The best team won the Football World Cup 2014. While 32 teams were fighting hard over four weeks to determine who would be crowned World Champions, the Insights Team at InMobi looked at how sports fans were using mobile during the event.
Did the game change the media consumption habits of mobile app users? Which categories of apps were keeping the sports fans busy? Which countries were most active on mobile on the opening day of the event? Which countries showed the most activity before, during and after a match? Here is what we uncovered.
Sports apps rule the roost, Gaming apps take a backseat
Gaming apps have been the craze among mobile users across the world. 39% of casual gamers in the U.S. spend up-to an hour a day on gaming apps [1]. During the first week of the World Cup, however, gaming apps took a backseat, as mobile users took to sports apps to track the progress of their favourite football teams. Sports app consumption saw a 60% surge worldwide on the InMobi ad network, while media & video apps experienced a 49% increase. The graph below indicates the % change in app consumption during the 2014 Football World Cup.
Source: InMobi Network
Opening Day loyalty
The Opening Day match was a highly anticipated event across the world. Nations such as South Korea, Japan and Singapore were remarkably loyal on mobile even though the game kicked off in these countries at pre-dawn hours. Countries such as UK, Germany and Brazil seemed to prefer following the game on other media.
Source: InMobi Network
App Usage peaks around Match Hours
Sports app consumption differed across the hours of a match day in various countries. Sports fans in some countries were markedly more active before a match compared to those in other countries. App consumption in the UK on the UK-Italy match day peaked before the game. However, when USA played Ghana, sports app usage in US increased steadily throughout the game and peaked post-game. Sports fans in Argentina were most active during the game hours, while fans in Germany were marginally more interested in mobile sports apps after the game.
Source: InMobi Network
Team up with mobile
Through our research, we’ve reaffirmed that mobile engages sports fans during all stages of the matches - before, during and after games. Our recent study of live sports fans in the US[2]conducted jointly with the IAB and Decision Fuel, now YouGov, shows that 78% of US sports fans used their devices to help plan trips to watch live sporting events. Advertisers can more effectively target their consumers by knowing just how sports fans are using their mobile devices while they’re watching games. A winning advertiser can up the end game by crafting a media plan that takes into account these consumption patterns.
Note: Data for this study was sourced from the InMobi network for the period of 12th – 20th June 2014. Reference period for calculating change in consumption was 3rd – 11th June 2014. App consumption was measured by examining the number of hourly ad requests. An ad request is defined as the request for an ad made by the app when the app is active.
[1]US Mobile Gaming Playbook, InMobi, Q1 2014
[2] Mobile & Sports, InMobi in partnership with IAB, July 2014
To discover more Insights, visit our Global Insights Portal
To learn more about our research, contact: insights@inmobi.com
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