Programmatic auctions are of two types – first price and second price. The kind of auction used is decided usually by the supply-side platform (SSP) but sometimes by ad exchange.  

Understanding The Two Main Types of Auctions: First Price and Second Price 

In both first price and second price auctions, multiple bidders participate by sending in their bid prices and the highest bid wins. The difference between the two is how much the winning bidder has to pay.   

In a first price auction, the winning bidder pays an amount equal to its bid price. Basically, the highest bidder will pay exactly what they bid. And in a second price auction, the winning bidder pays an amount that’s one cent more than the bid price of the second highest bidder.  

These auction types occur regardless of how the type of programmatic buying that is in place on the demand side. Both open auctions and more private auctions like programmatic preferred deals can operate on either a first price or second price basis. 

Benefits of First Price Programmatic Auctions for Publishers and Advertisers 

Second price auctions were more common in the in-app ecosystem, but SSPs are now moving to first price auctions, especially as in-app header bidding rises in popularity. Mobile web and desktop moved to first price auctions a while ago. 

Publishers and app developers benefit from first price ad auctions, since it essentially removes the price floor created by the second highest bid. But, buyers also benefit from this change, as it provides them with greater transparency over ideal bid prices. In addition, in instances where there are multiple auctions before a winning bid is chosen, having first-price ad mechanisms in place throughout ensures that brands are always in the best position to win the bid every step along the way.  

In a world where winning bids at SSPs also go through another auction at the publisher’s end, a winning bid from a second price auction is at a disadvantage compared to the winning bid from a first price auction. Let’s understand this with the help of an example.  

In this example second price auction, Bidder 2 is willing to pay a $7 CPM yet loses at the publisher auction because the winning bid is decided by the second highest bid in the SSP auction, which in this hypothetical case was $2.  

On the other hand, in the first price auction, the same bidder ends up competing with a $7 bid at the publisher end and wins.  

With a first price auction, buyers will see higher win rates as the first-price auction eliminates the risk of being undercut by lower bids from competitors. With first price auctions, no matter where the decision is being made, a bid at the final auction remains equal to the original bid value.   

First price auctions also remove unknowns and ensure transparency. Buyers will know what they are going to pay for an impression, without it being affected by competing bids or the auction process at the SSP’s end. Of the two pricing models, first price auctions ensure that both publishers and advertisers are not undercut by a minimum price. 

Whiteboard Videos Explaining Auction Models in Programmatic Advertising 

Discussion of fixed prices and auction mechanics making your head spin? For a more visual explanation of programmatic auction mechanics, be sure to check out these whiteboard videos on our YouTube channel: 

• Second Price Ad Auctions Explained [Whiteboard Video] 
• First Price Auctions Explained [Whiteboard Video] 
• Explaining the Bid Shading Ad Auction Model [Whiteboard Video] 

Starting in early 2020, InMobi Exchange elected to more fully embrace first price ad auctions for the vast majority of ad buyers. To learn more about our efforts here, be sure to check out our blog. 

Identity has been a hot topic for a while now in the ad tech world. While state-triggered regulations (GDPR in EU, CCPA in CA, etc.) have made user consent the king, the industry itself has also prioritized user consent, and that has made first-party data much more important than ever before.  

In light of this update, here are five things publishers can do to prepare for IDFA deprecation. 

1. Upgrade to SKAdNetwork compatible SDKs. Also work with your partner SSPs to make sure that your “info.plist” files are up-to-date with the full list of advertiser or DSP SKAN IDs, is in the right format, and working correctly end-to-end. 
2. Run A/B Tests to improve opt-Ins. Publishers should experiment with messaging, design, and even timing of the permission pop-up so that they can maximize opt-in rates. Publishers are likely to see higher opt-in rates when users see the pop-up AFTER they are convinced about the value they get from the app, and when app developers can clearly communicate how user consent can support their new favorite app. 
3. Introduce higher yield monetization setups and ad formats. Publishers should implement a header bidding setup if they haven’t already, as header bidding setups are known to provide better fill rates and more competitive CPMs. They should also enable high impact ad formats like Rewarded Video, Playables and Interstitial formats. These ad formats generally score better on viewability, engagement and conversions, and ultimately see higher CPMs, fills and ad spend from advertisers.  
4. Enable contextual targeting for advertisers. Publishers should work with SSPs to make it easier for advertisers to find users similar to their target profiles. They can do this by passing signals like app metadata (app category and subcategory) and other device signals like hardware version, etc. Publishers and SSPs should also look to upgrading to OM SDK 1.3 which allows publishers to pass the content URL in bid requests. This helps advertisers to read the app content – similar to mobile web and desktop environments – and will significantly improve brand safety and contextual targeting capabilities in the in-app environment. 
5. Enable client-side audience segmentation. Publishers can segment their users based on their behavioral data (like sports section readers, female shoppers, gaming in-app purchasers) and their historical ad performance (like CTRs, video completion rates) on the device, and pass these to SSPs who can package this information in the form of a deal ID for advertisers to target. This allows mobile app publishers to deliver addressable inventory to advertisers without sending user or device identifiers off the device. Admittedly, this is a longer-term measure but one that holds a lot of promise for app publishers and advertisers alike. 

Defining Programmatic Advertising 

Before we cover the specifics of the mobile in-app environment, let’s first take a step back and define programmatic media buying more broadly. In short, programmatic advertising is defined as the buying and selling of inventory through an automated bidding system.   

Programmatic advertising uses algorithmic software to handle the placement, auction and sale of digital ad impressions – all in a fraction of a second. RTB is a subset of programmatic advertising, but it is often used interchangeably with programmatic advertising.  

Programmatic advertising improved the digital media buying experience because it was more efficient for both publishers and advertisers, it was transparent and more measurable and it gave advertisers better targeting capabilities.  

How Mobile Programmatic Advertising Works In Apps 

So how does programmatic buying for in-app work? Let’s talk about all that happens between an ad request generating from a user’s device to that user being shown an ad in an app on their mobile device. 

First, mobile apps that show ads have pre-defined slots for showing ads. They are either slots visible on the screen, like a small banner at the bottom, or they are coded to pop up in the user journey, like between levels of a game. It all depends on which ad formats, like mobile video, are supported by a particular app. 

Second, when a user uses an app, the publisher calls for an ad at some point in the user session. This ad call or ad request is made to a publisher’s ad server or mediation platform that sends this request to multiple supply-side platforms (SSPs) and ad exchanges.  

Next, SSPs or exchanges conduct an auction for all demand-side platforms (DSPs) to bid on available ad placements. DSPs help advertisers, ad agencies and agency trading desks place their bids on these auctions through an easy-to-use interface. DSPs are connected to data management platforms (DMPs) that help advertisers bid for specific users or kinds of users.  

Then, when DSPs win an auction at the SSP or exchange level, this bid is passed on to the mediation platform along with the ad creative. There may be another auction at the mediation platform if there are bids from other SSPs.   

And then finally, the highest bid from all SSPs ultimately wins the auction and gets to show the ad. 

Types of Mobile Programmatic Advertising 

There are many variations of programmatic buying and selling that exist in the ecosystem, but they can be clubbed into three main categories: 

1. In an Open Marketplace (OMP), inventory is bought in real time, with multiple buyers competing for the impression in an open, unreserved auction. The winner is decided based on whoever bids the highest. No one buyer has priority over any other. 
2. When buyers have specific campaign requirements that need additional targeting options or priority access to a publisher’s inventory, they can opt for a private marketplace programmatic deal (PMP). A PMP transaction is carried out through a deal ID, which helps a buyer and a publisher communicate which ad requests meet the buyer’s requirements. PMP buys are typically higher priced than the same inventory in OMP because the buyer gets preferential access to the inventory. A buyer can negotiate a PMP deal with an exchange or directly with the publisher. PMPs can be advantageous from a brand safety perspective too, as they can provide advertisers with more granular control and oversight over exactly how their ads are seen.  
3. Sometimes, buyers prefer to strike deals directly with the publisher. This is called a programmatic direct deal. If the buyer wants to block a minimum number of impressions with a publisher, it’s called a programmatic guaranteed deal. In these PD or PG deals, buyers can access inventory without having to compete with other buyers in an auction. 

As programmatic ad spending in app rises to new heights, it’s critical that everyone from advertisers to app developers and everyone else in between understands and appreciates the foundational tenets of programmatic in-app advertising. 

With InMobi Exchange, you can reach premium mobile audiences globally through the world’s leading independent in-app advertising exchange and SSP. To learn more, be sure to reach out today. 

Digital Marketing Maturity: An Introduction

The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) states that Digital Marketing Maturity (DMM) is an organization’s capacity to deliver seamless brand experiences. The need for DMM is real, and it is so because brands in today’s era of hyperconnectivity often miss striking a chord with the consumer. The evident lack of adopting, optimizing and leveraging digital translates to a barrier in creating meaningful interactions with the consumer.

Depending on how well a brand is equipped in delivering seamless consumer experiences, DMM is categorized into four maturity levels: Nascent, Emerging, Connected, and Multi-moment. The higher the expertise of the brand in delivering measurable outcomes and meeting consumer expectations, the higher is their DMM. According to BCG, companies that achieve the highest level of DMM reported 30% cost savings and 20% increased revenues. InMobi took stock of DMM in 2020 through a survey of senior marketing and media leaders across India and Southeast Asia to further understand the state of DMM.

The State of Digital Marketing Maturity

Based on the survey, we found that the top priority for marketers in the early stages of DMM remains broad and extremely ‘aspirational’ while the multi-moment marketers seek objectives that are highly ‘actionable’ and drive incremental impact with each investment or activity.

As per our survey, e-Commerce and BFSI are the verticals that lead the way with their ability to create connected and multi-moment marketing experiences. It’s fascinating to note that close to half the brand categories are considered to be in the nascent and emerging stages of DMM, leaving a large room for digital growth.

Given the stage of DMM in India, it is intriguing to note how marketers are gauging and prioritizing their marketing goals. While acquiring new consumers is the primary challenge marketers in India focus on today, strengthening brand reputation and consumer trust follows in quick succession to acquisition strategies. Increasing brand awareness stands as the next indispensable priority with retaining the current user base coming in last.

Mobile Marketing Maturity as the new DMM

As companies think about their Digital Marketing Maturity through the new decade, it is critical that they traverse the maturity curve or journey with one thing and only one thing in mind – the consumers. COVID-19 has catalyzed several trends. Most noticeably, the transition to a mobile-first world order globally and more so in India with a significant increase in the time spent and consumer spending on mobile. India has one of the largest internet user bases and contributed to 25% of all new Internet users globally in 2020, tallying 734 million (according to TRAI). This user base – urban or rural – accesses the Internet using the mobile, with 90% of the time spent on apps.

In 2021, attaining Digital Marketing Maturity for brands means building Mobile Marketing Maturity via Mobile-first Consumer Intelligence, Mobile Video and Programmatic. Brands must leverage mobile-first consumer intelligence and insights to drive their marketing decision-making. They need to invest in the right technology stack to deliver seamless mobile video experiences at scale and to drive personalization by marrying multiple data signals. Combining the above with automation (programmatic) will maximize efficiencies and impact for brands.

Clearly, the most important question a CMO or marketers needs to ask themselves is about their organization’s Mobile Marketing Maturity.

Learn more and check out your Mobile Marketing Maturity via the 2021 Mobile Marketing Handbook – ‘Marketing in the Era of Mobile

SEA: The Game Friendly Region 

Southeast Asia has become one of the most viable gaming markets around the globe. This has been backed by the finding that a minimum of 75% growth in mobile gamers was seen across Indonesia during April and May 2020. 

With the dominance of premium publishers, such as the SEA group (formerly known as Garena), mobile is poised to account for 69.4% of all gaming revenue in the region. Especially, Indonesia has emerged as a bright spot in the region, with the government hosting e-sport competitions.  

Southeast Asians come from Diverse Gaming Backgrounds 

It is quite progressing to know that what was once a male-dominated hobby in the past, is no longer gender dependant. SEA sees age and gender a no barrier for gaming. In fact, the 3 largest gaming audiences are women-led, across different age groups. Southeast Asians enjoy a wide variety of games including casual and simulation games. 

The SEA Gamer Embraces Different App Categories 

The Gamers in SEA also use a multitude of apps ranging from Utility, Entertainment, and Photo & Video apps, which constitute to 80% of the time spent by gamers outside of the gaming apps. Additionally, these gamers manifest as Indonesians who are frequent visitors to retail stores and restaurants and showcase a preference for Bahasa as the language setting on their phones. 

The App Categories Preferred by SEA Women Gamers 

The Indonesian Gaming audience is led by women accounting for 59% of mobile gamers. It is quite interesting to notice that women from all age groups; Gen Z, Gen X, and Millennials are ardent users of heterogenous app categories. While the top 3 app categories women from Gen Z prefer are Utilities, Books, Photo & Video, Millennials prefer Utilities, Books and Casual games, and then comes Gen X who prefer Utilities, Casual games, and Action games. 

Gaming: The Keynote for Marketers 

Gaming has reached unmatched heights with 4.7 million users joining the gaming community across the world. With the advent of smartphones, gaming has witnessed a great revolution, as mobile gaming accounts for over 48% of overall revenues, quashing both console and PC gaming, becoming an unmissable opportunity for marketers to say, ‘game on’. With a broad mix of audiences, gaming provides a great opportunity to tap into diverse audience segments and reach out to them and create that lasting impression.  

“Gamers today make up a community of a wide and vibrant array of individuals. Smartphones are the clear drivers of this change, with 50% of females and 75% of males in Thailand preferring to play on their mobile devices. Mobile has further broken-down barriers associated with different geographical classes. With this truth in mind, it is time for marketers to wake up to the sleeping giant napping right in front of them.” 

