Why Mobile Is Soaring — and What That Means for Advertisers

Why Mobile Is Soaring — and What That Means for Advertisers

by Taylor Hart Mobile

Back in 2020, we blogged about the rise in mobile marketing. At that time, all signs pointed to the wisdom of advertisers embracing mobile. Two years down the line, we’re here to report that businesses worldwide appear to have gotten the memo: according to App Annie’s State of Mobile in 2022 report, the pandemic has changed the way we work and play—and projected mobile ad spend for the year ahead reflects that sea change.

Consumers Are Online

According to App Annie, consumers are spending more and more time online. 2021 broke records for time spent on mobile: as reported by prnewswire.com, people spent a jaw-dropping 4.8 hours a day on mobile in the top 10 mobile markets. Downloads reached 230 billion, a figure that represents a five percent leap year over year.

Users certainly had plenty of options from which to choose: publishers have released two million new apps and games for a cumulative total of twenty-one million! That’s a lot of apps, although certain trends are apparent. Apps like TikTok tend to dominate: the report reveals that seven of every 10 minutes spent online was devoted to some sort of social, photo, and/or video app. TikTok ranked the No. 1 most-downloaded app globally, followed by Instagram and Facebook.

Consumers Are Spending

Users aren’t just passively watching. They are spending. App Annie notes that time spent in shopping apps jumped 18 percent year over year, reaching 100 billion hours. Fast fashion, social shopping, and big box players were the winners here. According to Marketing Dive, “Consumer spending across app stores grew 19% in 2021, hitting $170 billion.”

Dating apps also flourished, in part because meeting people in person has gotten thornier thanks to Covid. According to Business Standard, people relied more on dating apps to navigate the social distancing imposed by the pandemic, a practice some users have said they’ll continue even after Covid is in our rearview mirror. The numbers certainly tell a compelling story: worldwide consumer spend on dating apps has barreled past $4.2 billion, a whopping 55 percent increase from 2019.

Mobile Ad Spend Is Growing

Brands are taking note and responding accordingly. Compared to 2020, advertisers are investing in mobile ads 23 percent more, an approach that can take many forms:

  • Consider Snickers, which partnered with Spotify to reach out to users listening to music genres outside of their comfort zone. The “You’re Not You When You’re Hungry” audio campaign used Spotify’s consumer data to target users branching out beyond their everyday listening. When a user streamed an atypical (for them) song, Snickers delivered an audio message—with a link to a branded “Hunger List.” The ads were customized to match the consumer’s favorite music genre.
  • The Pond’s beauty brand, on the other hand, navigated a saturated market to promote a new line of acne face wash in Indonesia. They leaned into augmented reality to do so, using the front-facing cameras on users’ phones to scan faces and determine which areas were prone to acne. The unique campaign was, in fact, the first AR face-detecting ad. That’s a feather in Pond’s cap.

According to App Annie, mobile app spend is only going up, with “mobile ad spend on track to hit $350 billion in 2022.”

What Does This Mean for Advertisers?

What can we learn from the stats, not to mention the brands that have already thrown their hat into the mobile ring? We recommend that you:

  • Consider the type of mobile advertising that makes sense for your brand. Each type of advertising—from videos to banner ads to pop-ups—has its own platform, design, and strengths. What type of mobile advertising will help you accomplish your goal?
  • Which brings us to the next point: understand your goals. Do you want to boost sales? Promote brand awareness? Increase traffic to your site? Knowing your objectives will help you craft the most effective campaign.
  • You also want to identify, and understand, your target audience. Knowing where they like to spend time online, and what type of messaging they respond to, will help make your outreach meaningful. Gen Z, for example, wants to interact with their favorite brands via online games or sponsored events. Boomers, on the other hand, tend to spend a lot of time on Facebook. To reach your target audience, you have to speak their language.
  • Finally, don’t skimp on design. Use high-resolution and high-quality designs and graphics in your outreach. And the design should align with your message and your brand. This may seem like common sense, but it’s a big sticking point: users won’t linger if your advertising is amateurish or seems phoned in for the sake of having something—anything—online.

