Is "smartphone-dependent" the new norm?

As smartphones take the foothold of the mobile phone marketplace in the United States, a term has surfaced to describe those individuals who primarily utilize a smartphone to have access to the internet. These people are called “smartphone-dependent.” The Center for Media Research released details from a series of surveys orchestrated by Pew Research Center and Jon S. and James L. Knight Foundation about such mobile users.

Of the American smartphone owner population, the following statistics can be extracted:

·        10% of users do not have broadband internet in the home

·        7% of owners do not have broadband available in the home and do not have easy access to internet services on anything other than a smartphone

·        15% of smartphone users between the ages of 18 and 29 are deemed “smartphone-dependent”

·        About 13% of people who have an annual household income lower than $30,000 are “smartphone-dependent”

·        1% of people who have an annual household income above $75,000 are also “smartphone-dependent”

·        Demographic breakdown of the dependent population:

o   12% African Americans

o   13% Latinos

o   4% Caucasian

As more people utilize mobile phones as his/her internet access point, it will be necessary for advertisers to keep that into consideration when creating campaigns.

Which age bracket boasts the biggest user share of Snapchat?

It’s easy for marketers to assume that young adults are well-established with social media. While research may back that up, which social media is touting the highest share of 18 – 24 year-olds in the US? eMarketer recently reported on comScore Media Metrix research, which broke down the traffic by age group.

American 18 – 24 year-old internet users have the following share percentages on these social media platforms:

·        45% Snapchat

·        28% Tumblr

·        28% Vine

·        23% Instagram

·        19% Twitter

·        16% Google+

·        16% Facebook

·        15% Pinterest

·        14% LinkedIn

With social vendors like Facebook and Google+, the share among the different age brackets was a little more even. Snapchat, Tumblr and Vine were the only media vendors that exceeded 50% share when combining the 18 - 24 and 25 - 34 age brackets together.

Overall, young adults are heavily involved in social media. As it was predicated when Facebook came out after MySpace, the younger generation tends to flock towards the newer platforms instead of established brands. 

Consumers have higher time spent on mobile apps vs. mobile browsers

Over the last year, researchers have chronicled consumers’ mobile use. Smartphone and tablet owners are continuing to use downloaded apps more often than browsers and those numbers are predicted to increase. For advertisers, this means that shifting focus to advertising within the apps is important in order to keep up with the digital world.

eMarketer reports on research conducted by Nielsen in fourth quarter 2013.  Smartphone users in the United States are spending 65% more time on mobile apps than they were two years ago.  However, the amount of apps the smartphone owners had only increased from 23 to 27 in the last two years.  This indicates that users are increasing their time spent on mobile apps that they had already downloaded vs. accruing more.

Other research by comScore Media Metrix Multi-Platform proved that smartphone apps had the majority of time used with leading US digital media properties because of efficiency and mobile optimization. Media properties such as, Apple and Facebook, were mainly accessed through apps with 99% and 94%.  However, media properties such as Wikimedia Foundation sites and Glam Media were predominately accessed through their browsers with 88% and 84%.

Smartphone gamers play to unwind

For those of you who play games on your smartphone, what would you say is the biggest reason for doing so? If you are like half of the respondents from the study by Smashing Ideas, you play games to relieve stress. eMarketer recently reported on the highlights of the October 2013 study.

The top five reasons why people play smartphone games are:

·        To relieve stress at 50%

·        To fill time while traveling at 35%

·        They like these games better than watching TV at 20%

·        To procrastinate doing work at 17%

·        They like these games better than console games at 16%

The smallest percentage of responders at 3% reported they don’t like their jobs and would rather play games.

Interesting to note is that the majority of those polled do not play smartphone games longer than 60 minutes a day.

·        44% play between 0 – 30 minutes per day

·        20% play between 31 – 45 minutes per day

·        15% play between 46 – 60 minutes per day

New Years Resolutions... is there an app?

Well into the third week of the New Year, firm resolutions set on the 1^st may not be as solid now. According to a new study by Prosper Mobile Insights, people are looking to outside help from his/her smartphone to keep resolutions intact.