- Elvin Rahardja, Head of Google Marketing Platform, Google 

To know more on how SEA brands can leverage the advertising opportunity through mobile gaming, read our “SEA 2021 handbook- Marketing in the Era of Mobile”. 

Now the question arises, how can we build resilient brands that stay nimble during unprecedented times? This blog covers a trialogue between Vasuta Agarwal, MD, Asia Pacific, InMobi, Jayesh Ullattil, VP & GM, India, InMobi, and Navin Madhavan, VP & GM, Growth Marketing Platforms, InMobi, where they discussed how marketers can build resilient brands in the era of mobile.

Decoding the Mobile-first Generation

Sharing her thoughts on the mobile-first world, Vasuta shared, “Across the globe, we have seen an increase in the usage of mobile, consumer spending on mobile, and increase in app downloads. Indian smartphone users have spent 3.5-4 trillion hours on mobile in 2020, averaging 4.2 hours per day per user. The world’s largest democratic country stands strong in terms of internet consumption, contributing to 25% of all new internet users across the globe.”

Bringing interesting insights to the table, Vasuta adds “We have seen the face of entertainment leaning majorly towards gaming apps. India, accounting for 1 out of 10 gamers in the world, has seen smartphones democratize the ecosystem, with 89% of India’s gamers using their smartphones.”

Speaking of how the attention spans of consumers have changed, Vasuta adds, “Short or bite-sized video is emerging as the connected consumer’s go-to solution for short attention spans. Short videos are the new source of news, entertainment, and respite for the always-on, connected Indian.”

Not just mobile usage, mobile shopping has grown leaps and bounds with 20% of new users added to the category of online shoppers during the lockdown, according to Boston Consulting Group (BCG). Not only did more people start shopping online, but existing customers increased their online spending by 45%. This increase in inclination towards online shopping is proof of the fact that mobile reigns as the device of choice across the world.

The New Measure of Evolution: Digital Marketing Maturity

With unprecedented changes surrounding them, brands and marketers today are re-evaluating their strategies to not only survive but thrive in a post-COVID world.  What changes do brands need to bring their marketing to the new normal? The answer is Digital Marketing Maturity (DMM).

BCG states that DMM is an organization’s capacity to deliver seamless brand experiences and is characterized by four maturity levels: Nascent, Emerging, Connected, and Multi-moment.

Jayesh shared his thoughts on the state of marketing maturity for brands in India, saying, “According to our survey of senior marketing and media leaders from over 60 brands across India and Southeast Asia, we saw that brands were indeed short of walking the walk when it came to digital. As expected, e-commerce and BFSI segments lead the way when it comes to Digital Marketing Maturity, emerging as the more connected and multi-moment focused categories. Over close to half of the marketers surveyed characterize themselves in the Nascent or Emerging Stage, leaving a large room for growth.”

Speaking of the challenges in attaining DMM, Jayesh adds, “Data is the foundation for digital engagement and personalization, but many lack regular access to either data on customer-level purchase behavior or online metrics (such as clicks on websites, page views, and conversions). At this stage, a meaningful transition would be is to start building on first-party data. Furthermore, the journey should be towards building robust analytical capabilities that can turn data into plans, programs, and initiatives. Without such data-related capabilities, brands have little hope of reaching the next stage.”

Building Resilient Brands

Sharing his thoughts on building resilient brands, Navin states the importance of leveraging programmatic, mobile video, consumer intelligence, and much more to offer consumers a seamless brand experience.

Navin shared, “Today’s consumers learn, act and evolve at a pace that is too rapid for most marketers to even keep up with. The race to stay ahead among brands gives consumers more control of which brands they would want to engage with. As a result, we see siloes of data, that are difficult to comprehend and make sense out of. Hence gaining actionable insights from the data is always a challenge for marketers.

To solve this riddle, marketers must invest in consumer intelligence platforms that combine the offline and online data experiences of the consumer and provide insights that are actionable, real, and adds value to the touchpoints in the consumer journey. Backed by AI and ML technologies, these platforms provide a solid base for marketers to start with, first, second, and third-party data, and then move along each step of the consumer journey.”

Bringing to light the rise of video content Navin adds, “With new interests emerging in 2020, we saw consumption of videos rise on popular demand. This is a boon for marketers to tap into the video, gaming, and OTT space, the place where consumers already occupy. Looking at the potential of short, snackable videos, and OTT apps, it is imperative for marketers to launch mainstream advertising in these apps and deliver immersive video experiences.”

Speaking on the state of programmatic, Navin adds, “With tons of new interests arising, programmatic still remains the constant in the new mobile-world order. With this being said, brands must leverage programmatic to partner with demand-side platforms for transparency, curate mobile supply chain frameworks, and prepare for a cookie-less future by partnering with premium in-app exchanges.”

To dive into more nitty-gritty details, watch the webinar here. Read interesting mobile insights from our 2021 India Mobile Marketing Handbook – Marketing in the Era of Mobile.

So what can digital marketing pros do to choose between them? When should mobile web ads be deployed over in app ads? To help you decide, we’ve developed this handy guide. 

Where Is Your Target Audience Found? 

Based on the data, a marketer’s target audience is most likely to be found in app. According to eMarketer, close to 90% of all time spent using mobile devices is devoted to mobile apps.  

It’s also important to note that in app marketing even outside of the major Walled Garden apps reaches a wide audience. In fact, around half of all mobile app time is spent using apps not owned and operated by companies like Facebook and Google. 

This is a very addressable audience too. With in-app advertising, marketers are able to harnesses the power of unique, always-on, mobile-first audience segments to engage and activate their best customers. 

For some marketers, however, their target audience may be more likely to be found using mobile web browsers as compared to apps. This audience is increasingly less attributable though, particularly as third-party cookies are phased out across all major web browsers. 

What Ad Formats Are Available? 

To some extent, many of the same ad formats are available in both mobile web an in-app environments, including banner ads, native ads and video ads. But how they render can be quite different. After all, an interstitial ad designed for a desktop viewing experience will look very different on a mobile device’s smaller screen. 

There are also additional options available in app that are less common in mobile web environments, including 360-degree ads, rewarded video ads and formats that utilize augmented reality features. These kinds of added features may not be relevant or valuable for all brands, but they can be highly useful when deployed thoughtfully. 

What Makes Sense From a User Behavior Perspective? 

For marketers, it’s always important to remember what their target audience wants to see. In particular, where will they be most receptive to seeing a brand’s messaging? 

It’s also key to think about how the ad will be shown and whether or not it will be seen by the right people. This can be an especially prescient concern due to how common ad blocking is within browser-based environments. A nice benefit to marketing in app is that ad blockers can’t be nearly as readily deployed. 

Where Can You Expect to See Higher Conversions? 

Since mobile web advertising functions similarly to desktop website advertising, many marketers come with an established level of comfort. This means that tried-and-true methods of tracking ROI and ROAS (return on ad spend) work no matter which device is used to open a web page. 

Of course, the opposite is usually true for app-first businesses, especially when running user acquisition campaigns. For these marketers, their business model necessitates a reliance on in app ads over any other marketing channel. 

It’s important for marketers to not just rely on what they’ve often used in the past. For many, the myriad benefits of in-app advertising mean that they may be more likely to see higher conversions from in-app advertising than they might expect from mobile web advertising. Basically, any marketer that is either targeting an app-first mobile user and/or is offering users a seamless mobile app experience is likely to see superior results from in-app advertising. 

About the Author  

Matthew Kaplan has over a decade of digital marketing experience, working to support the content goals of the world’s biggest B2B and B2C brands. He is a passionate app user and evangelist, working to support diverse marketing campaigns across devices. 

The truth, however, is not so clear cut. In fact, there are a lot of benefits that marketers can see by moving beyond the walled garden approach to in-app advertising. 

Using Open Platforms to Reach Today’s Mobile Phone Users 

Let’s get one thing clear: apps not owned by the major walled gardens are incredibly popular. In fact, half of all time spent on mobile in 2019 was spent outside of the major social media and communication apps like WhatsApp, Instagram, etc. And, this share has only been growing steadily year over year since 2017. 

It’s important to note that this half is not a small segment either. According to eMarketer, Americans will spend more than four hours a day on average using mobile devices. In particular, they predict time spent using smartphones to grow by almost 14% between 2019 and 2020. 

When it comes to mobile, it’s also important to note that this is an app-led space. In 2020, just 10% of all time spent using mobile devices is spent using mobile web browsers, with the vast majority of time being spent in apps. 

So if consumers are spending less and less time using the major social and communication apps, then what apps are they using? Top of that list are entertainment and video streaming apps, followed by mobile gaming apps.  

Two key things all marketers need to know about these categories in particular: 

1. The entertainment space may be dominated by the likes of Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon Prime Video, but ad-supported video-on-demand (AVOD) platforms like Hulu have seen enormous growth of late, throughout the bulk of 2020. This makes AVOD mobile apps often an ideal way for advertisers and marketers to reach a mass audience. FAST (free ad-supported streaming TV) apps like Pluto TV are also an ideal way to reach consumers. 
2. Mobile gaming has been one of the biggest growth industries of 2020, and people were already downloading a variety of gaming apps in large numbers beforehand too. While marketers have long acknowledged the reach and scale of mobile gaming apps, the prevailing notion has long been that only young men play video games. Thus, brands that are not targeting this demographic have shied away from advertising in these environment. In truth, however, young men are not the majority audience in this category. In fact, our analysis of the hyper casual gaming category in particular found that this audience is heavily female, over the age of 25 and in the upper-income brackets. 

As this data shows, user access outside of the major closed platforms is truly unparalleled. For advertisers and marketers looking to reach and engage their best consumers, mobile apps outside of the Walled Gardens are often the way to go. 

What You Miss By Relying Too Much on Closed Ecosystems 

Most advertisers and marketers will devote investment to the Walled Gardens. After all, apps like Facebook and YouTube have massive scale that can’t be ignored.  

But that doesn’t mean that mobile marketers should put all their eggs in one basket. By being overly reliant on the Walled Gardens, in-app advertisers could be putting themselves at a disadvantage. 

In particular, here are some of the major downsides to advertising with the Walled Gardens: 

• Share of voice is a concern. In the crowded social media environment especially, the ads typically do not stand out. Think about an Instagram feed. While ads are interspersed throughout, the dominant content is the organic content. In this kind of environment, it can be difficult for advertisers to make it through the clutter and ensure their ads are not just seen but also remembered. Contrast this with a fullscreen video ad in a mobile gaming app, where the ad can’t be ignored. 
• Scrolling and skipping is very common. Within the Walled Garden apps, the user navigation experience is such that it’s all too easy to scroll past or skip an ad without really noticing it. After all, YouTube has played a key role in popularizing the six-second skippable ad. Many Walled Garden apps restrict users from seeing ads in full, without distraction. In comparison, with non-Walled Garden apps like video streaming apps, this kind of instant consumption is far less common, which means that ads are more likely to be seen and fully noticed. 
• Reliant on their data and analytics. A key benefit to working with the Walled Gardens is that they have their own massive data sets and optimization techniques that they can apply on behalf of advertisers. While this often leads to positive results, there are two sides to every coin. For one, there’s no way for advertisers to know exactly what data is being used. There’s no way for an advertiser to gain a holistic understanding of who specifically are viewing their ads, who are clicking on them, who are exposed to them, etc., since the Walled Gardens tend to not share their data freely. In the independent ad tech ecosystem, mobile measurement providers and others provide third-party confirmation of all the data being used, ensuring that results are indeed accurate and trustworthy. In addition, advertisers working with the Walled Gardens are reliant on the analytics provided by them and frequently cannot use their own tried-and-true analytics solutions – no matter how limited the data provided may be. A benefit to working outside of the Walled Gardens is that advertisers can dictate both precisely what data they want to be tracking and how campaigns are monitored and measured. 
• Brand safety isn’t guaranteed. Most of the Walled Garden apps feature user-generated content, which can cover a wide range of topics. As a result, there is not much that advertisers can do to ensure their ads don’t appear next to vulgar content, conspiracy theories, posts glorifying drugs or violence, etc. It’s a different story outside of the Walled Gardens, however. Not only are apps like weather apps or casual gaming apps brand safe based on their nature, but advertisers can utilize ad formats like fullscreen video to make sure no content whatsoever is appearing alongside their messaging. And certain third-party vendors like DoubleVerify do provide brand safety and brand suitability tools that advertisers can use when advertising in non-Walled Garden apps. 

Interested in getting started in an in-app advertising campaign outside of the Walled Gardens? Reach out today to learn more! 

Where Does The Term Walled Garden Come From? 

A fun history lesson here for you! A Walled Garden refers to “a limited set of technology or media information provided to users with the intention of creating a monopoly or secure information system,” according to Techopedia. They noted that the term “was created by John Malone, who started a company called Tele-Communications Inc., which was acquired by AT&T in 1999.” While the phrase “Walled Gardens” originated with telcos like Bell Systems and in the internet service provider (ISP) arena, it now commonly refers to internet companies like Google, Facebook, Apple and Amazon. 

Understanding the Demand Side: DSPs and ATDs 

A demand side platform (DSP) is an interface for marketers to buy ads programmatically. DSPs connect to multiple exchanges so that their clients, agencies and advertisers, can find maximum reach and scale. They also connect to other technology platforms that enable more advanced targeting, measurement and creative solutions for the advertisers.  

Some of the most popular DSPs include InMobi DSP, The Trade Desk, Google DV360, MediaMath, Centro and Liftoff, among many others. Some DSPs are omnichannel DSPs that can be used across a variety of mediums like mobile, browsers, CTV, etc. while others are niche DSPs designed just to focus on one or a smaller number of options. Check out this video for a more detailed breakdown of omnichannel and niche DSPs. 

