12 Trends That Impact the Future of Mobile Apps

Have we reached mobile app saturation? The comScore Mobile App Report sheds some light on the growing trends of how users are engaging with smartphone apps. One thing is certain: Apps fuel engagement.

Here are 12 interesting trends from the report:

1. App audiences are growing, reaching more unique visitors.

2. Smartphone apps have driven the overwhelming majority of growth in digital media usage over the past 3 years.

3. Smartphone app usage time is increasing among every age group and is highest among Millennials.

4. The fastest growing apps are services related to navigation, exercising, and dating. Apps like Waze, Fitbit, Uber, Tinder, Bitmoji and Lyft had the most gains in unique visitors year over year.  

5. Overall, the rate of growth is declining for smartphone apps.

6. People spend most of their time on their top few apps. This means that new apps could find it much harder to enter the market than ever before.

7. The most popular app is Facebook.

8. Entertainment and communication dominate app usage. Categories like social networking, gaming and music account for 60% of time spent on mobile apps.  

9. More users are now discovering apps from websites, digital ads and traditional media ads. This highlights the fact that traditional push marketing for user acquisition is working.

10. Since 2013, time spent on mobile apps has grown 111%. The bulk of that growth happened from 2013 to 2015. Growth rates have been much weaker on mobile from 2015 to 2016, while desktop usage declined by 11%.

11. Mobile users spend a high percentage of their time on their #1 most used app, and about 9 out of 10 minutes within their Top 5.

12. Mobile usage lives and dies by the success of apps. Categories with strong app usage are more likely to shift from desktop to mobile.

As marketers, this report may challenge the way we think about apps. Just like when companies in the 90’s realized they needed to launch a website, the current trend is to also have an app. But, is it really a necessity for your business? Will your app increase engagement and sales? Does it make sense for your brand in a market of increasing app saturation? Do you have a budget to advertise the app?

Results are demonstrating that users are spending the majority of time on their top five apps and very little time on other apps. New app downloads have declined, while some app audiences are growing. These factors should create a sense of caution in marketers during the process of determining whether to create an app. How will you make sure that it’s downloaded and used? Will it provide a needed service, like Lyft or Mindbody?

It’s clear that usefulness is a major theme in app engagement, a key insight pulled from reviewing this report. The top content categories on the rise for apps are exercise, communication, navigation, games and real-world services.   

I will leave you with this: How do you get app loyalty? Is it an incentive question or a relevance issue? Or a matter of advertising dollars to increase awareness? I invite you to comment on these questions or present your own. No doubt that each of us has unique business cases related to app development, promotion and usage.

Paid Search vs. Influencer Marketing

Katy Perry holds the #1 position for the most followers on Twitter. Why should we care? Because that means she is an influencer, aside from her obvious celebrity status. Being a social media influencer has become a lucrative job for anyone who has a large social network, or rather, a high number of followers, impressions, likes, or shares. Getting paid to post is rumored to be a coveted career for Gen Z’s.

Are we in the era of Influencer Marketing?

At a recent American Marketing Association event, panelists discussed paid search vs. influencer marketing. There was an interesting case study about how Facebook users engaged in an average of 30 hours of one-on-one conversations with a chatbot, a specific promotion for the movie Unfriended. A chatbot playing the lead movie character “frightened” users during IM chats. A clear example of how Millennial’s and Gen Z’s are actively engaging in online experiences, probably instead of clicking on a paid ad.

Paid search includes PPC (pay-per-click) ads, such as Google AdWords or Google Display Network. You bid on ad placement and pay for each click, based on a going rate. Google search and display ads on partner websites are typical advertising strategies for marketers trying to drive traffic to a website and elicit a consumer purchase. It does work, that’s why it’s included in marketing budgets. Although, click-through-rates have been decreasing.  

Ad blocking is projected to grow 34%

Now there is another threat, ad blockers. Although not a new phenomenon, projected growth rates are increasing, catching the attention of marketers and advertisers alike. Ad blocking is projected to grow 34% this year for U.S. web users. Historically, ad blockers have been most popular with desktop and laptop users. Now smartphone ad blockers are projected to increase by at least 11%.  

At the Cannes Lion international film festival, the Cannes ad blocking panel made the push for better creative. Begging the question, do users hate ads or do they hate bad ads? Are the “bad” ads ruining paid search for everyone? Perhaps there are people who just dislike all ads. Much like app fatigue, people are experiencing ad fatigue (regardless of how “targeted” the ad is). Just because you make an ad for a specific target audience and serve it up based on interests or demographics, doesn’t mean the user wants to see it.

Are we in the era of influencer marketing? Yes. People on social media who have a high number of followers and engagement are getting paid to post for brands and products. Yet, there is a struggle going in with setting standards. What is the real value of an influencer? Does it justify their cost? What happens if they don’t show up or post? How can a company determine which influencer is the right fit for their brand? There is a solution.  

Should Influencer Marketing be automated?

