- June 5, 2016, 11:45 PM EDT
- Sponsored
Illustration: Drew Melton
There's a myth that mobile is most effective for its utility—that users are simply interested in social and messaging. In reality, mobile use is far more complex, and for many consumers, their smartphone is the go-to source for information and entertainment, making it truly the "first screen."
Today, U.S. consumers are spending 4 hours a day on TV and 5.5 hours on digital, the majority of which is on their mobile devices, according to a recent eMarketer report.
But if you're a brand looking to align with consumer attention, the sheer magnitude of mobile apps and the speed at which they rise to popularity can be daunting. There are over three million apps out there and counting. How do you know where your brand needs to be?
In the past, marketers had fairly predictable guides and long lead times to align with pop culture, whether it was Nielsen ratings or even Billboard's top charts. But today's "hits" on mobile do not have season premieres or September Issues; they climb the top charts quickly and unpredictably.
Many of the established media companies that historically represented a premium now compete heavily with the App Store or Google Play top 100. And before a marketer can use unfamiliarity as an argument for not investing in these environments, it's important to clarify what makes the top charting apps so valuable.
If mobile is the first screen, then advertisers need to find the apps that are driving attention. And it's the top 1000 grossing apps that have the most active and loyal mobile users. They are fully immersed in the content, interacting with advertising and making purchases. For advertisers, those charts reflect where today's premium on mobile is—that is, where you can find rapt consumer attention and engagement with an audience size and content consumption most comparable to TV.
The average time spent per day of a user in one of the top 100 apps on the Opera Mediaworks ad platform is 30 minutes. I challenge you try to hold someone's attention for that long in person, let alone digitally.
Impressions and interactions with mobile have gone gangbusters
If you look at the top charts of ad impressions, it's clear that categories like Games, News and Information and Social Networking are getting the most volume. Yet the most engaging app categories—those with the highest click through rates—are Music, Video and Media, followed by Travel and Lifestyle.
If you look at the top charts of ad impressions, it's clear that categories like Games, News and Information and Social Networking are getting the most volume. Yet the most engaging app categories—those with the highest click through rates—are Music, Video and Media, followed by Travel and Lifestyle.
Lifestyle apps also see high conversions, as do Games, Education and Sports. Business, Finance and Investing also converts at a higher rate than Opera's mobile-ad platform average.
What's even more clear is that apps are where the most value is. In-app advertising outperforms the mobile web by more than double (measured by CTR) while generating more than 13 times the amount of revenue for publishers.
What's even more clear is that apps are where the most value is. In-app advertising outperforms the mobile web by more than double (measured by CTR) while generating more than 13 times the amount of revenue for publishers.
Mobile delivers prime time TV reach, but it's all about consumer attention and receptiveness to the media
While engagement and conversion rates are obviously valuable barometers for the value of advertising, reach is also important. There's been a perception that when it comes to sheer size, mobile takes a backseat to other media. But mobile now can reach a TV-sized audience. A single app's monthly active users can outreach the average weekly audience for even some of today's top-ranked shows. For example, Shazam has 18.3 million total unique users, surpassing the reach of popular TV shows like The Walking Dead, Survivor and Scandal.
While engagement and conversion rates are obviously valuable barometers for the value of advertising, reach is also important. There's been a perception that when it comes to sheer size, mobile takes a backseat to other media. But mobile now can reach a TV-sized audience. A single app's monthly active users can outreach the average weekly audience for even some of today's top-ranked shows. For example, Shazam has 18.3 million total unique users, surpassing the reach of popular TV shows like The Walking Dead, Survivor and Scandal.
But a better question to ask is whether your consumers are receptive to the message. We believe this receptiveness is highly correlated to the quality of content, quality of engagement and amount of time in the content. Today's premium content on mobile has high reach, high engagement and is delivering results for brands. It's not TV vs. mobile; it's about the content. Is it highly rated? Are people engaged? Great content can be found across both screens, and integrating messaging in a way that maximizes the receptiveness of the message from the consumer should be the focus.
We can't ignore the fact that our heads are often looking down at our phones during commercial breaks. According to Accenture's Digital Video and the Connected Consumer report, 87 percent of consumers are using more than one device at a time, and smartphones are the biggest culprit during TV viewing sessions.
This is not to say that TV is going away—far from it. Live sports, for instance, and appointment-viewing shows like Empire are incredibly valuable for advertisers. But so are apps in the top 1000 where session times are long and engagement is high.
Watch out, mobile creativity is a one-two punch
It's not enough to be where the action is. What you do when you get there also matters.
It's not enough to be where the action is. What you do when you get there also matters.
If you can deliver high quality creative that is purpose-built for mobile—taking advantage of all of the data and targeting, native hardware and software features of the device and SDK integration—you can create an epic standard in mobile.
In the early days of TV, creative looked like a radio ad with logos—not taking advantage of the medium. This happened in mobile as well where advertisers didn't take advantage of the abilities to drive outcomes.
Mobile today enables marketers to create marketing outcomes—delivering the emotion of TV, but with a clear call-to-action. The two-way interactivity of mobile, and the endless opportunities to harness the features endemic to mobile devices are incredibly powerful, because it drives ad relevance and resonance. We are seeing brands becoming more and more attribution-minded, and that's a good thing.
While mobile apps are still a utility for consumers, they've become much more than that. In fact, it's now a "utility" for advertisers, too. The highly engaged audience and massive reach rivals that of TV—the war for the coveted title of "first screen" is on—and advertisers are finding clever ways to tap into premium mobile to drive outcomes that matter.