The choice of DSP is the single biggest factor in deciding what controls the media buyers have for running their campaigns. Advertisers and agencies choose a DSP based on multiple reasons that include ease of operability, inventory scale and audience reach, data and targeting options, and controls for fraud, brand safety and transparency, among other reasons. 

Sometimes, depending on who is involved, an agency trading desk (ATD) may be involved in the transaction. Forrester has previously defined ATDs as “A centralized, service-based organization that serves as a managed service layer, typically on top of a licensed demand-side platform (DSP) and other audience buying technologies; manages programmatic, bid-based media and audience buying. Works as an agency’s internal ‘center of excellence,’ supporting agency teams wishing to tap into this new buying model on behalf of agency clients.” 

A data management platform (DMP) is a technology platform that collects and organizes audience data from multiple sources and allows advertisers run ads against these audiences. DMPs are therefore an important link between advertisers and DSPs.  

Advertisers choose to work with DMPs based on their reach and scale of user data, their data accuracy, and the sources of data they are integrated with. Oracle, Salesforce, Adobe, Nielsen, The Trade Desk and many others have DMP offerings. 

What are SSPs and Ad Exchanges? 

Originally, a supply side platform (SSP) would serve as the aggregator on the supply side, while exchanges were platforms that conducted auctions and facilitated transactions. As the ecosystem evolved, their roles merged, and now the programmatic industry often uses the two terms, SSP and exchange, almost interchangeably.  

Some of the most popular SSPs and ad exchanges include InMobi Exchange, Index Exchange, The Rubicon Project and many others. Some of these, like InMobi Exchange, are just in app, while others offer slightly broader supply. 

SSPs work with multiple publishers on the supply side to help them monetize their available ad inventory, but their primary customers are the DSPs, who in turn work with agencies and advertisers. This is the case even for private marketplace deals and not just for open exchange buying. In the mobile in-app space, these SSP connections occur most often through an SDK. 

Ad servers, which Google has previously defined simply as “a platform that serves ads,” typically sits in this middle layer in between the demand side and the supply side. But that is not always the case, as ad serving can be managed through the agency, the DSP, the SSP, etc. 

Both publishers and DSPs consider various factors in working with an SSP. A publisher will work with an SSP for monetization reasons like demand density and better pricing. Similarly, a DSP will choose an SSP based on their reach and scale with publishers, their performance, the platforms they support, and the level of trust and transparency they enable, among other reasons. 

It’s also important to differentiate between ad networks and ad exchanges. While the terms are too often used interchangeably, they are not the same thing.  

In short, ad exchanges are open exchanges where buying and selling can occur, while ad networks facilitate programmatic transactions on a more manual basis. An ad exchange is kind of like a public square where vendors can peddle their wares, while an ad network is like a professional buyer and that makes a transaction happen within the wider environment. 

In many ways, ad network is a dated term, with SSPs and exchanges replacing the ad network of old. Ad networks were especially popular in the days of static display advertising on desktop, but are no longer as useful in today’s omnichannel world. 

Understanding the Supply Side 

Let’s talk about mediation platforms first. Mediation platforms let publishers integrate with multiple exchanges and SSPs using a single software platform. In the mobile in-app space, some of the most popular mediation platforms include MAX from Applovin and MoPub, but there are many others. 

Mediation platforms connect to SSPs and exchanges on the demand side, but their primary customers are the publishers. They help publishers manage, optimize and report on impressions, ad revenue and other important metrics – all in one interface.   

Publishers are their customers, and publishers choose a mediation platform based on various factors like how efficient their monetization algorithms are, how diverse the demand is they support, how advanced their reporting capabilities are, and how easy they are to operate, among other factors. 

How The Key Players in Programmatic Buying Work Together 

How do these various platforms all work in tandem with one another to facilitate a programmatic transaction? Here’s a quick, basic overview: 

1. Using a DSP, a marketer/advertiser kickstarts a campaign by allocating budget, inputting ad creatives, etc. Data from the DMP ensures that the campaign is targeting the right audiences for the brand and the campaign’s specific goals. 

2. When someone opens a website in their browser, the publisher and/or app developer will send along data about the upcoming available advertising opportunities. 
3. The SSP matches information from the publisher end with data from the DSP, passing along bids when relevant. 
4. An ad is selected and shown to the user depending on the results of the programmatic ad auction that occurs at the publisher/mediation level. 

How The Programmatic Ecosystem Might Change in the Future 

While DSPs, DMPs, SSPs, etc. are the main players in the programmatic advertising ecosystem now, that very well may change going forward. In particular, two main trends may alter the landscape in the coming months and years. 

For one, supply path optimization (SPO) is becoming more commonly implemented by many leading digital advertisers and agencies. At a very basic level, SPO involves reviewing and auditing the path that advertisers use to reach their target consumers on digital channels. Who is involved in all possible transactions, and what role do they play in ensuring the best possible advertising experience?  

One possible outcome from a wider SPO implementation is an overall decrease in the number of programmatic platforms working in the marketplace. This is especially the case on the supply side, as SSPs and ad exchanges in particular that don’t provide unique supply/ad inventory or other distinct benefits may find themselves on the SPO chopping block. 

Another key trend to keep an eye on in the programmatic space is the ongoing evolution of consumer privacy and identity. Between legal frameworks like CCPA and GDPR and industry pushes like Apple’s depreciation of IDFA, not only is the amount of consumer data available to advertisers and marketers likely to drop in the future, but how data can be leveraged will be impacted too.  

As a result of the shifts, the role and functionality of a DMP will likely have to shift accordingly. In addition, the value propositions that DSPs, SSP and mediation platforms will change as less and less consumer data is available. 

Of course, none of these trends impact what the vast majority of these programmatic key players do or how they help advertisers and publishers. But as the ecosystem evolves, everyone across the programmatic supply chain needs to adapt accordingly. 

InMobi launches the 2021 Mobile Handbook to examine the year that was and discussing the year ahead. The handbook – Marketing in the Era of Mobile brings forth how brands are focused on attaining Mobile Marketing Maturity (3M), how gaming has evolved, the undeniable rise in M-commerce, the future of programmatic advertising, and much more. The idea of the handbook is to help marketers build resilient brands, that are agile and nimble in the everchanging world.

Key Insights from the Report 

The Booming Consumer Trends in India

• With the increased usage of mobile being evident, it is interesting to know that 1.6 Tn hours have been spent on mobile by the average user in 2020. India leads the mobile-first economy with an estimated 734 million users by the end of 2020, with an annual increase in userbase by 29%.
  
• Gaming FTW: India is home to 1 out 10 of the world’s gamers and is poised to become one of the top mobile gaming markets in APAC. Indians generated 1.8 billion game app downloads in Q1 of 2020, which rose by 50% in Q2 of 2020 to 2.7 billion.
  
• Short Video, loved by all: In an unfamiliar reality, audiences moved to consume short videos, for learning new skills and entertainment. Millions of Indians took to the news on Roposo where creators shared responsible content on the current state of the pandemic in a positive and fun manner.
  
• M-Commerce: Indians follow a non-linear shopping journey on their mobiles. They learn about the products, explore, and finally buy across various channels. According to a survey conducted using InMobi Pulse, 63% of respondents claim to use their mobile to learn about and discover new products, 77% to research and explore, and 62% to make purchases.

The Fast-growing Marketing Trends in India

• Achieving Digital Marketing Maturity: BCG states that DMM is an organization’s capacity in delivering seamless brand experiences and is characterized by four maturity levels: Nascent, Emerging, Connected, and Multi-moment. As the DMM of brands evolves, their strategies on digital channels shift from the aspirational end to the actionable end. Marketers are moving towards the ‘actionable’ end as they become better equipped to scale ROI and measurable outcomes.

• A Non-IDFA World: With Apple announcing changes to iOS 14, the handbook throws light on how advertisers can deploy alternate identifiers such as IDFV and work with cross-device and universal ID players such as LiveRamp, Branch, Tapad, and Kochava to reach their audiences.
   
• Mobile Video Soars High: With the increased consumption of content, the handbook focuses on buffer-free video experiences, adherence to VAST technologies, and how the mobile-first approach can meet the campaign ROI goals and maximizes the ROAS.
   
• Steering Intent with Search: The handbook showcases the importance of search advertising in various stages of the consumer journey – awareness, interest, consideration, intent, evaluation, and sale. While focusing on each stage, what strategies should marketers adapt to drive loyalty, and which type of search ads work best for each stage of the journey are discussed. The ‘Search Advertising Checklist’ is the icing on the cake for marketers to get the search game right.
   
• Mobile-first Consumer Intelligence: One of the biggest challenges that retail brands face is their inability to blend the physical and digital worlds despite the current consumer journey no longer being linear. The handbook discusses the nuances in accessing quality data and provides solutions to leverage mobile-first consumer intelligence. Presenting the case of a conglomerate having done it right, Unilever, the handbook dives deep into leveraging data to drive personalization at scale.

To know more on how brands can become resilient and adapt to the mobile-first approach to beat the modern-day challenges, glance at our 2021 India Handbook: Marketing in the Era of Mobile now.

For a closer look at consumer trends in this space, we wanted to see who is buying and engaging with the main brands in the one-a-day wellness space. Specifically, we looked at the people who recently visited physical Target locations or who have engaged with the following brands on mobile: Zyrtec, Claritin, Bayer Aspirin, Metamucil, Oneaday and Softsoap.  

Here’s what we uncovered. 

Key Health and Wellness Consumer Insights 

For one, consumers engaging physically or via a mobile device with daily use wellness items such as allergy pills or vitamins skew male (54% vs 46% female). This goes against the prevailing stereotype that women care more about their health than most men do in the U.S. 

Perhaps not surprisingly, this audience skews a bit older. Around one in four consumers in this space are between the ages of 46 and 55, while 37% is over the age of 55. 

Overall, these consumers fall into low or middle incomes ranges. Among these consumers, 53% make between $25,000 and $100,000 a year. 

Key Health and Wellness Consumer Trends 

In looking at the top apps used by these consumers, many of these shoppers have retail and wellness apps on their mobile devices. Consumers shopping for daily use items engage with the apps from major retailers like Target, Costco and CVS at least 2x more frequently compared to consumers overall. These consumers also have relatively high ownership rates for apps like Calm, Fitbit and MyChart. 

It makes sense that these consumers over index with major retailers, as most purchases in this category are not buying their daily use wellness products directly from the manufacturer. In a mobile research report commissioned by InMobi in July 2020, 51% said they were aware that they could purchase direct from their favorite brands in this category, only 12% actually made a brand-direct purchase. In fact, less than one in four reported even browsing a daily use brand’s website. 

For consumers that purchase daily use items, future brand direct consideration is low. Just 6% said they were highly likely to make a purchase in this manner, with 44% saying they were unlikely or very unlikely to buy in this manner.  

So why aren’t consumers making brand-direct purchases? According to our research, the top barrier is price, followed by shipping times. 

Top Mobile Health and Wellness Consumer Segments 

Looking to reach these consumers? Here are the top audience segments to leverage: 

• InMobi Daily Use Insight Audience: All users included in this insight reporting. 
• Grocery Delivery Users: All users who have downloaded a grocery delivery app or visited a grocery delivery site in the past six months. 
• Health and Wellness Users: This audience is built using app and mobile web behavior, identifying users engaging with top fitness properties (gyms, diets, workout plans, etc.) as well as users who have visited a fitness center, gym and/or health club at least three or more times in the past six months. 
• Allergy/Pain Relief Users: This audience is built using app and mobile web behavior to determine users who have been seen browsing top allergy and pain relief brands such as Benadryl, Tylenol, Claritin, Advil, Excedrin, etc. We also include grocery store and pharmacy visitors cross-referenced with app and mobile web users. 

Interested in learning more about InMobi’s audiences and why they’re the best in the business? Reach out today to schedule a call.  

About the Author  

Matthew Kaplan has over a decade of digital marketing experience, working to support the content goals of the world’s biggest B2B and B2C brands. He is a passionate app user and evangelist, working to support diverse marketing campaigns across devices. 

Gold - Best Lead Generation Campaign through Mobile
Silver - Best execution of performance campaign

You can learn more about the success story here.
 

2. Kingfisher #StayAtHome

Gold - Best use of AR/VR in Gaming/Gamification
Bronze - Online Interactive Marketing

You can learn more about the success story here.
 

3. Kia Sonet Voice-Enabled Campaign

Gold - Online Interactive Marketing

4. Meesho Empowers Women to start their Business with Zero Investment

Bronze - Best Lead Generation Campaign through Mobile

You can learn more about the success story here.

5. Mondelēz helps Cadbury lovers unlock a sweet surprise

Bronze - Online Video

You can learn more about the success story here.


Click here to check out all our success stories.

But where does this data come from, and how is it processed? To dive into the many nuances of data management in programmatic, be sure to check out these whiteboard videos featuring Prajwal Barthur, VP of Products, Marketing and Advanced TV at InMobi. 

In this first video, Prajwal goes through the four main use cases for data management in digital advertising: targeting ideal customers, measurement and analytics for digital advertising campaign, segmentation and activation, and advertising monetization for publishers and app developers. 

In the second video, Prajwal goes through the common sources of data in programmatic in-app advertising such as device-level and personal identifiers, geographic data like latitude and longitude signals, demographic information like age range and contextual data signals, among others. It also highlights the different players involved with data in programmatic advertising including demand-side platforms, supply-side platforms, ad exchanges, ad networks and social media networks. Further, Prajwal discusses the main data management players in this space, including mobile measurement platforms, customer data platforms, connectors, data management platforms and more. 