Marketers can find social media influencers using ReadyPulse, TapInfluence or any other automated influencer marketing platform. Companies like JustFab and NatureBox have used ReadyPulse to grow brand awareness, brand affinity, and sales. Like paid search ads, influencer marketing works and there is a fee for it. Both are used to drive sales, but influencer marketing is about a deeper change in consumer behavior. Long-term change comes through feelings and beliefs. This can be achieved by linking your brand to positive, memorable experiences.

On the other hand, automating the influencer marketing process with a tech platform is feared to be jeopardizing authenticity. Audience targeting could be executed poorly or brand mentions could feel awkward and forced. The Wall Street Journal reported, “Major social platforms like Instagram and Snapchat are watching these influencer tech intermediaries closely, concerned that a bad experience could result in a marketer abandoning their platform altogether.”

Like it or not, social media influencers are getting paid to promote. Marketers are responsible for generating multi-platform content for promotions and conversations. Why not lean on influencers to chirp about a product or demonstrate their own brand loyalty?

Advertising can focus heavily on enticing consumers to buy through contests, coupons, or sales promotions. These are short-term behavioral actions. To change attitudes long-term, marketers should work with beliefs (cognitive) and feelings (evaluative). This is where to build brand loyalty and brand affinity.

photo credit: harpersbazaar.com

5 DIY Branding Hacks To Try Now

Defining a brand’s identity can be exciting and daunting. Here are a few do-it-yourself branding exercises to get the creative juices flowing. Whether it’s a new product launch or a rebrand, these activities can help facilitate the brainstorming of fresh, new ideas in no time.

About a year ago, I conducted a brand strategy process that completely redefined a consumer brand. From a seemingly business facing brand, it truly became consumer focused in content and imagery. This resulted in a clearly defined brand personality and vision, which helped guide strategic marketing plans.

On a side note, even if you do hire a branding agency, I recommend taking a team through these exercises. It’s helpful for your internal team to develop key ideas about the brand first, because the agency will be asking questions to help guide them in the branding process. Plus these exercises can be really fun, doubling as team building.

Brand Hack #1 – Decide Which Archetypes Fit Your Brand

There are 12 common archetypes: Hero, Magician, Caregiver, Innocent, Sage, Explorer, Outlaw, Everyman, Creator, Lover, Jester, and Ruler. Each represents an individual psyche that is realistic and helps people relate to the character. Why pick a brand archetype? Actually, I recommend picking two. Creating an authentic character means its two-dimensional. These archetypes  give direction in creating a compelling brand story that can guide content marketing efforts of the new (or existing) brand. When we think of the brand as a person, it becomes clear what the tone should be. How would this brand speak to me? What would it say? What kind of emotional connection do I have with it? Is it here to care for me or to save me from something? It’s not only about what the brand says, but primarily what it does.

Once we have the archetypes, advertising campaigns can be created around specific storylines. Say we have a hero brand and we want our next campaign to tell a specific story of how the product “saves” us from something (e.g. chapped lips, bad credit, dehydration).

I constructed a rebrand process that centered heavily on determining the two main brand archetypes. We went through brainstorming processes about the brand promise, value proposition, customer perceptions, thoughts, feelings and imagery.

Mapping out the brand archetypes of industry competitors can reveal the popular and not so popular archetypes, helping to see where possible opportunities lie for your brand. Competitive brand archetype research I conducted revealed that most brands were either “Jester”, “Caregiver” or “Everyman” and very few were “Outlaws” or “Rulers”. After this research, I began to see how popular the Jester archetype has become in U.S. advertising and brand positioning. It’s apparent that, getting a laugh, has become the quickest way to endear emotion in a viewer (Geico’s Caveman, Flo from Progressive, Mac guy vs. PC guy).

Brand Hack #2 – Brainwrite Instead of Brainstorm

I chose brainwriting over brainstorming so that every team member would have a chance to participate candidly and honestly. There are always team members who dominate discussions, which distorts overall feedback. I wanted each team member to know that their opinion matters and that no one person was going to dominate the idea generation. An added bonus was that the writing from these exercises ended up being used in new content creation, even new taglines and ad copy.  

Brand Hack #3 - Brandscape

High Five has a brandscape exercise that uses picture association. Simply decide on the different categories and print out various images for each one, such as cars, animals, actors, landscapes, etc. Each team member picks a picture from a category and then explains why they picked the picture as it relates to the brand. Is your brand a Jeep, a BMW, or a Toyota? This was actually really fun and revealed personal preferences and perceptions. Consumer behavior at its best.

Brand Hack #4 - Competitive Namescape

Another strategic exercise is the competitive namescape. Brand names fall into four categories: Functional (e.g. Whole Foods, OfficeMax), Experiential (e.g. Facebook, Ford Explorer), Evocative (e.g. Skype, Apple), or Invented (Oreo, Acura). Are all competitors using functional names? Maybe most are functional, a few are experiential and none are invented? In that case, your brand could stand out with an invented name over a functional one (as long as it fits the brand personality).

Brand Hack #5 – Understand Brand Colors

Brand colors are important and understanding their meaning will help to answer questions during the branding process. Color is directly tied to the brand identity. I have also had questions about brand colors thrown my way when working with established brands. Color preference can be very personal. We might get tired of looking at our blue logo and yearn for orange instead, it’s helpful to return to the brand meaning vs. the color meaning and see if they match up. During a brand refresh, this is the perfect time to review the color palette. Be prepared for the inevitable color discussion and have brand examples.  

