Posts

Jens Barczewski

Mobile Relevance vs. Reactance

The time has come: for the first time, mobile (49.7 percent)  has globally overtaken desktop traffic (45.2 percent). (Mobile traffic mainly refers to smartphones, since the traffic with tablets is just 5 percent.) In Germany, the situation looks somewhat different: desktop traffic (62.8 percent) still dominates in use and mobile here is “only” at about 30 percent. Mobile is, however, also “mass market-ready”. Only the advertising expenses for the mobile sector with a sum of approx. 518 million euro for the year 2016 (source: Nielsen) did by far not reach it at all.

How can it be that the rapid growth in mobile usage figures is still not reflected in the investment, as the strengths of Mobile have long been known? No other medium is so close to the consumer as the mobile phone. This can be seen, for example, in the Google “Mobile Moments Study”, which states that 68 percent of the smartphone owners already use their smartphone 15 minutes after getting up. Push functionality allows the advertisers to actively contact the user, and couponing location information or opening times, for example, provide consumers directly with additional information. Just to mention a few of the advantages.

But what is important also in the mobile area, is a well-made creation adapted to the medium. According to an analysis by GfK , creation is the strongest factor in the success of a campaign. This is the only way to convey relevant messages to the consumer.

Mobile is more likely to do this with large formats and less with 6: 1 advertising. It requires meaningful pictures as well as texts, which have to be briefly and clearly formulated. Videos should work with and without sound and are designed for mobile devices so that their main message is communicated in the first three to five seconds.

Unfortunately, in the mobile area much too often the same errors are made as at the beginning of the desktop communication: what used to be the pop-up in the past, is today the overlay on the smartphone. But an overlay can also work when it is innovative and well-made – if it brings a playful added value in the form of “shaking”, “vibrating” or “wiping”. However, this requires an intelligent implementation by frequency capping. The best creation fades very quickly when the consumer has to click it away several times a day.

The most important rule in all lean forward channels is to not interrupt the users during their active use of their contents. New, usability-compliant formats that are high-performance alternatives to overlays make this possible. The so-called “parallax ads” slowly build up in the background with the scrolling process to an advertising integrated into the content. The user can thus interact with his content and connect it to the advertising medium.
And last but not least: mix it! No media genre unfolds its optimal effect when it stands alone. Only when built in a sensible media mix, each individual channel unfolds to its full extent.

My 5 main issues are therefore:

  • Relevance vs. Reactance: relevance in communication is good, avoidance of irrelevance is mandatory.
  • Mix it! – Combine mobile campaigns with other local media such as Digital Out-of-Home to extend further the local reach.
  • Think Big! – 6: 1 formats are not the future. Rather, the unique added value should be exploited and adapted to the device size.
  • Less is more! – Creative advertising media have had a positive impact on the mobile advertising experience. Messages on mobile devices have to be even more reduced and adapted especially to the size of the advertising media.
  • Don’t disturb! –The user’s behaviour should not be severely interrupted by the advertising. Advertising media should be preferably integrated in the content.

 

Source:

 

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Christoph Kunzendorf

Digital India

Digital is where consumers are watching brands.

Digital India is the big buzzword on everybody’s lips these days but the scale at which digital penetration is about to explode will ring a bell in your mind.

The key to success for any business in India, is to have a strong digital presence these days. Relevant content on mobile which entertains, informs and engages the consumer is definitely a winner for the 4-screen Indian viewer. Indian internet users who are living in metro cities spend about 24 hours on the internet every week. [Daily the Germans spend at least 2:08 hours online. Users who also go online with mobile devices spend 2:43 hours a day (Source: http://www.ard-zdf-onlinestudie.de/). That’s half an hour less than the Indian users.] Women internet users are rising but the average time spend by women is less than men. However, there is a huge demand on content online. Indians are spending 9.9 hours per week watching traditional broadcast TV, parallelly they also browse smartphones, stream video and watch TV on their laptops or smartphones.

Video Content Consumption

Indians are mostly engaging for downloading video. 82% India’s video streaming audience access video content every week. India’s massive smartphone user base an average video streaming time of 7.4 hours per week. This creates a great opportunity for content creators and distributors so there is an enormous potential for content distribution on digital devices.
[Europe is way behind: http://www.nielsen.com/content/dam/nielsenglobal/eu/docs/pdf/Nielsen-global-video-on-demand.pdf]

What are Indians watching?