In the third and final video, Prajwal goes through how data is used and processed in the mobile in-app advertising supply chain. This short video highlights how data goes from apps to programmatic players like exchanges and ad networks, and how various data management layers work to facilitate digital programmatic advertising. 

Interested in learning more about how InMobi Exchange processes and handles data, and how we’re innovating in this space? Reach out today to learn more! 

About the Author/Interviewer      

Matthew Kaplan has over a decade of digital marketing experience, working to support the content goals of the world’s biggest B2B and B2C brands. He is a passionate app user and evangelist, working to support diverse marketing campaigns across devices. 

On the eve of CES 2021, we wanted to revisit our past insights, which you can download here. To learn more, we turned to InMobi Pulse.  

The InMobi Pulse team reviewed new user trends for each category and several brand-specific products within each. For those specific brands, we also looked at the frequency of user engagement and app install/uninstall activity from January through November 2019.  The InMobi Pulse team also performed market research to understand why connected device users are engaging with brands as well as their attitudes for future adoption.   

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Our theory was that not only is the number of connected consumers increasing, but they are engaging with more products (connected home, wearables, cars, security systems, appliances, etc.) as well.  

Top Three Consumer Insights:  

1. Not only is the number of connected consumers increasing steadily, the growth is happening across all categories; Connected Home, Car and Personal Wearables. 

2. The top five months of growth with categories 

   • March  - Car + Home Assistant 
   • January - Wearables + Electronics 
   • May - Wearables + Home 
   • September - Car + Appliances + Home Electronics 
   • July - Home 
      
3. More than 78% of the connected consumer growth in 2019 was in the Connected Home category with only 1.02% coming from Connected Appliance users. 

Top Three Market Research Insights:  

1. Usage and future consideration are highest for connected home devices. Overall, consideration is highest for these brands: Ring, Samsung WEAR, Android Auto. 
2. There is still a large share of untapped usage across connected home, car and wearable devices. 
3. Barriers differ across connected tech. There is no overarching concern of privacy, price, etc. 

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Homing in on the Connected Home 

Today’s consumer is increasingly embracing and easily accessing the benefits of widespread connectivity right at home. Thanks to the rise of brands and offerings like Nest and Amazon Alexa, the connected home is a burgeoning space. In fact, between January and November 2019, month-over-month new users of connected home apps varied between 80% and 132%. 

When are sales and service requests the highest? Connected home consumer app engagement follows the Spring and Summer home buyer trends: peak in March, then steady until late August. January is also a strong month for new users, which are most likely those receiving connected devices during the holiday season.  

Let’s break down the connected home by category: 

• Security: Home security users increase consistently month over month. Ring leads the category with 6x that of ADT and more than 20x than that of SimpliSafe. Arlo Security Systems was new to the market in 2019 and quickly became the second most installed app to Ring for home security. 
• Electronics: Each of the apps included in our analysis of the connected consumer home electronics space shows a similar pattern with significant lift from September through January. The most downloaded app in the category is from Bose, with nearly 2x as much as the other brands combined. Sonos was the second most installed app until Samsung TV more than doubled their monthly net users starting in September. 
• Appliances: Philips Hue for automated lighting was the second most installed app in the category. Whirlpool and GE have similar trends in the general home appliance category with Maytag a distant third. Downloads of the MyQ app spiked in April. 

How does this app data compare to our survey results? Amazon Alexa boasts the highest awareness and usage. Google Home has significantly higher awareness and usage among those 18-24 years old, while Samsung Family Hub has significantly higher awareness among those 45-54. 

Ring, followed by Nest, has the highest future consideration among those aware of those brands, while SimpliSafe and My Solar City have the lowest. Overall though, there is a large share of untapped usage, especially among those aged 45-54. 

What is the actual customer experience like in this space? Consumers largely use connected home devices to monitor safety and security and because it makes their life easier. A directionally higher proportion of women find the products easy to set up and use. Those that do not use a connected device for their home cite privacy concerns and price as barriers to adoption. 

For more insights, be sure to download your copy of the InMobi Connected Consumer Report 2020 today! 

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Interested in seeing how app usage in the connected car arena compared to auto app usage overall? Check out this blog post for more information. 

Interested in learning more about InMobi Pulse and about how to glean key insights for your business? Be sure to head to inmobi.com/pulse for more information. 

What do you think the future holds for the connected consumer? Let us know on social media! We’d love to hear your thoughts on LinkedIn or Twitter. 

Intent: The Holy Grail in Search Marketing

Opening the panel with how brands have been leveraging search advertising tools, Shitak said “Search is a very important, high intent-based marketing to ensure that brands reach their target audience. Search has also evolved a lot over time. Based on the industry, or the business objective, search as a tool is very important and useful to marketers.”

Search Advertising has gone beyond conversions, as new-age Search Advertising focuses on driving the purchase intent of the consumer at every step of the shopping journey. Engaging consumers based on their search queries for brand awareness is a new trend in making among marketers.

Illustrating how Wakefit has embraced this strategy, Gupta shared, “With Microsoft search advertising, we use keywords with the right intent. It’s not very straightforward when you are using search for branding. It was a success in terms of getting traffic in non-branded products. The key learning has been to use the right messaging and the right planning process.”

Search Advertising: Experimentation is Key

With everchanging audience interests, marketers must constantly lookout for emerging trends, a concept quite popularly phrased as ‘trend jacking’. While the audience's interests and wants change, trend jacking enables marketers to capture in-the-moment interest and reimagine their marketing efforts accordingly.

Addressing the new phenomenon of trend jacking or moment marketing in search advertising, Sonthalia said, “Trend based search advertising is a very interesting phenomenon. It is important for people who have fundamentally leveraged search to constantly lookout for the at-the-moment search queries to drive the best results.” Shitak had a slightly different outlook towards trend jacking, he shared, “It should essentially be ‘test & learn’ rather than taking something from someone. For some trends, you have to even create content around them at a rapid pace. If one’s target group is talking about a specific trend, then one should leverage search marketing to reach out to audiences with that trend.”

While a bunch of trends emerges, some remain ‘high-value’ over a period of time. It is the marketer’s call to adapt and to ‘test and trial’ methods to find strategies that lead to maximum visibility. This is only possible with an open mindset to experiment on the emerging trends and keeping up to date with the search game.

To dive into more insights into the details of the discussion, glance at the video.

Using Location Information to Find and Reach the Best Target Audiences 

Although many Americans are limiting or avoiding in-person errands like shopping in grocery stores or dining out at restaurants, that’s not to say that we’re solely staying at home and totally shunning the physical world. Rather, many are simply adopting different shopping tactics. In particular, there has been a growth in popularity in shopping options like touch-free pickup and BOPIS (buy online, pick up in store). Foot traffic and dwell time at many stores and restaurants may be down from what brands and retailers were seeing 12 months ago, but physical real estate is still a key part of the current shopping journey for many. 

What this means for companies of all stripes is that location data is still valuable in the real world. For brands that are seeing a measurable uptick in order pickups and BOPIS, it still makes sense to target people based on where they live and how far they are from stores. 

As an example of what we mean, InMobi conducted an experiment in September 2020. For this effort, he used data collected from InMobi’s mobile-first location technology to highlight all McDonald’s and Wendy’s locations that were within walking distance of a Burger King, that were within a 10-minute drive of a Burger King and were more than a 10-minute drive away from a Burger King. 

So what does this mobile location data analysis signify? In short, everyone in the green or blue areas has the option to dine at Burger King, while everyone in the red area is unlikely to consider Burger King as a readily available option since it’s probably too far away from home. 

Benefits of Collecting Location Data for Targeted Advertising Campaigns 

In the above example, it’s easy to see how a brand like Burger King could use this data around key points of interest to inform their advertising efforts. Why bother advertising to someone if they live too far from one of your locations to likely dine with you? In fact, in the above example, 17% of those we looked at were a more than 10-minute drive from a Burger King location. 

While the above example focuses on the QSR (quick-service restaurant) space, it’s not hard to see the value of this kind of location data analysis provides in other industries. Everyone from retailers to car dealerships and banks can still benefit from excluding audiences that live far away from their locations – even today. 

Case Study: McDonald’s 

McDonald’s, in one of their campaigns with InMobi, expertly leveraged location data to really help boost sales. In order to promote its new line of breakfast deals and boost sales among Millennials, McDonald’s and their mobile advertising team ran ads in popular mobile apps during breakfast time Monday to Friday and all day on weekends. 

Based on the user’s location, they were shown a map that highlighted the route to the nearest McDonald’s restaurant. To ensure geotargeting happened effectively, the campaign leveraged location polygons, in which geographic boundaries are narrowly defined, over traditional circular mapping technology or custom bases to prevent spillover and ensure fine-tuned accuracy in location targeting. And, in order to effectively connect its mobile in-app advertising efforts with in-store visits and sales, footfall attribution technology was used. 

For this campaign, McDonald’s saw a 23% increase in store visits and a 4% increase in overall sales. The campaign was a huge success, and really highlighted for them the benefits of location data in advertising. 

Benefits of Leveraging Historic Location Data 

Of course, this is all looking at and using current location data. But even older, historical data can be valuable. 

For example, let’s consider a movie studio looking to advertise its latest horror movie, set to be released on major streaming networks in February 2021. In the past, the studio would have aimed to drive people to see the movie in theaters. Instead, for this latest release, the studio can see who were visiting movie theaters in January and February 2020, and then making sure these individuals are targeted in advertising and marketing efforts. 

This use of historical data can be a great way of determining the best marketing channels to use for current advertising efforts. For instance, if the movie studio also saw that the people visiting movie theaters frequently in early 2020 are now using mobile devices for hours a day on average, then they would be wise to invest heavily in mobile in-app advertising to promote their latest movie. 

How InMobi Can Help You Leverage Best-in-Class Mobile Location Intelligence 

Yes, Americans are staying at home much more now than they were in the past. But that doesn’t mean that location data isn’t valuable. By using location intelligence thoughtfully and strategically, brands can ensure they are reaching and activating their best audience in 2020, 2021 and beyond. 

Interested in leveraging InMobi’s location data and mobile expertise with your next advertising campaign? Reach out today to learn more. 

But what are these CTV consumers actually like? Specifically, how are these consumers using different services and hardware to watch their favorite streaming services? That’s what we wanted to find out.  

In our latest report, Connected TV and OTT Viewership in 2020, we dive into the world of CTV using first-hand consumer-based insights. Download this report today to learn: 

• How smart TV sets compare to other CTV viewing options. 
• Which age groups are likely to use different CTV viewing options, including the options most popular with both jet streamers (a group that millennial professionals and other young adults that are and busy balancing work and family, according to SpotX) and silver streamers (streaming-minded, digitally savvy baby boomers). 
• Whether CTV viewers watch ad supported content. 
• Whether consumers are willing to pay for subscriptions beyond the CTV content and apps they already have. 
• How current trends will shape the future of CTV advertising. 

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Sneek Peak Of Our CTV Report 

For a preliminary look at this new report, enjoy this preview! 

“For years now, it has been possible to connect a television set to the internet. But more recently, the concepts of Connected TV(CTV) and over-the-top (OTT) video viewing have grown by leaps and bounds. The ability to connect a TV set to the internet, either through a dedicated device or through the TV itself, has perhaps never been easier, and this technology is increasingly more ubiquitous. 

As a result of this, CTV has been one of the biggest trends and buzzwords among advertisers over the past few years. There’s a reason we had it listed as both a key trend to watch in 2020AND in 2019. And it’s become an even hotter space during the COVID-19 pandemic, with millions of people in the U.S. and across the globe stuck at home and eagerly looking to entertain themselves. 

Indeed, in April and May, we found that most CTV device owners spend two to four hours a day watching TV shows and/or movies through their preferred connected devices. To put this into comparison, eMarketer noted in April that the average social network user in the U.S. typically only uses social media for an hour and 22 minutes a day. 

From an advertiser perspective, it’s easy to see why the CTV space looks so enticing. This kind of digital advertising has the potential to combine the many benefits inherent in digital and in-app marketing (tracking, viewability, programmatic capabilities, personalization, targeting etc.) with the wide screen, laid back viewing of television. It can be the best of both worlds. 

But since CTV viewing is such a nascent space, many advertisers just don’t know that much about who is watching this streaming content. Who specifically are these consumers, and how do they differ from mobile in-app and linear TV audiences? How do they view content, and what do they care about? That’s what we wanted to find out. 

To better understand these viewing habits and consumer preferences, we looked at a few sources of data. For starters, we used InMobi Pulse to conduct two surveys in 2020, one in March and another that ran from April 27 to May 8. Each survey reached over 1,000 adults in the U.S. We also leveraged our first-party telco data insights to see who is using relevant OTT apps on their mobile devices. Using these various sources of truth, we can gain crucial insights into the connected TV consumer and their habits and preferences. 

Here’s what we uncovered.” 

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Interested in running a CTV advertising campaign soon? Reach out today to learn more and to get started with InMobi. 

About the Author       

Matthew Kaplan has over a decade of digital marketing experience, working to support the content goals of the world’s biggest B2B and B2C brands. He is a passionate app user and evangelist, working to support diverse marketing campaigns across devices 

Get your complimentary copy of this report today to learn all about: 

• Why in-app video advertising is the best way to reach people on their favorite device (i.e. mobile phones). 
• The current state of in-app video ad spending beyond user-generated content like Instagram Stories. 
• Who is embracing in-app video advertising and using video content in a big way in their ads campaigns. 
• Why digital video advertising, including pre-roll and in-stream ads, is often better than both word of mouth and other ad formats for brand awareness. 
• The average completion rates of both horizontal and vertical video ads. 
• Why video views alone don’t tell the whole story. 
• What the latest trending in-app ad formats will be in 2021. 