For example, the survey noted that 24% of men and 30% of women intended to use his/her smartphone or tablet to help keep New Years resolutions. The top three categories/resolutions that people were attempting with their phones were being on time, keeping in touch with people, and budgeting.

eMarketer reports that 2013 may mark the first year in which smartphones make up 50% of the mobile phone market. That being said, experts believe it is likely that more people will become dependent on the devices’ capabilities.

Advertisers can take this information to better reach their audience. For example, if a person is interested in budgeting his/her money better, it may make sense for a bank to sponsor an app that helps track a budget. It’s up to the advertiser to really know the target audience and their behaviors. 

Mobile ads may have fallen victim to "fat fingers"

If you have been in the media industry in the last five years, you will know that mobile advertising has grown leaps and bounds. While it’s been available for quite some time, it has recently trickled down to local advertiser budgets. There are many advantages to this kind of vehicle; however, research is beginning to prove that advertisers must be realistic with the results of a campaign. Click through rates (CTR) may be padded by “fat fingers.”

The theory is that people accidentally click on a mobile ad without intending to navigate to that page, which has coined the term “fat fingers.” According to eMarketer, the company GoldSpot Media recently did some research to learn whether or not the theory is true.

Initial results showed that 38% of clicks on static ads and 13% of clicks on rich media mobile ads were unintentional. The process for this was to evaluate actions after a click was made. If a user stayed on the website for more than two seconds, then it counted as an intended click. Conversely, if a user bounced out of the site less than two seconds after the click, it was deemed “fat fingers” and removed from the CTR results.

From this, the company devalued the rich media CTRs from 4% to about 2%. Likewise, static media CTRs went from 3.1% to 1.1%.

While this may affect how advertisers value the CTRs of mobile ads, it should still be known that even devalued mobile results are significantly higher than computer desktop CTRs.

Majority of social and mobile users prefer ad-supported apps and games

Advertisers have been keeping an eye on social media and mobile habits of consumers in the last few years. Recently, a study conducted by Harris Interactive on behalf of MediaBrix breaks down how users choose to view ads on both platforms.

According to the Center for Media Research, the majority of people polled preferred ad units that are immersive and integrated rather than standard. Immersive and integrated means that the ads interact with users with virtual rewards/currency or video ads and typically run during a natural break in the game or app.

Results show that 37% of Facebook app users and 38% of smartphone app users prefer pre-roll video ads prior to the app launching, while 63% of Facebook and 62% of smartphone users wish to initiate the video ad or have it run during a break in the app or game.

Another finding is that users are in favor of ad supported apps and games in order to keep them free. Only 13% of Facebook app users and 39% of smartphone app users wish to pay in order to keep the apps or games advertising free.

Overall, advertisers can pull out the fact that users are open to advertising in the media they consume. However, standard ads are not going to be as well-received as an interactive ad.

Be sure to visit Ruth Burke & Associates’ blog to find the latest in media news and receive helpful tips to make your advertising campaign successful...

Viewers are utilizing TV and mobile devices simultaneously

Have you walked into a friend’s living room recently to find eyes glued to something other than the television? Well, there is a good chance they are partitioning some of their attention to a smaller screen. According to new research conducted by GfK Knowledge Networks, 52% of all minutes on smartphones or tablets in the U.S. are spent while watching TV. 


 MediaPost reports that the findings on each type of medium, smartphone or tablet, vary for different age groups. For example, adults 35 to 49 spend 67% of their total minutes on tablets while they are watching TV; however, adults 18 to 34 only spend 39% of their minutes doing the same thing. In regards to smartphones, the younger age group spends a slightly higher percent of their time surfing, texting etc. on his/her phone while watching television programming than the older group. 


 Advertisers can simultaneously integrate both television and mobile advertising. The benefits of these extensions in TV consumption is that mobile devices offer the ability for consumers to instantaneously research advertised products, share content, or link to websites which could potentially improve brand engagement. 