Contact True Interactive

The App Annie report underlines that mobile advertising is exploding. Not sure how to bring mobile into your advertising strategy? Contact us. We can help.

Photo by Rami Al-zayat on Unsplash

Why Triller Is a Thriller

Why Triller Is a Thriller

by Morgan Reilly Mobile

Have you heard of Triller? The video-making social app has been around since 2015, but only recently has it started to show signs of becoming a genuine rival to TikTok. Should marketers care? In a word: yes. Read on to learn why.

What Is Triller?

Like TikTok, Triller is deeply connected to music; introduced as a video-editing service by co-founders David Leiberman and Sammy Rubin, Triller has always employed artificial intelligence (AI) to create music videos. But by 2016, the app had also become a social-networking service that allowed users to follow one another and share the videos they created. Today, users can film different takes of themselves rapping to songs (hip-hop is particularly popular on the app), and then use the AI to cull the best clips and make a professional-looking music video. The editing is pretty painless: as refinery29.com notes, “[Y]ou perform and the app edits your video for you.”

How Does Triller Compare to TikTok?

While similar to TikTok, Triller is trying to position itself as being all about the music. The app has raised investment from artists like Snoop Dogg, and music fans are considered the prime audience for the app. Though some critics point to the fact that Triller has recently permitted users to share a wider range of content, such as quirky videos, the fact remains that the app is music friendly. One example of the emphasis on music: Triller allows users to pull complete songs from their Apple Music or Spotify playlists, as compared to the 15 seconds allowed by TikTok.

Who’s on Triller?

As noted in Fortune, Gen Z is currently “establishing the winners and losers online,” and Triller, which has started to gain traction with Gen Z, may be one of those winners. The app has certainly been flexing its muscles of late, having poached some of TikTok’s influencers. Former TikTok creators like Josh Richards have made the switch (Richards is now also Triller’s chief strategy officer). Other former TikTok luminaries—Noah Beck, Griffin Johnson, and Anthony Reeves—have jumped to Triller and signed on as investors. And performers like Alicia Keys and Eminem have used the platform to create music videos.

Advertising on Triller

According to Digiday, “Triller’s commercial model revolves around letting influencers raise money from fans, advertisers and partnerships with music labels.” The approach can be a lucrative one. As noted in Influencer Marketing Hub, influencer marketing allows brands to reach a young, urban audience through influencers who have already cultivated the kinds of relationships that make marketing successful.

In October, Triller also partnered with ad tech start-up Consumable to sell digital and video format ads meant to be placed between videos on the app. Mark Levin, CEO of Consumable, shared, “This is an exciting partnership given our collective focus on delivering innovative, bite-sized content. It combines Triller’s short-form entertainment with Consumable’s short-form digital advertising to deliver the first social video discovery platform on media publisher websites.” As noted in Business of Apps, the partnership will give marketers a crack at new audiences.

Also notable: advertising on the app can be nothing short of groundbreaking. E.l.f. Cosmetics, which set trends in late 2019 with an innovative TikTok campaign, redefined cool yet again in late 2020 by working with Triller. As e.l.f. CMO Kory Marchisotto noted, the cosmetics brand ended the year with “a big music bang,” partnering with Triller to release an entire holiday-themed album featuring not only danceable electronic beats but also plenty of “e.l.f.-isms.”

Meanwhile, Triller is going to do some advertising on its own in a big way: reportedly, Triller is gearing up for its first-ever Super Bowl ad.