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What Our 2020 Mobile Video Advertising Trends Report is All About 

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then what is a video worth? For advertisers, conveying their message through video has long been the most preferable option. There’s a reason that brands have invested so heavily in television advertising in the past and newer channels like YouTube.  

And indeed as time spent using mobile broadly and apps specifically have risen, brands are expanding and rethinking their video advertising strategies to include apps. As we’ve highlighted in our previous reporting on the topic, we found that programmatic in-app video ad spending grew 47% in the U.S. between 2017 and 2018. In Q4 2018 and Q1 2019, video ad spending in the U.S. was up 156% compared to Q4 2017 and Q1 2018. This growth occurred even though video ads generally cost more than other formats, which is a testament to the power and effectiveness of video advertising.  

In the past, why was programmatic in-app video advertising on the rise? In part, because it was (and remains) highly effective. After all, videos are inherently much more visible than smaller ad formats like banners, which ensures both improved viewability and engagement. Video advertising is also highly engaging, enabling brands to tell memorable and impactful stories using both visuals and audio. 

Who is Embracing In-App Video Advertising? 

It is important to note that just about all video ads run by InMobi include interactive end cards. The share of video ads purchased via private marketplace deals in the U.S. that had interactive end cards went from 10% in 2018 to 60% in 2019.   

It’s also important to note that in 2019, 70% of served video ad impressions in the U.S. via InMobi Exchange were 20 seconds or less, while around 10% of video ads were six seconds or less — and we expect both figures to significantly grow in 2020. These figures are important to highlight, as they provide another explanation for why in-app video advertising is so effective for advertisers. 

Charting the Future of In-App Video Advertising 

At this point, it’s hardly a stretch to say that in-app video advertising will very likely continue to grow in the future. We’ve been making this point since at least 2017 — and so far, we’ve been right. At every step of the way, more advertisers have woken up both to the benefits of video advertising and the benefits of in-app advertising.  

Of course, it’s critical to keep the global realities of 2020 in mind when making any prognostications. COVID-19 has brought out a worldwide recession with economic ramifications that will likely last well into 2021 for some industries. Even brands that clearly see the benefits of in-app video advertising may not be able to fully invest in this kind of marketing for much of the year. 

What will hopefully change in the future is how advertisers think about in-app programmatic video advertising. Too many brands are likely just taking their existing ads and just porting them over to mobile without enough thought as to how quality mobile advertising should work. But, by 2021, we are confident that advertisers will run more vertical over the horizontal video, abandon outdated tech like VPAID and ensure all of their programmatic advertising is viewable, brand-safe and shown to the right audiences at the right time.  

We do want to differentiate between mobile and in-app video advertising, especially with apps now appearing outside of mobile devices. In particular, as connected TV viewing rises, advertisers will need to be sure that they can apply the best practices learned from mobile video advertising onto this nascent environment. 

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Like What You’ve Been Reading on In-App Video Advertising? 

There’s a lot more where this came from! Be sure to download your complimentary copy of InMobi’s 2020 Mobile Video Advertising Trends Report today for more data and insights on average click-through rates, top countries for in-app video advertising, the ideal duration of a video ad, the benefits of interactivity and a whole lot more. 

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About the Author 

Matthew Kaplan has over a decade of digital marketing experience, working to support the content goals of the world’s biggest B2B and B2C brands. He is a passionate app user and evangelist, working to support diverse marketing campaigns across devices. 

Apple has announced that in early 2021, they will require developers to ask users for permission to use IDFA identifiers for ad targeting purposes. Advertisers need to be prepared for the adverse effects it could bring to the advertising ecosystem. Adam Miller adds, "At Postmates, we are tackling this by revisiting everything that relies on a semi-persistent mobile ID. I want to see everything [revisited], not just IDFA, but also Google's GA ID. We do think that Google is very likely to follow suit. Google has already made a pretty firm commitment to deprecate third-party cookies across the Chrome Browser. We are undergoing a sea change when it comes to ad tracking more broadly." 

Regarding mobile loyalty and how their loyalty programs (Postmates Unlimited) has gone through changes to further help users during COVID-19, Adam Miller responds by saying that “the biggest vector along which we can really increase is value to folks who are signing up for unlimited. If you're an unlimited customer, we want to make sure you can get more than just pizza. The amount of value that we're providing could at some point reach an order of magnitude greater than the cost that you're outlaying to become an unlimited member. There's relatively few services out there that can really claim that right now. We get to lock in your loyalty for a very very long time because you're going to find so much utility in using Postmates, you won't want to turn anywhere else."

To learn more about Postmates’ strategies around mobile user acquisition, Apple's upcoming changes to IDFA, geo-space technologies, retail and offline partnerships, virtual events, and more, watch the full interview below!  

Did you find any of these strategies useful? Let us know on InMobi’s social media handles! Send us your comments on Twitter, LinkedIn and/or Facebook.

If you’re interested in learning more about reaching premium in-app audiences programmatically, reach out today to learn more about InMobi Exchange and its many capabilities.

To get a better sense of who have been downloading social media apps in 2020, we turned to the data. Specifically, we wanted to look at install and user trends for the following social media apps: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Reddit, Snapchat, TikTok and Twitter. 

Using InMobi’s mobile-first data sources, we can understand app install trends in the category and see who have been turning to their services of late. Here’s what we uncovered. 

Social App Install Trend Analysis 

Most social apps have struggled to maintain positive app install growth over the past few months. In particular, between July and September 2020, Pinterest is the only app to see any notable growth. 

This aligns with what eMarketer has found as well. Between 2019 and 2020, they are predicting just over 3% growth in social media platform users in the U.S. Overall, the numbers show that platform users have largely plateaued of late. 

However, eMarketer’s analysis shows that people who already are subscribed to social media are often using it more heavily. The problem is that these apps are not attracting new users in any significant way. 

In this period, TikTok led the way in terms of week-over-week net app installs. But their numbers did take a dive at various points in this three-month period too, specifically in mid-September when the Trump Administration was forcing the app to sell off its U.S. business. 

Yet, TikTok’s competitors largely did not capitalize on the app ownership controversy. Between July and September 2020, only Byte and Triller saw any increase in net app installs, but even then their overall numbers fell below what TikTok was seeing at the same time. 

ACTION: Social media app marketers should ramp up in-app advertising to reach consumers where they are and grow app adoption. As this space appears to coalesce, marketers and advertisers have their work cut out for them to grow their user base. 

Social App User Demographics 

As mentioned before, current social media app users are turning to their favorite platforms with more regularity throughout 2020. But what do these app owners look like? 

Across the board, well over half of all social media app owners are White. Reddit is the least diverse, with 68% of all of their mobile app owners being white. TikTok have the most diverse audience, as 23% of their app owners are Latinx and 15% are Black. 

For most of these apps, the majority of app owners are over the age of 35. This again aligns with eMarketer’s analysis. 

The only apps with a notable following among younger Americans are Reddit and Snapchat. Overall, 40% of Reddit app owners and 37% of Snapchat app owners are between the ages of 18 and 35. Even for TikTok, which has a reputation of being popular with younger people, only 30% of their app users fall into this age range (note: InMobi app user data only covers adults 18 or older). 

In terms of annual income, most TikTok, Snapchat and Facebook app owners are in lower and middle incomes brackets. In comparison, Twitter, LinkedIn and Reddit app ownership is more prevalent among affluent audiences. 

Twitter app owners are heavy social users with large percentages of app crossover, while Facebook app owners have the smallest crossover with other apps. Snapchat app owners are strong users of Instagram, but fewer Instagram users have adopted Snapchat.  

ACTION: Marketers working to boost app ownership should be sure to target the right audiences. By using demographics such as age and income, only those that are likely to actually download and use a social media app will be exposed to relevant advertising. 

Further, based on the trends exhibited in this insights report, we recommend activating on any of the following audiences to reach your most relevant users: 

• Tik Tok Users – This audience is inclusive of all users with the Tik Tok app installed on their device.  
• Facebook Users – This audience is inclusive of all users with the Facebook app installed on their device.  
• Instagram Users – This audience is inclusive of all users with the Instagram app installed on their device.  
• Snapchat Users – This audience is inclusive of all users with the Snapchat app installed on their device  
• Socialites – This audience is inclusive of all users with at least one social media app installed or mobile website visited in the last six months. 

Did any of these data points surprise you? Let us know on InMobi’s social media handles! Send us your comments on Twitter, LinkedIn and/or Facebook.  

Interested in learning more about mobile shopping habits? Want to conduct your own mobile-first research campaign? Reach out today to learn more about InMobi Pulse and its many capabilities.  

About the Author  

Matthew Kaplan has over a decade of digital marketing experience, working to support the content goals of the world’s biggest B2B and B2C brands. He is a passionate app user and evangelist, working to support diverse marketing campaigns across devices. His favorite social media app is BaconReader for Reddit. 

And this growing population also represents an increasingly enticing consumer base for brands to reach. According to eMarketer, Hispanic Americans have a combined spending power of over $1.5 trillion. 

Many advertisers, however, don't have experience reaching out to and talking to this audience. To help them, InMobi conducted extensive research into the buying habits and mobile usage preferences of Latinx consumers in the U.S.  

In our latest report, Understanding Latinx Consumers and Their Mobile Usage in the U.S., we dive into the data to explore how Latinx Americans shop, eat, communicate and conduct their lives online. We looked at how they use mobile and which apps they like the most. We also explored how preferences change by gender, region and age. 

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5 Surprising Facts About Latinx Mobile Usage Trends and Preferences 

Here’s a small sneak peek at some of the insights covered in this report: 

1. A third of Latinx-American consumers use their mobile devices for 2-4 hours per day. 
2. 58% of Latinx consumers spend two or more hours per day watching TV and movies on their phone. 
3. Over half of younger Latinx-Americans (between the ages of 18 and 35) use mobile for five or more hours a day. 
4. Almost a third of Latinx consumers speak Spanish and English equally at home, but most media is consumed only in English on mobile. 
5. 49% of Latinx consumers said they have noticed a video ad on their mobile device. 

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How This Latinx Audiences Report Will Help Advertisers 

For brands looking to reach Latinx consumers in the U.S., what are the main takeaways from this report? For one, it's important to note the diversity within this community. Consumer preferences can differ greatly based on gender, how old they are and where they live, among many other factors.  

It's also critical to note that this is a mobile-first audience. Advertisers looking to reach Latinx consumers in the U.S. need to leverage in-app advertising. As the data shows, these consumers use mobile apps to watch TV and movies, order food, talk with friends and family, shop for essentials and so much more.  

This data can also be enormously powerful for performance advertisers and others running user acquisition campaigns. This data provides a brief glimpse into the types of apps this segment of consumers use and the types of apps they might be most likely to adopt, along with the types of mobile ads they're most likely to engage with and view.  

In the coming years, Latinx Americans will represent an even larger share of the U.S. populace. As this population grows in the U.S., it behooves advertisers to really understand what makes this audience tick and what they want to see from brands on mobile. 

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About the Data Used in the Report 

The data used in this report comes from a number of sources. For one, InMobi surveyed consumers in the U.S. who identify as Hispanic or Latinx (including Latino and Latina), which ran from July 1 through July 15. This survey was conducted using InMobi Pulse, InMobi's mobile market research solution.  

Specifically, we surveyed over 400 people in the U.S. with an even number of male and female survey respondents, and people across all ages 18 and older took the survey.  

This data was supplemented with InMobi's own first-party data sources, which includes data from our owned and operated apps, data from the thousands of apps that have a direct connection with InMobi Exchange and other first-party telco data. 

Note on The Report’s Terminology 

There are many terms used to describe this audience. Hispanic refers to individuals descended from Spanish-speaking countries like Spain, Mexico, Argentina, etc. Latino/a refers to individuals from Latin America, which includes places such as Brazil, Guyana and the Caribbean in addition to Spanish-speaking countries in Central and South America. Latinx is a gender-neutral way to refer to individuals of Latino/a heritage. Throughout this report, we use mostly Latinx or Latinx Americans (Americans who are also Latinx) but will occasionally use Hispanic depending on the specific segment of individuals we are talking about.  

Please note that the segments of Americans we are referring to here refer only to national origin and not race or ethnicity. Latinx-Americans are a broad and highly diverse group.   

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About the Author    

Matthew Kaplan has over a decade of digital marketing experience, working to support the content goals of the world’s biggest B2B and B2C brands. He is a passionate app user and evangelist, working to support diverse marketing campaigns across devices. 

2020 Recap: Publishers See Big Gains with Ad Monetization, InMobi Exchange Grows 2X 

Using Apps to Follow Election Results 

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Americans were increasingly downloading news apps during the first four days of November, with a notable spike across the board on Election Day itself. This is hardly surprising, as many people wanted to make sure they had all of the right data and analysis ready once initial results were being reported on and after November 3. 

The news apps that saw the biggest spikes on Election Day were owned by the major television news networks: NBC News, CNN, Fox News and CBS News. In fact, net installs of the NBC News app were over 610% greater on November 3 compared to November 2. 

We also wanted to see if Americans were turning to meditation and mindfulness apps during and after Election Day to cope with stress around the election. But, between Calm, Headspace and Insight Timer, only Calm saw significant growth in net daily app installs during the first few days of November. Day-over-day net installs of the Calm app were up over 36% on November 3 and up over 37% on November 4, likely as a result of their co-sponsorship of CNN’s election coverage. 

Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, daily net installs of alcohol delivery app Drizly were mostly flat around Election Day. Many rideshare and delivery apps, however, did see a small uptick in net daily app installs, although this growth could be either because Proposition 22 passed in California or due to the promotions that Uber and Lyft were providing around rides to polling places. 