1Movies94%
2Entertainment82%
3Music Shows / Music Videos77%
4News/current affairs from local TV networks77%
5News/ current affairs from overseas TV networks70%
6Local drama series69%
7Lifestyle68%
8Local sport, available on local TV66%
9Overseas drama series65%
10Documentaries60%
11Overseas sport not easily accessible on TV59%
12Children’s programs32%

Source: Nielsen (2015 VOD)

Research Online – Purchase Offline

Consumers in India are researching for online information on any product they have to purchase. They are reading recommendations, people’s experiences, seeking digital opinions before they make a final purchase on goods/services. Recommendation from social networks or friends is something, which is highly in trend these days; a lot of brands are looking for testimonial based ads with real consumers.

The Smartphone Consumers

The number of smartphone users growing everyday, at a very fast rate. There are 170 million internet enabled smartphones currently in India with about 3 million added month on month for the next one year. There is also a boom in “app” business to woo consumers.

Ecommerce

Globally Indian ecommerce market is to grow fastest. Today ecommerce is an indispensable part of every Indian’s life today, with homegrown brands like Flipkart, Snapdeal, Myntra, urbanclap wooing the consumers with different tactics every few weeks while Amazon still going strong to provide the bigger platform amongst all. Today ecommerce is offering all kinds of goods and services at the door step of the consumer. Convenience is the key here across all categories of groceries, beauty salon, taxi, solutions, FMCG etc.
The ecommerce sector has seen unprecedented growth since 2014, almost by 34% compound Annual Growth (CAGR) from US $ 3.8 billion in 2009 to US $ 16.4 billion with a projected growth to hit US $ 100 billion by 2019.
Increase in the online shoppers in India from 20 million in 2013 is to 40 million in 2016.

Factors that foster growth in the current Indian landscape are:

  1. Increasing disposable income across households
  2. Expanding Urban scenario
  3. Small families
  4. Evolving preferences
  5. Ecommerce

 

We are looking forward to dive deeper into this discussion with the “Serviceplan International Roadshow: INDIA INSIGHTS” on Tuesday, November 22nd 2016 at the House of Communication Munich. Are you interested in participating in the event? Please contact the dedicated event team via email. The number of participants is limited.

Download invitation.

 

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Manfred Klaus

The Opportunities of Digitisation

“It is time to expose the heinous nature of the phone, and condemn its many inventors.” No, this critique is not aimed at the smart phone. This is not about digital detox or the NSA. The citation comes from an 1877 edition of the New York Times. The author was already worried about the privacy of citizens. But criticising technology has not stopped its development: more than three-quarters of Germans now have a smart phone. For those under 30, it has superseded the television as the most “indispensable” device. Digitisation has reached our pockets and handbags, and even our bodies.

This fact has far reaching implications, and has created many opportunities, but also risks. As with every important technological development, there will be attempts to misuse these new capabilities. However, the opportunities created by digitisation far exceed the risks. We will learn, as a society and as individuals, to deal with it and we will mature in the process of digitization.

Opportunities for the Individual and Society

Today we take completely for granted that we can use our smart phones to buy our bus ticket, read the news or weather forecast, listen to music, time our jog, and chat with friends. For individuals, this digital transformation means more comfort, quicker access to information and new forms of communication. According to Statista, around 14 percent of Germans meet their partners through online dating sites. We pay for this comfort with our data. How we deal with this new currency in the future will be a social and individual learning process. Data protection is an important topic in politics, business and for each individual.

Before the discovery of printing, knowledge was hoarded in monasteries, where information was copied by hand. Reading was a privilege for those who could afford books. Today, everyone with an Internet connection has global access to information and educational resources. The democratisation of knowledge includes not only the consumption of information, but also freedom of expression: via commentary, blogs and social media, we can take part in public and political life. But we must also be able to cope with the fact that these capabilities will be used to every degree of stupidity. More importantly, in a networked world, social mistakes get visible more quickly than ever before. The Wikileaks revelations, for instance, could never have happened without digitisation.

Opportunities for Business and Marketing

In many markets, digitisation has allowed companies to provide service without spatial or temporal restrictions. This will give a boost to all industries. And digitisation will help processes to become even more efficient. A recent Bitkom study estimates that the potential for increase in productivity (keyword industry 4.0)  in Germany could result in a gain of up to 78 billion Euros by 2025.

For marketing and brands, the digital transformation means they can, and must, be more relevant and employ more targeted communications. The right message at the right time in the right place requires data – not necessarily personal information, but also anonymous information are sufficient. People, users and consumers expect brands to offer more service in the future, as well as clear added value and to take meaningful action.

Criticism of technology is always an important part of societal debate. However, the past has proven that it is much more useful to make market developments than to reject them categorically. This is especially true for the digital transformation.

This article was also published in Horizont, edition 40/2016.

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