Last week retail executives descended upon Palm Desert, California for the annual eTail West conference. ETail West is North America’s leading multi-channel retail event, so why is this of interest to Spreed, publishers and media executives? At the end of the week over 150 of the top executives opted in to stick around for an extra day and learn all about mobile advertising and marketing. This is the third retail conference that I have heard of that is putting an emphasis on retail and it is clear now that retailers are ready to embrace the mobile market.

Why are retailers now becoming attracted to mobile advertising? Mickey Khan of Mobile Marketer puts it best when he states that, “retailers are now open to the virtues of mobile marketing and commerce. Once again, consumers have led by indicating their new preferences for shopping, searching, emailing, photo-clicking, communicating and networking, game-playing and interacting with ads through mobile devices – on the couch or on the run.”

Publishers and media companies need to take this as a sign that times are changing. A number of companies have been holding off on an application strategy because they didn’t think they could fill the advertising inventory; this is clearly changing. Companies that already have an app should be making sure that their ad platform is conducive to the retail environment.

So what is Spreed doing to help our clients and prospective publishers and media companies attract retailers? Our ad platform he been built with our clients ad partners in mind. We offer a range of advertising options that are perfect for the retail environment. Firstly, we offer mobile flyers, which allow users to browse through a retailers entire catalog directly through a publishers applications.

Secondly, we are offering location based advertising which will connect readers to brick and mortar businesses as they approach them geographically. We know how many applications are being opened within the general vicinity of retail locations and these analytics can be very beneficial in closing leads and offering value. Both of these options have the potential to engage the users in a high value interactive setting and can offer great returns to advertisers.

We are excited to be hearing about the interest in the retail market and would suggest that all of our clients begin speaking to these prospective advertisers as well as Spreed about what the different ad opportunities are.