This summer has seen brands take unprecedented steps to employ mobile as part of their event-based marketing in a trend that will leave advocates of the channel justifiably smug.

However, there’s still much work to do if it’s to break the mainstream.

The rise of location-based marketing platforms such as Foursquare – the founder of which has been dubbed the ‘king of location’ by mainstream media outlets – and the PR value of creating augmented reality (AR) apps are both significant contributors to this trend.

However, this is still largely the domain of forward-thinking, premium brands such as IBM, whose Wimbledon app allowed tournament attendees to view games on separate courts using AR.

Rolex also sponsored an iPhone app that allows users to view live video feeds from different parts of St Andrew’s Golf Course during the British Open, and FIFA’s World Cup spawned a number of similar apps primarily aimed at people watching games in bars.

The examples above certainly have the ‘cool’ factor, but they’re still few and far between. More often than not, these type of apps are launched as part of a cleverly-devised PR strategy aimed at generating column inches in the national press rather than genuine engagement.

This suggests that while some brands are doing mobile, they are not actually ‘getting it’.

Dan Douglas, MD of new digital agency The Cloud and Compass and founder of Isobar-owned De-construct, says the breakthrough in mobile technology – cue the obligatory iPhone name-check – is at the root of this phenomenon.

“The most interesting marketing is increasingly coming from the rise and convergence of non-traditional channels, with digital tools providing the possibility of interaction with a brand wherever you are,” he says.

Douglas also says that brands such as Orange realise the true value of mobile as an engagement tool at live events, as demonstrated by its recent GlastoNav app which allowed users to navigate the music festival (though the likelihood of festival goers being able to actually *use* the app due to battery capability and lack of signal is another point entirely).

However, it’s brands such as Kellogg’s that still lag behind the trend set by the likes of IBM and Rolex and it’s only when household brands such as these jump on board that mobile can pronounce itself as part of mainstream marketing.