So-called “free speech” social media apps that cater to Right-leaning audiences, however, did see a lot of growth immediately following Election Day. Between November 3 and November 4, net installs of the NewsMax app climbed 802%, while daily installs of the app Parler jumped up over 350% between November 5 and November 6.  

In comparison, more established social media platform saw either more muted growth or a decrease in net daily app installs immediately following Election Day. For example, between November 3 and November 4, while daily installs of Twitter’s app were up 43%, net daily app installs for Instagram were down 6%. 

While the growth figures for the more mainstream social media apps are lower overall, net daily installs is higher for the most part. During and after Election Day, only Parler notched more net daily installs than apps like Instagram and TikTok. 

Using Apps to Reach Potential Voters 

Even in the leadup to Election Day, mobile apps played a key role in informing voters about the issues and candidates. InMobi’s work with Local Voices in 2020 is a great example of this.  

Starting in October, Local Voices, a small super PAC dedicated to increasing voter turnout and promoting the concerns of citizens across the country, began partnering with InMobi to run an innovative vertical video advertising campaign featuring leading TikTok creators during the 2020 presidential election.  

Local Voices wanted to reach younger men and women between the ages of 18 and 40 who lived in targeted states like Georgia, Pennsylvania, Texas, Florida, Iowa, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Michigan and Ohio. The goal of the campaign was to encourage target individuals to vote and to advocate for specific causes. InMobi helped Local Voices to reach their target audiences through the apps they use the most, primarily mobile gaming apps. 

During the first few days of their campaign, the average video ad completion rate was over 97% - a figure far higher than what Local Voices saw from the major social media networks they worked with. Between Oct. 15 and Oct. 20, their vertical video ads garnered over 630,000 impressions and were viewed to completion over 610,000 times. In addition, the ads generated over 3,600 ad clicks during the same period. 

Did App Usage Predict Voting Patterns? 

Back in August, InMobi reviewed the most common mobile apps in both big swing states and in major cities across the U.S. We wanted to see if the apps used in a particular city or state could predict how those locations would vote in the 2020 presidential election. So how did we do? 

In terms of swing states, we were 100% correct. Back in August, we predicted that Florida would vote Republican while Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin would vote Democratic. While the results are being contested in just about all of these places, the first official tallies align with these predictions. 

About the Author    

Matthew Kaplan has over a decade of digital marketing experience, working to support the content goals of the world’s biggest B2B and B2C brands. He is a passionate app user and evangelist, working to support diverse marketing campaigns across devices. He also previously covered politics and government for the Daily News Tribune. 

Why Retailers Should Have a Heavy Focus on In-Store Traffic 

According to eMarketer, over 80% of all retail sales in the U.S. this holiday season will occur at shopping centers and other brick-and-mortar locations. While they predict that total in-person retail sales will decline this year, it will still make up the lion’s share of all spending leading up to Christmas. 

This aligns with what our own data shows as well. In a survey conducted by InMobi in July of over 1,500 Americans, we found that many people were still buying items like kitchenware in person. 

One reason why physical retail is still central is because BOPIS (buy online, pick up in store) has emerged as an increasingly popular shopping option. According to eMarketer, the number of people saying they are utilizing this shopping option rose by 13 percentage points between February and June 2020. 

For years now, headlines about the decline and demise of brick-and-mortar retail have abounded, as e-commerce (and m-commerce) grow significantly. Yet as the data shows, consumers are still spending a lot of money at physical retail locations – even during a global pandemic.  

Benefits of In-App Advertising for Retailers 

While many consumers are still going to physical store locations to buy or pick up already purchased options, they are learning about what to buy through mobile. In a survey we conducted in September of over 1,600 adults in the U.S., we found that mobile is central to today’s shopping journey. 

For one, 62% of Americans said they will be browsing and buying through mobile this holiday season. And, nearly half said they'd be buying more from mobile compared to last year. 

In addition, 53% said they discover new products through mobile ads. After seeing an ad for a product that interests them, 40% said they visited the brand’s website while 23% said they found the brand’s location to visit; in comparison, just 15% said they purchased a product directly afterwards. 

Americans are increasingly spending more and more time on their mobile devices, and this was true even before 2020. While most of us are largely stuck at home, mobile has been key to how Americans learn about new products, entertain themselves, communicate with others, etc. Retailers should take advantage of this trend and reach their consumers where they are through in-app advertising. 

Not only is in-app advertising a great way for retailers to identify, engage and acquire their best consumers, it also offers a host of other advantages. For one, the wealth of data available in app enables retailers to more easily understand and reach their best customers, including around when they use apps, which apps they have on device and which kinds of ad creatives they’re most likely to notice, among other key data points. Further, in-app data can be combined with any existing retail analytics to even more targeted advertising.  

In addition, in-app creatives can be enormously useful for driving in-store sales. For example, one great tactic is to include a dynamic map within the ad creative that shows the target consumer where the retail brand’s closest locations to them are and how to get there. Many retailers have successfully leveraged this creation option to boost conversion rates. 

How to Measurably Improve Store Performance 

Of course, the final piece of the puzzle is connecting in-app advertising data with in-store retail sales. How can brands be certain that the people who saw one of their mobile ads later made a purchase at a brick-and-mortar location without relying on physical people counting? 

Yet again, this is where mobile data can be applied. Instead of leveraging a people counter, brands and their in-app partners can gather relevant footfall data directly from the consumer’s device. With in-app advertising, it’s possible to determine precisely who specifically saw an ad and then later visited a store – after all, most of us have our smartphone on us at pretty much all times. In addition, in-app advertising data can be overlayed with either customer service insights or data from the likes of Nielsen or IRI to measure brand lift. 

Curious to see how this works in the real world? Be sure to check out our case studies that highlight how InMobi successfully helped a global sportswear retailer and a major home goods retailer boost footfall and in-person sales through mobile advertising. 

This is not to say that ad fraud will run rampant on iOS devices as soon as these changes go into effect in 2021, as many fraud-fighting techniques and strategies will continue to be just as relevant and effective. For instance, pre-bid anti-fraud efforts will not be impacted. But the changes Apple is introducing could impact some key fraud prevention options and activities. 

The Role of Device Identifiers in Fighting Fraud 

As we’ve highlighted previously on our blog, perhaps the biggest change coming related to iOS 14 is regarding the Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA). These changes to Apple’s new mobile operating system coming in 2021 will require each app installed on a device to display a pop-up message that specifically asks iPhone and iPad owners to opt in to having their personal data collected and shared in this manner. As a result of this mandatory, one-time prompt, it’s expected that most people won’t opt in for all the apps they have on their device. 

The IDFA is used right now in a variety of ways, including being leveraged to fight advertising fraud. That’s because behaviors (and related metrics) observed across the device can determine if an actual person interacted with an ad and is exhibiting plausibly human behavior.  

In particular, advertisers will be keeping a very close eye on post-bid fraud like click injection in a post-IDFA world. For instance, if a device (or, rather, a single device ID) has a battery that is never below a 100% charge over its entire observed lifetime – even as it generates ad clicks, app installs,  etc. – then it’s reasonable to assume it’s fraudulent. 

Another example: for companies running user acquisition advertising for their app, one way to determine if a legitimate person downloaded an app is to look at post-click behavior like click-to-install time and mean time to install (MTTI). Is the person opening and using the app after installing it to their device, or at least 24 hours after downloading it? With IDFA, it’s possible to gain a holistic look at total on-device behavior. 

But what happens when IDFA is taken out of the picture? In the above use case, if that UA advertiser is tracking installs using SKAdNetwork, then they have a limited view into post-install behavior from client-to-server transactions – just one reason why it could be trickier to determine if an install was legitimate or not.  

Predicting the Future of Fraud Fighting In App 

Of course, it’s critical to note that we’ve so far only talked about one type of mobile ad fraud. There are more types of in-app ad fraud besides post-install fraud, and many of these can be combated even without IDFA information. For instance, it’s still very much possible to ensure that real people are viewing an ad in full, that the ad was displayed to a real person, that the stated advertiser and publisher are legitimate, that the traffic is real, etc.  

Plus, all of the pre-bid anti-fraud measures that have been implemented over the past few years are still valid. App-ads.txt and sellers.json still work in a post-iOS 14 world. In addition, mobile measurement platforms and other third-party vendors, alongside industry bodies like the Trustworthy Accountability Group and Adjust’s Coalition Against Ad Fraud, are still functioning and fighting fraud on the proverbial front lines. 

And even in regard to install fraud, there are other ways to fight it without device-level data. For one, it’s still feasible to see if an ad click was legitimate or not, which can help suss out a potential click sniping or click injection scheme. Advertisers (and the wider ad tech industry) can also remove the incentives for these kinds of ad fraud to occur. This will hopefully lead to multi-touch attribution being more widely used too. 

While mobile ad fraud may never disappear fully, it has been declining for some time now. The expected depreciation of IDFA will impact the anti-fraud status quo, especially around post-bid fraud, but the industry will continue to find new methods to boost trust and transparency in the ecosystem no matter what. 

Learn how people will celebrate and shop this New Year with a survey conducted on InMobi Pulse and a report that brings interesting insights on consumer behavior, the changing trends, “Gearing up for a Festive Season in Malaysia”. 

Key Findings from the Report  

• With 22.7 million smartphone users in Malaysia, this festive season is going to be a mobile-first shopping season. 
• Consumer Spending: Consumer sentiment is going to be positive and the spending is going to return with 84% of Malaysians looking forward to celebrating the Chinese New Year (CNY) 2021. 70% of Malaysians are planning to spend more than MYR 1000 on CNY shopping.

• Malaysians are looking forward to spending their festive season with families and prefer to stay at home. 
• Among various categories, Food & Beverages and Shopping remain the top two categories of consumption, this festive season. 
• 44% of Malaysians travel back home 2 to 3 days before the CNY. 

• Shopping Outlook: Unplanned and impulsive shopping is on the rise among Malaysians this festive season. 
• Sales & Discounts: Malaysians learn about sales predominantly through mobile ads, and family & friends. 
• Digital-first Consumers: Consumers are going to depend on the digital world for the festive cheer, be it shopping, socializing, or leisure. 
• Household Targeting: Marketers must engage multiple audiences, decision-makers, and purchasers on mobile when it comes to making decisions in Malaysian households through cross-device identity graphs and personalized communication. 

InMobi’s Tết Festival 2021: InMobi Report shares insights on the trends and shopping behavior of consumers, the scope of mobile advertising with the increase in usage of apps, and the way ahead for marketers to drive conversions during the festive season.   

Key findings from the report:  

• Vietnamese prefer to celebrate the festive season with families and friends, and staying indoors 
• Consumer Spending: Along with the festive season, positivity and consumer spending is set to return. 58% of Vietnamese are excited to celebrate Tết 2021. 64% of respondents plan to spend more than VND 10 Mn on Tết Shopping.​ 
• Category Adoption: Consumers are going to spend on food, beverages & fashion for the upcoming Tết. Food & Beverages tops the list with 39% of Vietnamese preferring to indulge in them. 

• Mobile-first Festive Season: Mobile spearheads the shopping for Tết with 67% of Vietnamese using mobile for their shopping research. It’s fascinating to know that 59%of  consumers are going to use mobile for their festive purchases. 

• Impact of Socio-class on Consumer Spending: Different social classes have been facing the different impacts of the pandemic and thus have differentiated needs and plans for this festive season. While 23% of consumers feel that the pandemic has affected their shopping budget, 42% of festive shoppers remain unaffected due to the pandemic. 
• Digital-first Consumers: Consumers are going to depend on the digital world for their festive cheer, be it shopping, socializing, or leisure, which gives brands the unique opportunity to personalize communications for each customer 
• Household Targeting: 41% of consumers learn about shopping sales & offers from their friends & family. Marketers must leverage household targeting to reach out to multiple personas within the family based on visitation, appographic, and location attributes and send personalized communication based on user interests.   

Speaking on the partnership with InMobi, Mr. Gigih, Co-founder, Maleo said, “Maleo has over 50 million downloads from across Southeast Asia and is highly popular, especially among Indonesians. InMobi is one of our primary programmatic in-app monetization partners in the region. In the three years of association, we have witnessed a 100% increase in the ad revenues. With their best-in-class platform that brings in diverse programmatic buyers representing top brands, InMobi maximizes our in-app revenues through a seamless and non-intrusive ad experience. They enhance the engagement of the user while preserving the mechanics of the underlying game.” 

“Brand safe advertising has always been a top-of-the-mind issue for marketers, especially the ones that have a large loyal base that transcends generations and geographies. This is especially important given the multiple nuances that both performance and brand marketers must cater to. Even a single misstep can have a cascading impact. The InMobi Exchange and Maleo provide a platform through programmatic channels for brand-safe ads backed by strong measurement from MOAT and IAS”, said Sudhanshu Saxena, Head, Publisher Partnerships in Southeast Asia. 

Maleo can be accessed programmatically on the InMobi Exchange through various DSPs including direct access via DV360. To know more about our monetization services, visit our InMobi programmatic monetization page.  

About Maleo  

Maleo operates the popular Bus Simulator Indonesia game, providing the real experience of being a bus driver with the authentic flavor of Indonesian roadways and places. With high-quality, detailed graphics and advanced features like saved data, multi-player convoys, the game is a hot favorite in Indonesia with over 50 Million downloads. 

Like many other components of iOS 14 and IDFA, it’s still early to say exactly what the final impact will be until 2021 at the earliest. But, it’s highly likely that the status quo around frequency capping in the Apple mobile space will shift once iOS 14 is widely adopted. 