We Recommend

There are lessons to be learned from apps like Triller, as 2021 ushers in a new era of music, advertising, and innovation. We recommend that you:

  • Don’t get complacent. Stay attuned to new apps and new ways of communicating.
  • That means staying in tune with your audience. Are you reaching out to Gen Z? Know what language they speak. As Triller demonstrates, music can be a key way to connect. And ad length may differ depending on your target market.
  • Finally, understand how relationships with influencers can elevate your brand. Influencers can get your product in front of users in an authentic and meaningful way. Think about which influencers might have an organic connection with your brand.

 Contact True Interactive

Triller, of course, is just one way to connect with audiences. Eager to expand your reach in a fresh way that rings true? Contact us. We can help.

Clubhouse: An Exclusive New App Powered by Audio Chat

Clubhouse: An Exclusive New App Powered by Audio Chat

by Amanda Cortese Mobile Social media

Oprah Winfrey is a fan. So is Drake. But the new social media app Clubhouse, developed by Paul Davison and Rohan Seth, is not just for celebrities. Why does Clubhouse matter to brands invested in digital? Read on to learn more.

What Is Clubhouse?

Clubhouse, an audio app that facilitates live conversation, is self-described as “a new type of social product based on voice [that] allows people everywhere to talk, tell stories, develop ideas, deepen friendships, and meet interesting new people around the world.” Conversations are not recorded or saved; when a Clubhouse cyber “room” ends, the conversation is done and gone. Participants can opt to just listen in, or they can spontaneously host their own rooms. And the topics under discussion are eclectic, ranging from talks about music to chats about film, beauty, culture, tech, and more.

Clubhouse is distinguished by the fact that it is an audio-only app. There is no feature for private messaging, and there are no written comments. It’s a conversation that just happens to take place online.

What Is the Clubhouse Experience Like?

As Michael Stelzner describes in Social Media Examiner, when you enter a room you hear the conversation going on. Participants can “raise their hand” (using the raised hand emoji) to participate, and might subsequently be invited “on stage” to join the discussion. Those who contribute to the conversation may even become moderators, which allows them to call others up on stage.

Some users find Clubhouse to be like a podcast: something they can listen to while doing other things. Some liken it to a panel discussion. The rooms cover a wide range of topics, something like AOL chat rooms from back in the day. Depending on your interests, you will find rooms devoted to, say, investment strategies for Bitcoin or daily habits for high performers, film talk, writing sessions, mindfulness tips, and much more.

Like any interactive experience, certain protocols are observed and expected. The understanding is that participants will mute themselves until they are called upon, or until they have something germane to add to the dialog. Moderators control the conversation, and rooms can run for hours.

Who’s in the Club?

The app brings a wide range of individuals—and interests—to the table. Celebs like Kevin Hart, Oprah, and Drake are already on board, drawn by the relative privacy the app affords. The app is currently invite-only; each participant is granted limited invites to extend, though the more active a participant is on the platform, the more invites they are able to share. Stelzner recommends downloading the app and setting up your account, then . . . waiting patiently. As he notes, “Someone who knows you might be notified in-app automatically and grant you access.”

Why Clubhouse Matters

Stelzner has asked other Clubhouse members to highlight reasons the app keeps drawing them back (he notes that “[n]early everyone I interviewed was a creator, marketer, or business owner”). Among the responses:

  • It’s viral. When someone you follow goes onstage, the app sends you a notification. You can click on the notification and immediately join the room as a passive listener.
  • You don’t have to be ready for your glam shot. There’s no camera; it’s just your avatar and your voice. So you can join the conversation with that shaggy Covid hair, or even while you are running errands.
  • It helps build business connections. Think the conversations that start at business conferences; this is the same thing, but online.
  • It’s a place to test ideas. Got an idea for a podcast? Clubhouse is a forum to throw stuff at the wall and see what sticks.

What We Recommend

Clubhouse, currently in beta, is only available to iPhone users; the invite-only protocol also limits availability. That said, according to wfmynews2.com, “Clubhouse claims it will eventually open up for everyone, but is attempting to ensure it takes the proper steps in doing so. They also want to make sure they can incorporate features that will be able to handle large chat rooms.”

