ABSTRACT

This chapter considers the adaption of mobile media by brands and branding to engage consumers and urbanites ‘on the move’ in the city, and some of the social and cultural implications of such mobile branding activity. First, the chapter traces the rise of mobile marketing, and some of the ways in which it is configured by and for commercial and urban brands. It examines the use of location-based services by consumer brands, the adaption of location-aware mobile marketing in strategies of urban branding, as well as the use of mobile media in forms of branded entertainment. Drawing on a range of studies in the existing literature, the chapter considers how mobile branding activity might be shaping new experiences of urban space and social life, or what is referred to as brand mobilities. These encompass new ways of navigating and orientating selves in the city, or patterns of urban mobility, new forms of urban engagement and sociality, as well as the co-production of forms of social and cultural division premised on differentiated spatial experience. The chapter also examines the uses of mobile media and marketing in counter-branding activity, or “branding-from-below,” suggesting possibilities for mobile strategies to disrupt hegemonic narratives of place and establish platforms for alternative actions.