TrendsThe golden rule for digital strategy is “mobile first”

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Dear companies (and especially digital agencies),

As you make your resolutions for 2017, please don’t forget to make “mobile strategy” one of your priorities. A new report called Mobile Advertising Forecasts, from the media agency Zenith, leaves no more room for doubt: the percentage of mobile internet use has skyrocketed in recent years. It rose from 40% in 2012 to 68% in 2016, and Zenith predicts it will reach 79% by 2018.

Things like mobile advertising, the amount of time users access the internet while on the move, and the spread of smartphones and tablets are all vital issues, and need to be taken into account when building an effective digital strategy.

Mobile strategy: the trends for 2018

Of course, some of the most interesting data to emerge is related to advertising – and the idea that 69% of online advertising in 2018 will be for mobile. By then, spending for mobile advertising will total $134 billion USD – more than newspapers, magazines, films and billboards combined. So with this global outlook, the spread of smartphones and looming increase in internet advertising mean that all digital agencies will now need to consider new market parameters when studying and proposing mobile solutions. Strategies should be designed and implemented not just on the basis of a device, but also (and more importantly) on the mobility of the user.

In fact, Zenith suggests thinking in terms of mobile ecosystems, prioritizing the user experience – the how and the when. Take smartwatches for example. Or any other smart devices that track a user’s activities. Consumers tend to use this kind of device for a specific purpose and at a particular moment of their day.

The app market: downloads in decline

We can’t ignore the spread of apps when we talk about mobile. According to a ComScore survey, over half of the “digital minutes” in Italy last October were spent using apps. And the same people used mobile devices for 87% of their overall time online.

Besides giving a better understanding of how users spend time on mobile and apps, this reveals another interesting point. People spend most of their time on apps like Facebook and Google, but very little on any others. So while the mobile market is growing, as is the amount of time spent using apps, downloading has been in decline. The data shows that last October, more than 56% of Italians hadn’t downloaded a single app. For those who did, 57% of them only downloaded 1 or 2.

This means that we need to recognize that it’s a growing marking, but one that’s highly competitive. It’s not enough to have a good idea – you also need to know how to position it in the market and make it stand out  in a sea of existing apps.

There’s no magic formula, but awareness certainly helps. Consumers are overwhelmed, distracted, and maybe not very willing to make a move. You need to pay attention to what they need at any given time. User experience in the future is going to be instantaneous, and you’ll need to be able to reach people at exactly the right moment.

Michela Di Nuzzo

« Se scrivo ciò che sento è perché così facendo abbasso la febbre di sentire». - Fernando Pessoa Giornalista e co-founder, vivo il digital come imprenditrice e appassionata. Percepisco il cambiamento come un'opportunitá mai una minaccia. Occhi spalancati e orecchie aperte, sempre pronta alla condivisione, la chiave di ogni evoluzione.

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