In the meantime, the app’s very existence is a reminder of the myriad ways brands can plug into culture, understand the trends, and stay connected, even as the pandemic continues to minimize in-person contact. Clubhouse demonstrates yet another way to engage—and the importance of staying current and thinking outside the box—not just during Covid, but beyond.

What can be learned here? We suggest that you:

  • Stay abreast of the opportunities apps offer to connect with a new, diverse audience.
  • Don’t forget the power of audio in digital.
  • Understand the power of crowdsourcing new ideas or feedback on your brand.
  • Get involved. Download the app and request membership individually. Then start exploring the app in your role as your company’s brand ambassador. Network with experts in other industries. Never underestimate the value of learning from diverse startups, CEOs, tech giants—whether on an app like Clubhouse, or in other venues.

Contact True Interactive

To succeed with online advertising, contact True Interactive. Read about some of our client work here.

Why the Honk Messaging App Matters

Why the Honk Messaging App Matters

by Max Petrungaro Mobile

There’s a newcomer in the messaging world, and it’s aimed squarely at Gen Z. Honk, which describes itself as the “all-new way to chat with your friends in real time,” comes from app publisher/software company Los Feliz Engineering (LFE), and is determined to make messaging a “present” experience for a younger generation. Why does Honk matter? Read on to learn more.

What Is Honk?

There’s no send button. There’s no saved chat history. With Honk, conversations take place in real time: when someone types a message on Honk, the recipient of the message can see the sender’s content unfold in real time, warts and all, including revisions that the sender makes. (Honk calls this interface a live typing experience.) The app notifies recipients immediately if someone has left a chat. To get someone’s attention, you can send a “Honk,” described by TechCrunch as “a hard-to-miss notification to join your chat.” Users can even press the Honk button repeatedly to up the ante; the spamming sends notifications to the recipient’s phone if they’re off the app, or a cascade of emoji if their Honk app is open.

Honk accommodates 160 characters, and because the conversation is real time, no messaging is saved. Users who have maxed out their character count simply tap a double arrow “refresh” button to clear the screen and continue the communications. Users can send emoji, which display as huge images temporarily filling the screen. And photos can be accessed from a user’s camera roll to illustrate the chat.

Honk’s Target Audience: Gen Z

If giant emoji and repeated honks sound off-putting, you might not be Honk’s target audience. The app is unapologetically targeting Gen Z: though of course anyone can use Honk, when you set it up, the app asks for your age, and there are exact numbers to answer that question — 18, 19, etc. — up to a point. The last option available is “21+,” a sort of “and the rest” acknowledgement of who Honk is really courting.

Gen Z, of course, has been attracting the interest of brands because of its growing influence. It’s a sizable demographic: as reported by Brookings, more than half of the United States population are part of the Millennial generation or younger. Moreover, Gen Z is poised to overtake Baby Boomers to become the second largest generation in the nation.

Savvy brands also understand that this is a generation shaped by digital. According to the Pew Research Center, 95 percent of teens either own or have access to a smartphone, and 45 percent say they are online “almost constantly.” That’s significant to note because an app like Honk would come naturally to the Gen Z demographic.

All the Rage

Honk is also significant because messaging apps are all the rage, period. Most of the major tech firms have invested heavily into messaging apps because messaging is considered an authentic, immediate form of communication appropriate for the digital age. As we have blogged, behemoths like Facebook acknowledge the value of messaging, having already developed their own messaging app, Facebook Messenger, which brands use to communicate and even share ads.

Messaging features have also cropped up in apps like Google Maps. Social Media Today reports that Google has added new message options to its Maps and Search to make it easier for potential customers to reach out to businesses and ask questions. As Google notes, while business profiles can easily answer the frequently asked questions — the hours a business is open, for example — messaging takes things a step further. Messaging allows users to ask specific questions — for example, do you make vegan baked goods? — and in the process strengthen the bond between business and customer.

