How do we nail the next 12 months to succeed in the mobile marketplace?

At DIS, Ian will speak in a session headed, “How Millennials and Gen Z are impacting on mobile consumption and culture”. Here he shares some of the ideas that will be explored in more depth there, including why “relevancy” is such a crucial objective to achieve.

The mobile device has become the primary connection for most of us to the outside world; it is how we access news, social activities and interactions and, increasingly, how we define ourselves, writes Ian. 

This is particularly true of Generation Z and young Millennials, who have never known a world without mobile. At Verve, we’ve bundled these two generations together, aptly naming them ‘Mobile Prodigies’, given their proficiency with these devices is highly developed, and is evolving as the technology evolves.

Mobile Prodigies are constantly building a list of demands for both advertisers and publishers to adhere to when engaging with them on their mobile. For those brands looking to succeed in mobile, it’s now vital to continually deepen the understanding of those demands on an individual basis and react to them fast.

By recognising individuals for who they are and how they interact with their mobile devices throughout their daily routines, brands can identify where they can add the most value to consumers’ lives, and where they are likely to be invited in.

So what are the current demands?

Mobile Prodigies are up for engaging with brands if they pay attention and tailor comms to where they are, where they’ve come from and what mood they’re in. Essentially they are after more personal, relevant and engaging experiences.

Of course, there are some barriers here. More than half of Mobile Prodigies either use, or are considering, ad blocking due to the current ‘bad use’ of personalisation tools and a staggering 90 per cent of Mobile Prodigies are annoyed by ads that interrupt their personal and professional mobile activities. However, most are willing to share data about themselves if they trust how that data is going to be used.

The openness to share data offers untapped potential to improve mobile consumer experiences; brands can now identify which marketing turn off factors to reduce, and which wow moments to dial up.  The challenge for brands is working out how to be smarter with the available data from across the multiple touchpoints: from consumer to app, from publisher to device, from device to retailer.

So how do we nail the next 12 months to succeed in the mobile marketplace? 

It might seem simple, but brands, agencies and publishers need to stop over-complicating things and respond to consumer demands. 

We need to listen more to the turn-offs and be braver in our thoughts about what will delight consumers.

It’s paramount to ensure that everything we do is more personal and engaging. 

But what stands out for me, is relevancy. 

Mobile Prodigies are wary of being ‘stalked’ yet still willing to share data. When their data is used to deliver an ad that is relevant to them, they will engage. This is where location-smart data becomes so important for brands, advertisers and publishers. Extracting true first-party data to build enriched audience segments will help brands tell the most memorable story for the end consumer. Succeeding won’t be easy and it certainly won’t be done alone; creative partnerships in the mobile ecosystem and beyond will be key for brands to build successful relationships with the mobile-savvy generation. 

The lumascape is vast, offering brands an ever-growing array of partners to work with on engaging consumers. The challenge now is for those of us within the lumascape to work smarter, together to deliver the effective creative that consumers are demanding. It’s time for brands, agencies and publishers to become as connected as the consumers we’re looking to engage. 

Ian James is CEO International at Verve.

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