Dove Direct Print & Marketing Blog - “Why Mobile Matters in 2019”

Welcome to the Dove Direct Print and Marketing Blog. Today's post, "Why Mobile Matters in 2019" examines mobile usage trends impacting marketing, the marketplace and a brand's ability to harness employee productivity. The Pew Center for Research states that as of 2017, 95% of Americans own a cellphone of some type, with 77% of them being smartphones.

In this digital era, big data continues to present various types of statistical data and the sheer volume of these statistics can be overwhelming to disseminate, analyze, log and convert to actionable strategical intelligence. However, among the clutter of trend analyses reports, the most important trend for brands and marketers to understand is how and where the public at large is receiving and responding to messaging communications.

No doubt we've all been aware of the rising mobile usage factors, and depending on which set of statistics one wants to codify, the overwhelming number of mobile usage stats are in agreement that mobile usage has risen to the top when compared to all other media channels and platforms.

In lieu of a statistical battle on the mobile usage front, we contend that not only is the data pointing to higher mobile usage across the board, but more importantly it is also suggesting how that usage is affecting various segments, including employee productivity.

The Personal Smart Phone Statistics

The latest smartphones coming to market, along with updated software versions for some of the older smartphones, offer data depicting "screen time." For example, the iPhone XS shows "screen time" on its page that compiles snippets of the latest news stories, stocks, weather, and so on. At a glance, screen time displays the current amount of time the user has been viewing on the device, followed by an average of screen viewing time, indicating whether or not the viewing time is increasing or decreasing. In addition, once the screen time is clicked to uncover more data such as a graph showing the time of day when screen viewing peaked, what stories and social networking were viewed, most used apps and the list goes on.

The importance of smartphones being able to collect personal user screen viewing data actually provides smartphone companies such as Apple, with actionable intelligence for user viewing preference strategies. All of this usage data can be accessed by the smartphone manufacturer, via the smartphone manufacturer's software, and since AI and machine learning are the bedposts behind improving the customer experience, the aggregation of all this data poses both threats and opportunities.

Mainstream Mobile Usage Data

Would you believe that as of 2018 mobile usage is just about on par with television viewing? Would you believe that mobile usage has surpassed desktop/laptop viewing by more than an hour per day? And yes, we all are aware of using mobile while watching television, which is considered a multitasking viewing experience, including employees at their cubicles. That said, let's take a look at mobile usage data research stats that support answers to those questions:

• Smart Insights: In 2008, mobile accounted for 12% of overall digital consumption. In 2015, it jumped to 51%.
• ComScore: Mobile has surpassed desktop as the primary method of accessing the internet.
• Geo Marketing: Aside from voice calling, the average adult spends 3:15 hours per day on their mobile phone.
• Pew Research Center: 85% of adults use the internet and 77% are smartphone users.
• Geo Marketing: Smartphone users spend approximately 10 percent of their time - in excess of 20 minutes per day on mobile social media.
• Smart Insights: 89% of mobile media time is achieved on apps, with the remaining 11% spent on websites.
• Flurry Mobile: 68% of mobile users are engaging with brands through apps.
• eMarketer: Television average viewing time spent per day dropped from 4:31 hours in 2013 to 3:55 hours in 2018.
• eMarketerMobile: Non-Voice average mobile viewing time spent per day rose from 2:16 hours in 2013 to 3:23 hours in 2018.
• eMarketerDesktop: Laptop average viewing time spent per day dropped from 2:15 hours in 2013 to 2:08 hours in 2018.

And if that's not enough to emphasize how mobile usage is being elevated, advertisement.com reported in August 2017, "Results found that 94% of TV viewers kept their smartphones with them while watching a show, creating a multi-screen experience. Furthermore, during their TV time, users only looked at the TV screen 53% of the time. Additionally, Facebook IQ found that TV ad breaks were peak phone usage periods." What can be gleaned from these aforementioned data snippets is profound, to say the least.

These mobile usage trends should serve as a wake up call for both brands looking to increase ROI from marketing efforts, as well as, a hint of implications for employee productivity numbers. Therefore, brands will need to place more emphasis and focus in 2019 on ensuring that their mobile access provides a stellar customer experience. This effort applies to both B2C and B2B organizational marketing strategies.

Mobile Usage Data via Employees

Workforce productivity is of paramount importance for every brand looking to leverage that piece of the deliverable equation to its customers and prospects. Employee productivity affects the bottom line. In recent years, productivity was primarily measured against the state of the economy, which is still a leading indicator today. Punching a time clock matters for those types of jobs that require it, but when looking past the time clock punch-in to determine employee productivity, automated tools can shed more light on each employee's individual productiveness.

And to that end, the rise of mobility afforded to a brand's personnel changed the game. For one, organizations have the opportunity to reduce fixed costs when they switch to company employee mobile access, thus allowing part of their staff to work remotely.

That said, organizations are continuing to ascertain if staff mobility actually increases productivity. The jury is out on that debate and depending on the brand, and its sector, there are pluses and minuses on both sides of the ledger. Back in the early days of the smartphone, most businesses came down hard on employee mobile phone usage while at work. That has changed today and here are a few stats highlighting those changes:

• Career Builder: 70 percent of employees keep their phones "within eye contact" while at work.
• Fierce Mobile IT: 71% spend over two hours a week accessing company information via mobile devices.
• iPass: The average mobile worker works 240 hours a year longer than the general population. (30 days plus at 8 hours per day)
• Digital Strategy Consulting: Nearly 9 in 10 app users stated that apps for work have changed their behavior as a business professional.
• Digital Strategy Consulting: 59% of respondents believe their organization has been too slow delivering apps for the workforce.

One of the ginormous takeaways from the employee mobile usage data is in the number of hours a mobile worker achieves versus the general working population. 240 hours more per year at an 8 hour a day working average equates to an additional 30 days of employee productivity. Yes, these are averages, and would need to be weighed against the industry, product viability, brand status and a host of other factors that would fine-tune this metric. In addition, we recognize that while these employee mobile usage numbers raise concerns, there was no reporting on the ROI results for those that have a mobile workforce versus the general working population.

Mobile Marketing Considerations

Mobile marketing results data is in flux so to speak, as mobile marketing covers a range of content marketing types. However, one can ascertain that based on the high degree of mobile usage data, including mobile workers, mobile usage is changing the marketing game. In recent years dating back to 2014, the emergence of websites that employed screen responsive technology rose to the top of engagement number reports. Now, with the advent of the IoT (Internet of Things), sites that are configured with mobile access strategies are starting to push the online consumer experience to higher levels.

At the end of the day, mobile usage will matter more in 2019 and beyond as smartphone technology continues to evolve with data being accessed by smartphone manufacturers. It is important to also consider that other technological improvements in the app world will also play a huge role in producing better personalized mobile marketing relevancy.

The Net-Net

Mobile usage and engagement matters across a range of disciplines from the workforce and productivity challenges to mobile usage habits and average "screen time", as well as, mobile users multitasking either at work or in front of their televisions. Therefore, it makes good sense for brands to revisit and improve their mobile marketing strategies for 2019. Thank you for reading "Why Mobile Matters in 2019."

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