What Businesses Should Do

Honk. Gen Z. Messaging. What are the takeaways for your brand? We recommend that you:

  • Keep an eye on Honk and apps like it. For now, Honk does not offer any opportunities for advertising — but that day may come soon!
  • If Gen Z is a target market for your business, make sure you understand the way this generation communicates so that you know how to reach them in an authentic, meaningful way. Think of Honk as a way to learn, and be open to adapting your own approach =
  • Take a closer look at how well you are integrating messaging into your marketing and communications strategies.

Contact True Interactive

To succeed with online advertising, contact True Interactive. Read about some of our client work here.

Why 2020 Is TikTok’s Year

Why 2020 Is TikTok’s Year

by Taylor Hart Mobile

TikTok is having quite a year. And so, by association, is American Eagle Outfitters. According to Mobile Marketer, the clothing and accessories retailer enjoyed a Q1 sales surge online, driven in part by TikTok campaigns that connected with a young target audience eager to spend money online. The headline is this: TikTok is helping businesses benefit from massive shifts in consumer behavior in 2020.

TikTok, which is owned by the Beijing-based ByteDance, give brands a great platform for creating awareness, and more businesses like American Eagle are enjoying increases in online sales because of that platform. Read on to learn more about how TikTok is evolving rapidly in 2020.

What Is TikTok?

A free video-sharing social networking app that launched in the international market in 2017, TikTok was once predominantly dedicated to lip-synching. But now the platform, which features short looping videos of three to 60 seconds, and music and lip-sync videos of three to 15 seconds, has evolved into a short-form video content hub. And it’s becoming something of a powerhouse: according to Adweek, App Annie’s Q1 Global App Market Index identifies TikTok as the most-downloaded app in Q1 2020, as consumers continue to go online to find things to do and to express themselves at a time of social distancing.

Mobile-first 18- to 34-year-olds are the dominant market for TikTok, and one need only take a look at user numbers to recognize the platform’s significance—even beyond that primary market. Datareportal, for example, reports that  TikTok enjoys 800 million monthly active users. Those users are engaged, too: Oberlo notes that on average, they spend 52 minutes per day on TikTok.

Brands Getting in on the Action

Brands, particularly those catering to younger consumers, are taking an interest in TikTok. The platform is an ideal place to engage audiences and demonstrate a lighter side through funny videos or challenges. And during the COVID lockdown, TikTok has become a pressure valve for people cooped up inside. Examples of the wildly diverse brands who have already invested in a TikTok presence include:

  • NBA: the NBA uses TikTok to show off a lighter side, posting videos of players working out to music, for example, or the adventures of team mascots. The app’s musical features help the organization lighten up its branding; the videos still promote basketball, even as they fit in well with other quirky or musical posts on TikTok. Though the 2019-20 season was disrupted by COVID-19, the NBA has kept fans engaged by posting exciting plays from NBA stars. And players like Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who plays for the Oklahoma City Thunder, and Los Angeles Lakers megastar LeBron James, are turning to TikTok to keep fans amused with coordinated dances and funny moments.
  • elf Cosmetics: the cosmetics brand used TikTok to face COVID head-on, releasing a remix of an original song that had originally appeared in fall 2019. Changing the title of the song from “Eyes. Lips. Face.” to “Eyes. Lips. Face. Safe.,” elf paired the rebranded song with a new TikTok video demonstrating hand washing and social distancing.
  • San Diego Zoo: capitalizing on the fact that many people love cute animals, the San Diego Zoo’s TikTok account posts videos of adorable animals with fun music. It’s a simple strategy that has earned the account more than 50,000 fans. Even during the downtime brought about COVID-19, the zoo has kept up interest among its followers by posting amusing and sweet videos of animals going about their day.
  • Mucinex: Mucinex might not seem to lend itself to playful TikTok videos, but last fall the sinus relief brand successfully leaned into a popular TikTok theme: that of transformation. In the Mucinex spots, quick video edits showed influencers changing from zombie-level “too sick” to fashion-forward “so sick” after taking their medicine. The campaign generated nearly one billion views. 

