Witty Marketers are leaning towards mobile marketing because that is where everyone is spending most of their time.
Global mobile advertising spend is expected to increase from $231 billion in 2019 to $396 billion in 2023. Maybe even more as a result of the surge in internet activities influenced by COVID 19.
Having a distinct mobile marketing strategy layers away from your laptop/desktop screen is paramount to a firm’s customer acquisition efforts.
The battle for attention on mobile phones is as intense as “Game of Thrones” and “Merlin” combined in one piece.
It is fierce for so many reasons.
- Our mobile phones have multi-faceted use cases. Emails, games, iTunes, Zoom call, Netflix, read books. So it is a constant battle sharing the time.
- A search ad that worked well on a desktop may not work on a mobile screen. Your potential clients spend more than 90% of their screen time with apps. But getting an app in front of a consumer is no easy feat: a typical smartphone user has about 40 to 50 apps, 10 to 15 of which they use regularly.
- Consumers find in-app or banner super annoying and irrelevant both on PCs and mobile devices. As of December 2016, there were 600 million devices running ad- blocking software globally, 62% of which were on mobile devices, and the rate of ad blocking increased 30% in a year.
That presents an entirely new challenge for brands. How can they get consumers to download and use their apps?
The old incentives (traditional ways to reach consumers through an online banner or display ads) don’t seem to work on mobile phones. Focus on user experience design could work, but you need to get people downloading the app.
Because consumers are becoming savvier at avoiding advertising, no matter how compelling the story, M. V. Rajamannar, chief marketing officer of Mastercard, believes that we need to shift from storytelling to story making with consumers. Google suggests moment-based marketing, whereby the advertiser can wait for the right moment before sending the right message to a consumer. Google defines these as micro-moments and classifies them into four groups: “I want to know,” “I want to go,”
“I want to do,” and “I want to buy.” For example, if you book an Uber on Friday evening, ads for restaurants and movies may be relevant at that moment. Driving on a highway at noontime may be the best moment for Google Maps to show an ad for a nearby restaurant.
Companies need to offer value to consumers. WhatsApp in today’s world is a core part of our daily interactions. The emergence of financial transaction apps like Bitsika and Barter apps redefining financial activities in Africa is commendable.
The digital landscape is evolving quickly. Keeping pace with digital marketing presents significant challenges—best practices even a year old can quickly become obsolete. We need to always have our creative thinking hat on and keep track of the changes in underlying consumer behaviour.
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