How are consumers using their Smartphones?
Mobile usage has gone well beyond calls and texts. To get the full picture of how consumers are now using their smartphones and to help you identify marketing opportunities, we've listed the key ways we are now using mobile. From geo-location related uses to using mobile as a loyalty card, the future is exciting!
Great reception – All those precious demographics such as the 18-24 market, B2B, are all adopting smartphones at a rate of knots. That’s Symbian, iPhone, Android and Blackberry. Right now it’s about a third of the mobile population, but Neilson and others are predicting smartphone adoption of 50% by the end of the year.
Dialling in – Mobile internet use is another growth area. Enders Analysis predict mobile will be about 30% of all time spent online by 2015.
Convergence – The very word sends shivers down your spine of either boredom or excitement – we’ve heard it promised so many times! But the dream of a single device that can do everything, access and integrate with all other main channels from TV, radio, web all the way to shopping and gaming... well, it’s finally here and your customers are buying it in droves.
OK, so what we’d like to do now is run you through what we believe are the most important areas of the mobile universe which not only differentiate it from desktop computing but are major trends which will come to dominate massive swathes of marketing in general. We’re looking at the creation of a whole new set of metrics and KPIs which other marketing channels will struggle, and often fail dismally, to justify themselves against. Bold words? In our view, not really! But then again we are digital evangelists! Well, have a look at these features and see what you think...
As with any new frontier, the map is still being drawn, so we’ve categorised how people are using smartphones into 7 broad topics to help you identify opportunities.
Organise their lives and work: from ads-to-calendar for event companies to B2B marketing (see our ‘B2B article’ on the topic), phones are fast becoming the diary and calendar and to-do list of choice.
Compare products and shopping: this is huge! It’s especially vital for anyone with products in any high street retail environment. See our later article. Jump to it now.
Get rewarded: One of the reasons there is only one Nectar Card is how expensive it used to be to set up or refresh a major loyalty program, but that is all changing with mobile technology.
Play and be entertained: according to eConsultancy, “Social gaming is rapidly becoming a billion dollar industry. Experts predict that social gaming will help to shape the next wave of marketing”. Interestingly, this trend now extends to B2B, as large corporations are starting to embrace more “fun” ways to communicate internally and to their partners.
Feedback and conversations: the days of people just talking on the phone are long gone. As well as texts, updates and tweets, we have reviews, and opportunities for brands to empower brand ambassadors. The average user writes 25 comments on Facebook each month, and a growing part is done when out and about.
Connect with friends and colleagues: It’s not just calls and texts. Smartphones let brands position themselves inside their customer universe, from displaying relevant ads and content on Social Networks to providing useful tools for friends and colleagues to get organised, keep in touch, and more.
Get and share location relevant content: We’ve saved the best to last – content can be localised and react to a local environment, whether it’s a sampling stand, a shop, an event or just a poster on a wall. We’ll cover this in more detail later.