So how does one become part of the TikTok revolution? The platform offers a variety of advertising options. If you are new to TikTok, we suggest reviewing this beginner’s guide courtesy of TikTok.

TikTok and Influencer/Brand Collaborations

As for what’s next, look for TikTok to increasingly help brands find influencers to work with. In the TikTok Creator Marketplace, brands can already search through the app’s top creators, a list of more than 1,000 TikTok stars including Zach King and CJ OperAmericano. The marketplace allows interested brands to gain insights into the audience demographics of a given creator/influencer, and germane details like engagement rate over time.

More Developments

Ever evolving, TikTok is also looking to live broadcasts and educational content to expand its reach and net more ad dollars. But as c|net reports, the platform won’t be nixing the familiar dance and lip-syncing videos that put TikTok on the map. Bryan Thoensen, who oversees content partnerships at TikTok, perhaps puts it best: “It’s adding more legs to the stool,” Thoensen says.

 A Caveat

There is a dark cloud on TikTok’s horizon, as the platform faces security concerns. Last fall, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senator Tom Cotton asked U.S. intelligence officials to investigate the security risks posed by TikTok. In a letter addressed to acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire, the senators wrote, “With over 110 million downloads in the U.S. alone, TikTok is a potential counterintelligence threat we cannot ignore.” The concern that the app could be used for intelligence-gathering and foreign influence campaigns by the Chinese Communist Party was also voiced.

To date, however, the negative coverage has not appeared to deter brands.

Contact True Interactive

Want to learn more about what benefits TikTok might bring to your business? We can tell you more about the options and how to get started. Contact us.

Consumer Spend on Mobile Hits Record Levels in Q1 2020

Consumer Spend on Mobile Hits Record Levels in Q1 2020

by Morgan Reilly Mobile

On April 1, I blogged about some trends in mobile behavior based on a 2020 App Annie State of Mobile report. As if on cue, App Annie then revised its report to note the incredible surge in mobile usage during the first quarter of 2020 as people have practiced social distancing on a widespread scale. These numbers should convince businesses to invest in mobile advertising now more than ever:

  • Q1 2020 was the largest-ever quarter in terms of consumer spend on apps: $23.4 billion.
  • The number of new app downloads in Q1 totaled 31 billion, a 15 percent increase over the fourth quarter of 2019. As Tech Crunch reported, “That’s notable, given that the fourth quarter usually sees a big boost in app installs from holiday sales of new phones, and Q1 managed to top that.”
  • The United States and China were the largest contributors to consumer spend on the Apple iOS operating system.
  • Users of the Google Android operating system spent the most on games social, and entertainment apps, in large part due to Disney+ and Twitch.
  • The Top Five apps worldwide for Q1 based on downloads and consumer spend: TikTok, WhatsApp Messenger, Facebook, Instagram, and Facebook Messenger.

All of that time people devote to managing their lives with mobile devices creates opportunities for businesses to engage with customers. The key is to create a sustained presence and to be mindful of using tone appropriate for the times we’re living in right now.

At True Interactive, we have deep experience helping businesses thrive on mobile. For instance, for Snapfish, we launched a digital media campaign that combined major platforms such as the Google Display Network with mobile-centric display networks that serve up ads to consumers on mobile devices. Revenue from mobile app installs grew 343 percent year over year during the holiday season. Mobile app installs grew 23 percent during the same period. Overall, Snapfish saw a 756-percent return on ad spend. Meanwhile, Snapfish saw a 56-percent decrease in costs per install.

For more insight into our work with Snapfish, read this case study. For more insight into responding to the surge in mobile activity, check out my recently published blog post, “Why Mobile Will Power Your Marketing Future.”