Frequency Capping Explained 

First, a definition: Frequency capping is a process implemented by advertisers to ensure that people only see their ads a set number of times in a given time frame (usually hours but sometimes day, week or over the course of a campaign’s lifetime). Essentially, frequency capping limits the number of times a user sees messaging from a particular brand over a set period.  

The idea behind it is to ensure that people are not inundated with an app’s ads, with the goal being to reach someone without annoying them. While frequency capping can be used for both display and video campaigns, it is often associated with high-impact formats like video ads since they are among the most memorable ad formats.  

How Frequency Capping Will Be Impacted By These Changes 

While there are different ways to frequency cap, by far one of the most common in mobile in-app advertising is at the device level. Essentially, the idea is to limit the number of impressions served on a particular device.  

Within the Apple ecosystem, IDFA is/was a common option for frequency capping (the other being session-based identifiers). Because it is largely static (stays the same for as long as a device is in use) and is useful across apps and mobile websites, IDFA has largely become the default method for making sure individuals are not overwhelmed with a brand’s messaging no matter how they are using their device. 

This is where things will change. With iOS 14, the expectation right now is that the majority of iPhone and iPad owners will opt out of being tracked in this manner. As a result, it will likely become increasingly difficult to frequency cap at the device level in the iOS ecosystem (frequency capping at the session/app level will continue unabated). 

So what will advertisers do? There are some other sources of knowledge, like IP addresses, that can be leveraged, but they’re not as accurate. Supply-side platforms and exchanges may also provide identifiers for this purpose. It’s also likely that the Identifiers for Vendors (IDV) will be used. 

The problem with IDV is that it only applies to apps owned by the same company. IDV is a publisher-level identifier applying only to a single company's apps. While this helps advertisers when they target big app publishers like Google (say, across YouTube and other Google properties), the same advertisers may not be able to use IDVs as effectively in a programmatic environment. 

What To Expect In The Future 

So what will frequency capping look like in iOS post iOS 14? There are a few likely scenarios: 

• Advertisers will use alternative sources of user identification, like IDV and/or IP addresses, with the knowledge that some people may end up being overexposed to a particular ad.  
• Advertisers will alter their creatives and messaging more frequently and/or will only run certain creatives and messaging for shorter periods of time, which helps to decrease the likelihood that someone is exposed to the same messaging anyways. 
• Banner ads are frequency capped less often or less aggressively than other ad formats, so advertisers that run a lot of banners may not be as concerned as others if someone happens to see their ads frequently, since banners by their nature as not as invasive. 

Of course, it’s possible that other options will emerge too, including combinations of the above scenarios. Until these changes around IDFA are live and widely adopted, advertisers can only guess and prepare for what the changes might mean regarding frequency capping. 

What are your predictions? We’d love to hear them on social media! Send us your thoughts on Twitter, Facebook and/or LinkedIn. 

The holiday season always is a huge opportunity for publishers and app developers to make the best returns from their ad inventory. Advertisers and their DSPs typically rely on the last three months of the calendar year to boost annual sales and increase ad spending to reach holiday shoppers.   

Weighing Bidders and Your Likely Course of Action 

Monetization SDKs are an important source of revenue for apps but integrating with the wrong SDK can cause irreparable damage to a publisher's hard work and reputation. The hard work put into building apps needs to be sustained with commensurate continual efforts to protect them from malicious activities including those that degrade user experience and that violate user privacy.  

We are pleased to announce that InMobi is now a certified demand partner on the Prebid Server. Prebid provides an open and flexible integration option for app developers and publishers looking for a fair and transparent header bidding platform.  

The COVID-19 pandemic adds a distinct wrinkle to the 2020-2021 cold and flu season. As the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has noted, “Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, reducing the spread of respiratory illnesses, like flu, this fall and winter is more important than ever.” 

How people stock up on their sickness essentials will invariably look a little different. Many Americans are far less likely to visit supermarkets, pharmacies, corner stores, etc. for necessities like cold medicine and tissues, instead preferring contactless options like online delivery. 

The ongoing pandemic may make a significant number of Americans hypervigilant about their health this cold and flu season, although how adults in the U.S. obtain their key cold and flu essentials will have to look differently with in-person shopping often an option to be avoided. 

But who specifically in the U.S. is turning to mobile and apps to buy their cold and flu season supplies? For a deeper dive on this audience, we looked at the people who recently visited physical CVS locations or who have engaged with the following brands on mobile: Aleve, HALLS cough drops, Kleenex, Tylenol and Vicks. 

Here’s what we uncovered. 

Cold and Flu Season Audience Demographic Analysis 

• 58% of this audience is female. 
• 23% are between 46 and 55 years old, while 17% 56 to 65 years old. An additional 17% are between the ages of 26 and 35. 
• 44% is White, while 26% is Hispanic/Latinx and 22% is Black. 
• 43% have annual incomes between $35,000 and $100,000. 

Top Mobile Brands for Cold and Flu Season Shoppers 

Some of the top apps owned and used by this audience include the apps from CVS, Target, GoodRx, Sam’s Club, Walgreens, Dollar General, Kroger and Walmart – all places to obtain cold and flu season essentials. 

Interestingly, some of the most popular mobile websites visited by this cohort include many news sites like The Hill, Today, CBS Local and NBC News, to name a few. They also are interested in deals and bargains, as evidenced by the number of sessions on the mobile websites for Groupon, Wayfair and OfferUp.  

Understanding Mobile Shopping Habits Around Cold and Flu Season Essentials 

How will these consumers be buying tissues, medicine and other key cold and flu season items? According to our research, they’re not going directly to these brands to make these purchases. 

In July, just 31% of Americans we spoke to said they were even aware they could purchase products directly from these brands. Only 19% said they had browsed their mobile websites with a scant 3% saying they had completed a brand-direct purchase. 

Why aren’t these consumers going brand direct to make a sale? According to our research, 26% said the purchase process was difficult – the most commonly cited reply.  

But there is some hope on the horizon. When asked about their likelihood to make a brand-direct purchase in this space during the second half of 2020, 32% said they were likely to highly likely to shop in this manner. 

Cold and Flu Season Mobile Audiences 

Looking to reach these kinds of consumers in our in-app advertising campaigns coming up? Here are a few sample audience segments to consider utilizing: 

• Pharmacy visitors: All users who have visited a pharmacy at least once in the past six months. 

• Grocery delivery users: All users who have downloaded a grocery delivery app or visited a grocery delivery site over the past six months. 

• Health and wellness users: Built using app and mobile web behavior, this segment covers users engaging with top fitness properties (relating to gyms, diets, workout plans, etc.) along with those who have visited a fitness center, gym or health club at least three times in the past six months. 

Interested in learning more about InMobi’s audiences and why they’re the best in the business? Reach out today to schedule a call. 

About the Author 

Matthew Kaplan has over a decade of digital marketing experience, working to support the content goals of the world’s biggest B2B and B2C brands. He is a passionate app user and evangelist, working to support diverse marketing campaigns across devices. 

So what can retailers do to more effectively ensure their survival despite these short-term and long-term trends? Increasingly, the answer lies in mobile apps.  

The Many Benefits of Retail Mobile Apps 

The stores that have apps will drive higher sales versus their app-less competitors. After all, if someone is willing to take the step to download a brand’s app, they’re likely already a loyal customer.  

Apps provide a seamless consumer experience, enabling customers to effectively leverage deals, conduct research and place orders either for in-store pickup/ curbside pickup or for delivery. Consumers today appreciate choice, and apps provide retailers with the ability to provide their customers with options that suit them and their unique needs and buying habits. 

Another great advantage of having users with their app on device, beyond providing options to have a direct one-on-one conversation, is to also provide offers and discounts as part of a larger effort to receive direct, quality feedback. This combination of direct and indirect feedback can help app publishers and developers gain a much deeper understanding of their customer base. 

Understanding App Users 

It’s important for retailers to understand that apps are not just for highly niche, highly technical audiences. Today, everyone uses apps – and expects to use apps when advantageous. According to eMarketer, adults in the U.S. spend more time using mobile devices than they do watching television, and the vast majority of this time on mobile is devoted to apps. 

InMobi’s own research on this topic bears this out as well. As our first-party mobile data reveals, people across genders, locations, income levels and interests are all devoted app owners and users. Increasingly, if not’s a question of whether someone uses apps but rather which apps they use. 

App Users and In-Store Footfall 

What makes someone more likely to visit a brand’s physical locations? According to our research, it all comes down to app ownership. In fact, we found that someone with a brand’s app is 15% more likely to visit their brick-and-mortar shops compared to non-app owners. 

In the summer of 2019, InMobi turned to its first-party mobile data to look at the customers of 20 major brands within the quick-service restaurant (QSR), coffee, pharmacy and retail grocery spaces in the U.S. We passively observed well over 117,000 store locations across the country and around 9.5 million physical store visits. 

The differences between app owners and non-app owners in relation to in-store visits was especially stark in the retail, grocery and pharmacy spaces. Pharmacy app owners visit physical locations close to 21% more often than those without the app, while the percentage is over 19% in retail. Major coffee chain app owners visit those physical locations over 13% more often than those without the app, while the percentage is over 11% in the QSR space.   

These findings make sense. After all, if someone is willing to take the step to download a brand’s app, then they’re also likely to already be a loyal customer predisposed to buying from that outlet.  

But for brands, it’s critical to understand the extent to which app ownership corresponds with in-store traffic. Today, it has become increasingly difficult to drive in-store footfall – and this was true before COVID-19. As this data clearly shows, apps are one of the surefire ways brands can continually engage with their customers and get them to frequent brick-and-mortar stores. 

For some companies, especially supermarkets and pharmacies along with brands that rely on sales from these locations, it’s still critical to drive footfall. These stores are open and rely on in-person visits even today. 

While driving people to physical locations might not be possible for brands right now due to current realities, those with apps have a place for users to continue to engage with them even with physical storefronts closed. Apps are also a key avenue for directly offering curbside pickup and home delivery.  

People who have downloaded a brand’s app on their device are more loyal than those without. Users with a brand’s app on their device spend more time engaging with the brand on their phone.  

Understanding App-Less Consumers 

What about those without the apps? According to our earlier research, the top reason people said why they don’t have QSR apps is because they prefer to buy things physically. 

Of course, it’s important to remember that this research was conducted before the spread of novel coronavirus in the U.S. As more recent InMobi research highlights, brands that have a distinct app strategy can carve out space for themselves today.  

For example, Shipt, the e-commerce delivery app from Target, saw a surge in new installs in March 2020, which is enabling them to more effectively compete with grocery store chains, other big box retailers like Walmart and e-commerce giants like Amazon. 

Winning Retail Consumers Today and In the Future 

What can retailers do to stay relevant today as COVID-19 impacts every component of life? The answer is apps. What can retailers do to ensure continued relevance and sales in the months and years ahead? The answer is also mobile apps. As mobile become more central to how consumers find, choose and buy everything from clothing to food and everything in between, it’s critical for brands to use apps to retain market share and delight customers. 

InMobi brings forth all the nitty-gritty details of the consumer sentiment, shopping trends, and the best ways for marketers to leverage the festive season sales in the post-COVID world in the Gearing Up for the Festive Season Report. 

The Key Highlights of the Report 

• Along with the holiday season, festive cheer and consumer spending are set to return to the Philippines. 86% of Filipinos are planning to shop this festive season. 
• There is a latent demand with 90% of consumers having delayed certain purchases due to the pandemic giving a massive opportunity for marketers to utilize the festive season demand. 
• Consumers are going to depend on the digital world for their festive cheer, be it shopping, socializing, or leisure. With people staying at home, entertainment, and shopping shifts to digital, predominantly on mobile. As a result of staying indoors, there’s a sharp increase in mobile content consumption.  
• Household Targeting: Roles within the household are changing and to cater to diverse audience personas, household targeting is the key to identify multiple devices at home and reach out to decision-makers and purchase influencers. 
• Mobile Engagement: Gaming and Entertainment are driving high usage and marketers can leverage the momentum to drive the incremental sales with InMobi’s in-app advertising platforms. 
• Shoppable Media: This festive season, marketers can engage users through shoppable ads that enable them to check the prices, compare and shop, and provide an interactive shopping experience. With personalization being the key to engage users, brands can customize the creative experience by recreating festive themes. 

Brought on by the rising popularity and usage of online retail, eCommerce shopping dates have become a major cultural phenomenon worldwide and an integral part of consumers’ shopping calendars. The Indonesian online sale season popularly known as ‘Harbolnas’ is known for overwhelming offers and purchases, presenting brands with a massive opportunity to acquire and engage customers.  

InMobi’s Harbolnas Indonesia: Gearing Up for the Sale Season Report shares insights on the trends and shopping behavior of consumers, the scope of mobile advertising with the increase in usage of apps, and the way ahead for marketers to drive conversions.  

Key findings from the report: 

• Online shopping sees a spike post-COVID-19. People prefer to stay at home, and hence the mobile consumption has seen a significant rise, especially video content. 
• 87% of Indonesians are mobile shoppers. Mobile is going to spearhead the shopping sale this year. 
• Indonesians are becoming more mindful of how they spend their money, leading them to adopt new habits.  ​Indonesians will choose price over brand loyalty and discounts will be the top priority for the upcoming Harbolnas. 
• With 92% of consumers exhibiting new shopping behavior influenced by word-of-mouth and online ads, brands have a high opportunity to bag conversions. Brands can leverage mobile to drive awareness, consideration to conversions. 
• Data-driven Marketing: Marketers must choose measurement at multiple stages of the purchase journey; be it online to online conversions with mobile-first shopping pages, footfall uplift using geo-targeted polygons at stores, third-party loyalty data to understand purchases, or household targeting through cross-identity device graphs. 
• Household Targeting: Marketers must leverage household targeting to reach out to multiple personas based on visitation, appographic, and location attributes and send personalized communication based on user interests.  
• The In-app Advantage: The increased usage of Gaming and Entertainment apps is opening doors for advertisers who are looking to reach the audiences that will future-proof their media strategies. In-app is highly compliant with the brand safety regulations, viewable, verified by IAS and MOAT SDK integrations​, and each app is reviewed and approved by App Store / Play Store bringing standardization in ad formats ensures marketers a ‘fraud-free’ approach to reach their target audiences.

