions will vary. So instead of providing just my company’s angle on this, I have asked some of the biggest movers and shakers in mobile adult entertainment to give their predictions on where the industry may be heading in the next 12 months.

I want to express a big “thank you” to the contributors, all of whom are industry peers I have come to respect very much. As far as I’m concerned, this list is gospel!

Convergence emerges as a major market force
[LEFT]Users of adult sites increasingly are accessing their chosen services via a range of different devices. It is not unusual for users of our services to log in using a PC and a mobile or tablet device. Customers who remain unable to access the services from sites they are signed up for on all of the devices they own will be leaving those services and joining others.[/LEFT]
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[LEFT]—Steven Shields
Katina Leisure Ltd.

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Premium full-length movies, free content dominate
Consumers will expect to view full-length, high-quality video content across all their devices as they are buying higher-spec internet-enabled ones. In addition, free content will continue to grow. As the market for traffic becomes more competitive, we’ll see more effort put into building mobile and tablet “tube” sites.
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[LEFT]—Graeme Kingshott
Spankmo Mobile Services

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[LEFT]Mature content, interaction, voice-controlled products
The smartphone demographic will contain more and more mature people, which could impact the already high demand for mature adult content. Mobile ads also will become more interactive with HTML5, QR codes and augmented reality, and I believe we’ll see an influx of voice-controlled mobile products, like this one.
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[LEFT]—James Anderson
American Mobile Ventures

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[LEFT]SEO: the marketing strategy of choice
As smartphone penetration — excuse the pun — continues to grow at a rapid rate and the return on investment remains too small for paid-click mobile marketing, search engine optimization will play an ever-increasing role for adult service providers and their marketing strategies. They know the system; they have worked it extremely well for fixed-line and can now use those same skills effectively to expand their mobile businesses.
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[LEFT]—Mario Leon
Cherry Media S.L.

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No more blur between mobile and PC
[LEFT]We are seeing a surge in conversions through our web products and increased demand for advertising on our mobile products. With so many tablets and smartphones flooding the market, having a good mobile offering has never been more important for web-based adult service providers. 2012 is the year when the blur between mobile and PC will finally be resolved, and we will start seeing the decline in the consumer PC sector in favor of tablets and smartphones.[/LEFT]
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[LEFT]—JC
PornBanana

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Better customer engagement increases revenues
In a bid to create unique selling points in the crowded mobile video market, I think 2012 will see an increasing amount of interactive video services where the customer assumes the role of the movie director and selects options as to how they would like the movie to continue. They will even get options to change camera angles and share, rank and rate their favorite scenes with a user community. Engaging the user in such a way keeps them watching for longer, which, of course, keeps that meter running.
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[LEFT]—George Lamb
GIN Media

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Mobile usage, spend overshadow desktops, laptops
As Camcontacts is both a web and mobile adult service and based on the phenomenal increase we have seen in mobile revenues for 2011, we boldly predict that that by 2015, mobile spend and usage will match, if not supersede, desktop and laptop usage for live video chat.
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[LEFT]—Ramon Azzopardi
CamContacts

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Consumers demand better quality, content
High-quality content with consumer context is generating much higher revenues than huge volumes of cheap rubbish. A simple example: A single “targeted” Cherry video generated more than 4,000 euros in a single month, replacing 20 previous videos from another supplier that generated a couple of hundred euros in the same position over the same time period. Consumers will demand more context and personalization from their adult entertainment if they are going to continue to pay for it.
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[LEFT]—Albert Palau
Cherry Media S.L.

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Native apps become browser apps
For mobile in general, but in adult mobile in particular, I believe the big trend will be the browser app with whatever combination of HTML5, XHTML and Javascript. iPhone has led the app revolution, but the native app market is just way too restrictive for both billing and adult generally. Web apps offer much more freedom and creativity for an innovative industry like adult.
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[LEFT]—Karel De Buele
Kimia Sol

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Mobile sites provide “app-like” experience
As comparisons between online and app-based portals and mobile sites increasingly will be made, mobile sites will need to offer a web-app-type experience. Mobile sites increasingly will create a personalized experience by intelligently offering content tailored to individual requirements and will allow customers greater freedom to explore and navigate to suit their personal interests. Personalization also will offer no-brainers like related content, search options, tailored promotions and tailored price offers.
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[LEFT]—Mark Ashford
All Night Media Ltd.[/LEFT]
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Affiliates demand performance-based marketing, local expertise
We predict an exponential increase in mobile traffic, particularly in the U.S., Europe, Asia-Pacific and Latin America. At the same time, cost-per-click prices are decreasing quickly. That’s why affiliate marketing on a performance basis — revenue share and cost per acquisition — is becoming an increasing industry demand as the most efficient way to monetize adult traffic. Top affiliates will be looking country to country for the most effective mobile traffic partner.
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[LEFT]—Joey Gabra
Affil4You[/LEFT]
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“Mobile monetization” is the new keyword
Adult players will take mobile site development internally and outsource local billing. The European market will really take off with localized sites and mobile billing. Mobile monetization will become the keyword of the year.
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[LEFT]—Karen Ciulla
Private Media Group

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[LEFT]Mobile is a key success strategy
The “Old Skool” adult industry has been a bit slow on the uptake of the mobile opportunity, considering its fame for being such an innovative industry when it comes to monetizing demand. However, I firmly believe this is set to change in 2012. As fixed-line revenues continue to decline as a result of tube sites, long-established adult studios and website owners must invest in mobile now if they want their businesses to continue past 2012. (As long as the world continues past 2012 of course!)
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[LEFT]—Julia Dimambro
Cherry Media S.L.[/LEFT]
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What’s your prediction?
We’d love to hear from you all as to what you think will generate the big bucks in 2012 when it comes to adult mobile entertainment. Please feel free to comment!

Julia Dimambro has spent the past 17 years in digital communications with 10 years specifically in mobile entertainment. Dimambro founded Cherry Media in 2003 in order to create and deliver innovative, consumer-focused mobile entertainment. The company owns and operates the multi-award-winning mobile erotic entertainment brand Cherrysauce. Entirely self-funded and 100-percent owned by Dimambro, Cherry has been profitable since launch.

Previously, Dimambro set up some of the world’s first mobile content deals and SMS print campaigns as wireless commercial director for Private Media Group and launched the first interactive division of London advertising agency J. Walter Thompson.

Frequently voted one of the Top 50 Most Influential Executives in Mobile and one of the Top 50 Women in Mobile, Dimambro is a frequent speaker about the challenges and opportunities of mobile erotica and regularly contributes to leading industry publications.