Contact True Interactive

Mobile is where the action is. Are you getting in on it? Contact us.

Photo by Rob Hampson on Unsplash

Why Mobile Will Power Your Marketing Future

Why Mobile Will Power Your Marketing Future

by Morgan Reilly Mobile

For businesses, engaging with mobile should not be a matter of if, but when. And according to App Annie’s The State of Mobile 2020 report, sooner is better than later. The report underscores how important it is for businesses to connect with their customers on mobile. Here are some stats that resonate:

Mobile Is a Way of Life

  • According to the report, consumers downloaded a record 204 billion apps in 2019. Annual downloads have grown 45 percent in the three years since 2016, and six percent year over year. As App Annie points out, this growth is especially impressive because it excludes re-installs and app updates.
  • Also of note: in 2019, people spent roughly three hours and 40 minutes a day on mobile, a 35 percent increase over 2017.

People Are Spending on Mobile Apps

  • Consumers are opening their pocketbooks to engage with mobile—and not just with games. App store consumer spending hit $120 billion in 2019, up 2.1 times from 2016. Although games comprise 72 percent of all app store spend, subscriptions in non-gaming apps leapt from 18 percent share in 2016 to a solid 28 percent in 2019.

Mobile Is Where People Go to Be Entertained

  • Time spent on sports apps such as ESPN grew by 30 percent from 2017 to 2019.
  • Mobile gaming is, hands down, the world’s most popular form of gaming. In 2019, mobile games enjoyed 25 percent more spend than all other gaming combined.
  • New entrants like Disney+ are heating up consumer interest—and competition—in the streaming industry. For right now, consumers seem happy to double-dip: close to 25 percent of Netflix’s iPhone users also used Disney+ in Q4 2019, for example. That’s the highest overlap of users among top video streaming apps in the United States.

YouTube and TikTok Are Exploding

  • YouTube enjoyed a staggering 980 percent growth in worldwide active users from December 2017 to December 2019. And as we recently blogged, the platform is an advertising giant, to boot.
  • App Annie calls it the “TikTok Tidal Wave”: time spent on TikTok, which as a social networking app and entertainment source poses a double threat, grew 210 percent year over year in 2019. TikTok is also drawing interest from brands; as we have noted, the platform is an ideal place to demonstrate a lighter side through funny videos or challenges.

Social Media on Mobile Is as Strong As Ever

  • Social isn’t going anywhere. App Annie notes that 50 percent of time on mobile is spent on social and comms apps like Snapchat. As a result, apps like Snapchat are thriving: as we recently blogged, Snapchat continues to grow, even in a competitive landscape.
  • Meanwhile, use of Nextdoor has grown 65 percent from December 2017 to December 2019 in the United States, demonstrating an interest in social networking at a local level.

Gen Z Is Rocking Mobile

  • Gen Z are digital natives, and as such lead all other demographics in terms of mobile use. According to the App Annie report, Gen Z has 60 percent more sessions per user in top apps than older demographics. And 98 percent of Gen Z own a smartphone.

Implications for Businesses

  • If you are advertising on mobile already, don’t put your advertising on pause during the coronavirus pandemic. Phone carriers such as AT&T are reporting a surge in mobile usage as more people work from home.
  • That said, you may find yourself adapting your mobile campaign at this time: say, by discussing community building activities that will keep your brand front of mind when the crisis subsides. Sensitivity to the current crisis is key. And patience. Elijah Whaley, the CMO influencer marketing agency Parklu, notes of brands who proceed carefully and wisely through the coronavirus era, “When [consumers] start spending again they are going to spend with you.”
  • Capitalize on YouTube and TikTok. These apps are only going to increase in popularity as more Gen Zers come of age. TikTok is just sorting out its ad products, but, as we’ve noted, YouTube already offers strong advertising options.

Contact True Interactive

Mobile is where the action is. Are you getting in on it? Contact us.

Photo by Daan Geurts on Unsplash