Many of these brand exercises helped to establish a more strategic marketing process around branding. So far, the result has been the complete rebrand of an e-commerce consumer brand, identification of two major brand archetypes for the company, branding for new technology products set to compete with some of the top tech companies out there, and the branding of a spin-off company.

5 Things About The eMetrics Summit 2016

Debuting in 2002, The eMetrics Summit was the birthplace of the Digital Analytics Association and is all about the world of digital marketing analytics. In 2016, it coincided with the Predictive Analytics World conference. The Summit was a deep dive into the latest strategy, tactics and tools that promised to help achieve stronger, more measurable results from digital marketing campaigns.

#1) Why attend the eMetrics Summit?

I wanted to find the one conference to attend this year that was all about data analytics. Presentations, case studies, speaking one-to-one, these are the places where I get inspired and learn the reality of what is going on in companies in the US and abroad. Anyone in Marketing knows how technology has changed the landscape and constant learning is a must. Good thing I love to learn.

This was my first time at eMetrics and overall I enjoyed it. This is the place for data enthusiasts.  Presentations are laid out like case studies with real examples. This is important since I try and stay away from conferences that appear to be mostly sales pitches pushing specific products. Was it good for networking? Not really, but they do try and promote it. An added bonus was being able to download the presentations afterwards. I am digesting even more information and reviewing a few of my favorites.  

 #2) What to expect

eMetrics consisted of two tracks: “Applied Science” and “Cornerstones.” I spent one day in the Applied Science tracks, which proved to be far too granular even though most presented case studies. I felt like I was deep inside the weeds of a specific data analyst’s day-to-day. I spent the second day in the Cornerstones tracks and they proved to be much more relatable (to me). Presenters reminded us to think strategically about performance measurement and to ask ourselves, “What am I trying to achieve and how do I know when I’ve achieved it?” Don’t forget about business goals (it happens), how different teams can work together (analysts, scientists, marketers), and user experience. Depending on where you are at in your career and day-to-day job functions, my advice is to try out both tracks the first day and see which ones really gel for you.     

#3) Presentation highlights

Analytics Demystified highlighted how analysts and marketers can work better together toward common business goals. Honestly, both presentations were very insightful with great reminders about objectives and goals.

Shiyi Pickrell from Microsoft.com’s analytics team went over real-world case studies focusing on customer-centric metrics like unique visitors, campaign, audience, and repeat purchasers, as opposed to tactical metrics like visits, page views, CTR, impressions and clicks.

Rand Fishkin, Wizard of Moz, did not disappoint. Especially the interesting example of how top ranking companies on Google search are also the companies that are top spenders on AdWords (correlation or causation?). Interesting insight into how the use of the back button is killing conversions and overall skewing data. Other ponderings occurred, like does Snapchat work for people who have a little gray hair? Should we care about how concerned Bill Gates and Elon Musk are about artificial intelligence and the rise of the terminators? 

#4) Key takeaways

• Don’t lose sight of the larger goals: Increase revenue, decrease costs, improve customer satisfaction, create new products
• Customer-driven framework should be pre-built into measurement and optimization
• Don’t rely on NPS anymore (controversial statement for some)
• Use analytics in every step of the digital process (find the content your audience is truly engaged with – stories about cats that are 500-1,500 words maybe?)
• Experimentation and testing for continuous improvement
• Data analytics continues to be fun and challenging for every size company
• Large companies struggle with so much data and reports, leaving less time to glean insights and ladder it up to larger business goals
• Does Marketing know its target in terms of expected results? Is 10 conversions a week good? Or is 1,000 conversions a week good? Based on ad spend and reach, a marketer should figure this out and not expect the analyst to provide this information
• The ability to find insights in the data and make business recommendations to the C-Suite is an experienced skill that takes time to develop and communicating business objectives within the organization helps focus these efforts

#5) Technology cheat sheet

There are several platform providers to choose from. Here is a very short version, as provided by Scott Brinker:

• Audience/Market Data: Nielsen, Oracle, Salesforce
• Marketing Analytics, Performance and Attribution: Origami Logic, Google, eBay
• Dashboards and Data Visualization: Tableau, Domo, Geckoboard
• Business/Customer Intelligence & Data Science: IBM, Oracle, Microsoft, Alteryx, DataMentors
• iPaaS, Cloud/Data Integration & Tag Management: Google, Adobe, Datalicious, TerraSky, Wombat
• Data Management Platforms (DMP): Adobe, Oracle, Rocketfuel, Google, MediaMath
• Predictive Analytics: Optimove, CustomerLabs, Radius

All in all, here is my impression of the 2016 eMetrics Summit: We care about data! We just want everyone else in our company to care too. We want to impact and inspire change (some just want to pull reports all day and let others interpret them). The change is here and it can seem overwhelming. The eMetrics Summit showcased this change and how to harness the power of data analytics for Marketing good.