With change the new constant in mobile marketing today, basic tenets often get lost in the shuffle. The key is finding examples of brands that get it right.

In my May 2010 report, “Mobile Banking: Financial Services Firms Look to Cash In” (available on eMarketer Total Access), I cited Wells Fargo for its best practices, namely, offering its customers full mobile banking access on all three primary channels (Web, apps and SMS), even for those who have not signed up for online banking.

For my next report, on automotive mobile marketing, I spoke with Sharon Knitter, senior director of consumer products at Cars.com, where she has led the company’s mobile initiatives, from launching a mobile-optimized site in 2007 to the iPhone app that reached the App Store in February of this year. Ms. Knitter is also the co-chair of the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s Mobile Advertising Committee, so she is an ideal position to preach what she practices.

In our interview, Ms. Knitter demonstrated some of the key ways Cars.com gets it right. One is tailoring content to the mobile environment and ensuring it serves the needs of the company’s end users. Here’s an interesting insight that appeared in our newsletter last week (the full interview with Ms. Knitter is available on eMarketer Total Access):

eMarketer: Can you give an example of some type of content that is on the full desktop Website but not on the mobile site or vice versa?

Knitter: On the Website we’ll do very, very lengthy reviews about all the specs and type of information about a new vehicle. An automobile is still a pretty considered purchase, and we don’t believe that people will do all of their research in a mobile environment today, on a phone especially. So we might not include the very long reviews, but we might include a truncated review for someone to be able to get essential information.

We know from our research that about 40% of the folks who use the mobile Website are actually on a dealer’s lot. And what are the types of things they want in that situation? They want to be able to search listings for other cars, they probably want a dealer locator, they might want to know how much their car is worth as a trade-in, so it’s very tools- and functionality-based with some reviews of at a higher level.

Automotive brands have different incentives for entering the mobile market than those in the retail and tech industries, but mobile advertising, at the very least, has been shown to be somewhat effective for automakers. According to the 11th installment of InsightExpress’ Digital Consumer Portrait, which I mentioned in a previous post,  the auto industry ranked second behind consumer packaged goods brands in effectively driving brand favorability with mobile ad campaigns.

As I conclude in my latest iMedia column, which draws on my conversation with Ms. Knitter, “change might be the new constant where devices and the mobile landscape are concerned, but the elements that make for successful marketing and customer outreach remain in force.” Cars.com is a case study in finding this delicate balance.

While the buzz in 2009 was all about social networks as a function of the Web, in 2010, marketers’ attention will focus increasingly on the ways social networks are becoming the medium for communicating on mobile devices. Video is likely to play a key role as well, as mobile users are “socializing” video from their devices to a far greater extent than they are watching it.

I wrote about this phenomenon and other key trends in mobile marketing in my latest iMedia Connection column, which went live today. Following is a clip from the full article:

Consolidation among mobile ad networks is clearly lining up to be a major theme in the year ahead. Even so, achieving scale in display advertising on mobile devices is just one piece in a much larger puzzle — that of using mobile to showcase full-blown marketing and commerce experiences.

Marketers often talk glowingly about mobile’s flexibility and how effective it is at activating other media. However, mobile has traditionally been a less effective vehicle than other media for end-to-end consumer experiences. In order for mobile to reach mass adoption among marketers, the medium has to develop beyond its core strengths in communication and messaging.

Fortunately, startup activity is rife across many keys areas of the mobile sector, and the next 12 to 18 months should see many of the missing pieces fall into place. The continued fusion of mobile and social and the appetite for apps (among both consumers and brands) will facilitate more involved marketing experiences. In fact, location- and social-aware apps and utilities will be a key avenue for brands looking to engage consumers on the go.

Mobile advertising will likewise grow more sophisticated, with improved targeting capabilities and richer, more engaging options across multiple channels, from apps to browsers to SMS. Augmented reality (AR) seems destined to generate more ink than activity or revenue in 2010, given the limited number of mobile handsets that support it, but AR is worth keeping an eye on nonetheless because of what it portends for the future of mobile marketing. It represents an innovative way of creating a virtual overlay to the physical world by combining and maximizing on-board device features (e.g., camera, GPS, accelerometer, broadband connectivity).

With the rise in mobile broadband access and the proliferation of multimedia smartphones, video viewing (and consequently, video advertising) is set to become a more integral part of the mobile experience. Paid content models such as iTunes will continue to expand to mobile devices, but the growth in mobile web and application usage will also create opportunities for marketers to engage with viewers in both professional and user-generated video content.

The article takes a detailed look at different segments in the mobile marketing space and profiles a number of companies to watch, so be sure to read through to the end to get the complete picture.

In my latest iMedia Connection article, published today, I delve into some of the challenges associated with budgeting for mobile:

Figuring out when, where, and how much to budget for mobile can be challenging for marketers. Like many emerging channels (yes, from an advertising and marketing standpoint, mobile is still emerging), mobile is often incorporated into media and marketing plans after the fact. Figuring out why to budget for mobile should be an easier question to answer.

I also focus on the rewards for marketers who make mobile a strategic priority early on in the planning process. My research indicates this is the direction the market is taking, but I’d love to hear other perspectives.