 Be sure to visit Ruth Burke & Associates’ blog to find the latest in media news and receive helpful tips to make your advertising campaign successful...

Who is scanning QR codes?

The United States now has about 14 million smartphone users, which is about 6% of the whole mobile market. As smartphones become more accessible to the general population, advertisers will work to find a way to reach this new audience. Over the past few years, Quick Response codes (QR codes), which are scanned with smartphones, are becoming a viable option. comScore conducted a new study that evaluates who is scanning the QR codes.

According to the Center for Media Research, the study found that the most likely scanner is a man between 18-34 years old and has a household income of $100,000+.

· Gender makeup of scanners

o Male: 60.5%

o Female: 39.5%

· Age range of scanners

o 25-34: 36.8%

o 18-24: 16.6%

· Income range of scanners

o $100,000+: 36.1%

o $50,000 - $75,000: 19.1%

As far as other media goes, QR codes are best utilized from print publications like newspapers or magazines.

· Printed newspaper or magazine: 49.4%

· Product packaging: 35.3%

· Website on PC: 27.4%

· Poster/Flyer/Kiosk: 23.5%

· Business card/Brochure: 13.4%

· Storefront: 12.8%

· TV: 11.7%

The study also tracked where people were when they scanned a QR code. The majority of them were at home.

· At home: 58%

· Retail store: 39.4%

· Grocery store: 24.5%

· At work: 19.7%

· Outside or on pubic transit: 12.6%

· Restaurant: 7.6%

Overall, QR codes are another way to reach that niche group of smartphone users.

Be sure to visit Ruth Burke & Associates’ blog to find the latest in media news and receive helpful tips to make your advertising campaign successful...

A new study shows what smartphone users are really thinking

Smartphones have become more than a means to communicate with another person beyond calling, texting, and emailing.

Unless you’ve taken it upon yourself to be completely oblivious to the digital revolution, you know that smartphones are quickly becoming a standard mobile device vs. a luxury item. As its accessibility grows, more mobile phone users are converting to smartphones.

In a brief, the Center for Media Research summarized the Prosper Mobile Insights survey on smartphone users and his/her habits.

With the many capabilities that a smartphone offers, 16.7% of respondents admitted to only using the device for calling, texting and emailing. However, the majority of those surveyed, 52.9%, utilize all of the functions.

An interesting note was that the top three ranked functions of the smartphone that users could not live without were texting with 21.6%, email with 15.7%, and the Internet with 16.7%. Where did calling rank? It ranked fourth with 7.8% with Facebook and GPS following closely behind.

What can be taken from this? Smartphones have become more than a means to communicate with another person beyond calling, texting, and emailing. It has become a portable computer that most users can’t go without. Therefore, if a pocket communicator never leaves your audience’s hand, wouldn’t it be a good idea to be there?

Be sure to visit Ruth Burke & Associates’ blog to find the latest in media news and receive helpful tips to make your advertising campaign successful...

Do people use mobile apps for local information?

Knowing how people seek out information can be critical for a successful campaign.

Mobile applications, or apps for short, have increasingly become widely known and acquired by smartphone users. A new study by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project and Project for Excellence in Journalism, in partnership with the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation looked into how people utilize smartphones and apps.

According to MediaPost, almost half of adult Americans surveyed accessed some form of local news and other information on his/her cell phone or tablet computer. By comparison, only 10% of those surveyed utilized local news apps to get information. Within that 10%, only 1% of users paid for those apps.

The common type of local information that users sought out was related to weather updates, restaurant and local business information, traffic and transportation, etc. Predominately, it was the weather updates that garnered the most engagement with 42%.

Knowing how people seek out information can be critical for a successful campaign. With the information above, advertisers can gather that apps may not be the best use budgetary funds if they are advertising a local business. Investing in mobile advertising on local sites may be a more cost effective option and maximize reach to the target audience.

Be sure to visit Ruth Burke & Associates’ blog to find the latest in media news and receive helpful tips to make your advertising campaign successful...