• Growth Marketing: Integrated Performance Platforms can enable brands to create a media strategy in a way that preserves the measurability and immediacy of mobile, both on programmatic and non-programmatic channels without compromising on transparency and safety. 
• Leveraging Retargeting: Retargeting can activate dormant users and avoid uninstalls, minimize cart abandonment, and lost revenue. The three-step rule of activation, retargeting and re-engagement turns your one-time visitors into long-term consumers. 
• Mobile Creative Best Practices: Creative that turn the mobile-first game into mobile-only opportunities are the need of the hour for marketers. InMobi’s ground-breaking creative with visually rich, contextually aware brand narratives, and carefully crafted storytelling videos enable your brand’s voice to be heard by the right audiences. Voice ads and gamified ads are here to rule the sale season. Learn how marketers must explore them to widen their reach and strengthen their impact. 

What should creatives look like for retailers looking to drive app installs/UA (user acquisition) this holiday season?

This is a particularly interesting question, since more consumers than ever before will be taking their holiday shopping online this season. According to eMarketer, 81.5% of U.S. adults say that they will do more than half of their holiday shopping digitally, which means it’s a great time for retailers to encourage app downloads and signups.

In our research, (Celtra and Dynata Survey, August 2020) Celtra recently surveyed 1,000 U.S. consumers to uncover their feelings surrounding holiday creative. 33% of consumers responded that an entertaining story or message makes the creative more memorable. 28% of consumers responded that a high-quality design is what makes the message stick. 23% of consumers responded that they find the ad to be memorable when the brand is instantly recognizable. Interestingly enough, only 17% of consumers said that a lucrative offer makes the ad more appealing. 

If you are looking to drive more app installs/UA with your creative this holiday season, focus on making a variety of messages which are entertaining and meaningful, with gorgeous high-quality design instead of relying solely on an incentive or free offer to encourage consumers to download your app. 

What should creatives look like for retailers looking to drive in-store/in-person visits/footfall?

In 2020, with the pandemic on our hands, it suddenly became much more difficult to drive in-store visits let alone any in-person meetings at all. 56% of shoppers say they visited fewer brick and mortar stores during the pandemic. One thing we can bet on is that increased e-commerce adoption is here to stay. Older shoppers, who perhaps had never shopped online before, are getting used to this new normal. For example, my parents (65+ baby boomers) started using Amazon for the very first time in 2020. They love to buy toys for my baby niece. 

E-commerce is the new brick and mortar, and even more so during this unpredictable time. We suggest investing in creative experiences centered around online shopping as opposed to in-person shopping. Experiment with shoppable formats, and take advantage of the true value of audiences. Build creative experiences that encourage online conversion in a way that will resonate with the audience’s particular online shopping experience. Glossier is a great example of a brand that does this really well. A digital-first company, Glossier never had a brick and mortar store. They always release special, limited edition products during the holiday season which are designed specifically for the digital shopping experience of Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

How should creatives this year address the current state of the world?

According to a recent Comscore report, news consumption is still up: 28% higher than pre-pandemic levels in July/August. People are paying attention to what’s going on and ad creatives are not sitting idly by in the dark. 

Something that we’re seeing a lot of at Celtra right now are creatives that make bold statements with words, using a typographical approach rather than visuals. This could be the right approach to take when you need a creative to make an impact, but stay consistent with a brand’s identity (namely colors and fonts). This approach also works well for making changes during a live campaign. For example, if you need to make a change on the fly, let’s say a copy change in a disclaimer about shipping, you can easily pop this content into a dynamic feed and apply it across all of your creative variants automatically.

How can retailers make effective banners and video ads?

Video is the main way we are connecting and communicating with each other now. I’m a big fan of the punk and hardcore scene here in NYC, so I’ve been watching as many livestream gigs as possible. For some artists, this approach works really well (especially if they’re playing something intimate and acoustic). But for others, the effect isn’t the same if you’re not standing right in front of them. 

The same approach should be taken with banner and video ads: one size does not fit all. A modular ad product suite is the key to finding the optimal ways to drive performance. You need to be able to constantly innovate your offering and adopt a workflow where you can easily test various combinations to find the winning ones. This means not just ad products but also ad experiences: UX-friendly formats combined with video, animation and shoppable features. Plus, an efficient and scalable production process is crucial. Consistent design templates help production teams quickly apply new advertiser content during each campaign launch. 

How important is creative customization for retailers (along the lines of personalization and tailoring creatives for different segments of your audience)?

This is also a topic I’m really interested in these days, because we all know that third-party cookies are dying but we don’t yet know what is going to replace them for sure. This puts a big question mark on the future of creative personalization.

This is actually great news for publishers who have robust audience data to offer. As privacy changes sweep our industry, introducing the idea of customer-centric, consumer-owned data, advertisers will need to find new ways to target their audiences. They’ll turn to the publishers, who can offer lucrative audience data which matches their desired customer. 

It’s possible that with the death of the third-party cookie, contextual personalization is going to make a big comeback in ad creative. Contextual targeting will be key, as opposed to behavioral targeting. Ads will be targeted based on adjacent content, rather than by previous site visits.

About the Author/Interviewer     

Matthew Kaplan has over a decade of digital marketing experience, working to support the content goals of the world’s biggest B2B and B2C brands. He is a passionate app user and evangelist, working to support diverse marketing campaigns across devices.

Growth in a Post-pandemic World

The pandemic has changed the way in which people are consuming mobile and content on their mobile devices, especially in a market like India, where the lockdown kicked in with far more severity. Starting late March, early April, people started playing a lot of games on their phones, which meant that session time started going up. A lot of movies releasing on digital screens has been a witness to companies being nimble and adapting to the new normal.

Qualitative Growth is the Key

Marketers are focused on understanding the highest performing channels and investing in channels that deliver the best results. It does not purely mean the scale at which users are being driven onto their platform, but also that they are looking very closely at the quality of users being driven. “What I've seen over the last, say three to five years happening across the globe, is people have moved away from just acquiring the user to acquiring a loyal user, the definition of loyal user varies by the company, and by the vertical”, says Navin.

Regional Diversities Play a Crucial Role in Determining Growth

Depending upon geography and the vertical, the growth trends vary. Marketers from different geographies like North America are primarily focused on transparency. So, the attention is far more on knowing exactly every part of the funnel of the advertising ecosystem.

In emerging markets like India and SEA are chasing growth rapidly as they are evolving faster than ever. This means these markets are more scale-focused, scale at the right cost, scale, and the right users and less focused on transparency. But given the stage of evolution of both the market and the companies are younger than what it is in North America, they've been chasing scale at the cost of transparency.

The Solve for Growth in Different Markets

The spending ability of digital-first users in North America is very different from that in some of these markets. So, a lot of pockets in APAC may continue to drive for growth in high volumes.

Navin shares his thoughts on the varying markets and says “I think in very similar verticals, I would call it either e-commerce or, possibly media, which is the likes of Disney+ or Netflix, the trends could be very similar, where you're looking for where because any user who's transacting needs to transact and higher ticket volumes, they will tend to imitate something like North America in terms of trends that they're looking for, and the kind of users that they chase. But say verticals like fitness, education, technology, banking, and financial services, etc., will go more for higher penetration because there the ticket value could be much lesser, and hence they chase volume rather than a small set of higher quality. That is what I see as being different between the two ecosystems.”

Turning One-time Purchaser to a Loyal Customer

Brands are not acquiring a one-time purchaser; they are going out of the way to convert them to loyal consumers. Right from providing incremental value to seamless experiences, brands are playing the best bets to build a strong retention pipeline. And the ones that do that well are going to really have a huge pool of long-term loyal users, that's just going to drive like continued growth for them on an ongoing basis.

Startups Must Leverage Influencer Marketing to Drive Growth

To stay on top of the game, marketers must leverage the early adopters and micro-influencers who could influence the larger community. The other growth driver for startups is going to be investing in measurable channels. Paid marketing calls for systems in place that can measure the impact, be it analytics that defines the consumer journey, attribution channels, or marketing automation platforms.

Navin adds, “I think the last part in terms of measurability is to ensure that you're watching your customer acquisition cost like a hawk, right? It's important that you keep seeing how the metric evolves as you pump in marketing dollars because it's not just the paid marketing channels that are expected to drive results, you are hoping that these paid marketing channels bring in a trend of virality that I spoke about earlier, that they start helping you go up the Play Store. And so overall, your organics also start going up. So that I think is very important for every marketer to understand that your marketing dollars are not influencing just the volume of users coming into your paid marketing channels, but also look for that additional flywheel of where the organic kick is going to come in from, where are you going to get the additional benefit of putting in marketing dollars”.

Growth Marketing: The Futuristic Approach

Marketers must adapt to the new normal in the two large ecosystems- The USA and APAC. The leaders in the advertising ecosystem must ensure that all the right standards are set and communicated to the brands to help them understand the consumer journey in the next 12 months.

Navin concludes by saying “Our growth lies in the growth of our partners and will be far more invested as we help them grow across markets. I know that my colleagues are doing the same, I know that I and my colleagues in APAC are doing the same. And we'll continue to do that. Because I think that's the only way in which we can all learn and grow”.

Mobile-first is the Way Ahead for Marketers

A lot of the businesses have had to become truly mobile-first, rather than considering mobile as an alternate channel. App experience, the digital experience, is far more beautiful, sophisticated, and natural to the users. And it's been interesting to see how different verticals have taken the leap, moved around, fast offered additional services.

Upscale Your Growth Marketing with InMobi

Interested in learning more about how InMobi’s growth marketing expertise can help your business? Reach out today to Navin at navin.madhavan@inmobi.com or on Twitter at @madnavin.

For more information about InMobi’s growth marketing capabilities, head to inmobi.com/dsp.

About the Author/Interviewer     

Matthew Kaplan has over a decade of digital marketing experience, working to support the content goals of the world’s biggest B2B and B2C brands. He is a passionate app user and evangelist, working to support diverse marketing campaigns across devices.

1) Who Are These Mobile App Users? 

For a deep dive into who was using the top retail Android and iOS apps, we turned to the data. Specifically, we used InMobi’s first-party mobile data to look at who had the Walmart, Amazon, eBay, Wayfair, Target, Walgreens, Etsy, CVS, Kohl’s, Disney Store, Best Buy, RetailMeNot and/or Zulily apps on their mobile devices. 

• Perhaps unsurprisingly, the majority of those with these apps are women. Overall, 55% of recent app installers were female. 
• 61% of recent app installers were White.  
• The bulk of recent retail and e-commerce app installers are in middle- and lower-income brackets. Two-thirds make less than $75,000 a year annually. 
• In terms of age, 22% of recent app installers were between 46 and 55 years old, while 20% were between the ages of 26 and 35. In addition, 35% were over the age of 55. 

2) How Do Users of Retailer Apps Differ from Users in Other App Categories? 

Interestingly, retail app installers look very similar to those who had downloaded apps to purchase consumer packaged goods (CPG) recently. Between July and September, people who had installed popular apps to buy CPG items, including Drizly, Instacart and Walmart, were also majority female, majority White, of similar ages and mostly in the middle- and lower-income ranges.  

There were similar trends observed with consumer-to-consumer (C2C) marketplace apps like Letgo and OfferUp. In our analysis of that space from 2019, we found that many C2C app owners were also female, White and with annual incomes under $75,000. 

Many of these retail app users can also be found playing popular mobile gaming apps. In particular, our analysis of popular hyper casual games showed that many of those playing popular mobile games are also female and White. In addition, many were either between 26 and 35 years old or older. 

Interestingly, those who had installed major retail apps of late are different than those who have downloaded consumer electronics retail apps recently. In the consumer electronics space, most retail app installers are male and wealthier. 

3) Will Shoppers Use Mobile Devices To Buy Holiday Gifts in 2020? 

According to the latest stats from App Annie, mobile is playing a larger role than ever before in the shopping experience. In particular, App Annie has found American consumers spending a total of 1 billion hours shopping on mobile, an increase of 50% year over year in time users spend shopping on their mobile devices. 

While a significant chunk of this growth is happening because of COVID-19 and the drive to limit out-of-home shopping, it is key to note that these trends were well under way even before the year began. For example, at the end of 2019, Business Insider predicted retail mobile payments to be greater than $280 billion in the U.S. alone. 

However, App Annie did note that when consumers will be using mobile for retail shopping will look different this year. In the past, a lot of e-commerce spending happened right at the beginning of the holiday shopping season, specifically on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. But considering the state of the global economy and recent moves by Amazon, mobile retail spending is expected to be more spread out in 2020 than it has been in years past. 

4) Will M-Commerce Consumers Use Mobile Websites or Apps? 

All told, total global mobile app revenue is expected to equal close to $582 billion in 2020. But, none of the top 10 grossing apps are retail apps. So does that mean that most mobile commerce is happening on mobile websites over apps? 

Not at all. In fact, our research from both the summer of 2020 and the 2019 holiday shopping season shows that consumers are increasingly gravitating towards a number of apps to both learn about products and to make purchases. 

However, there are some interesting wrinkles to the retail mobile app space: 

• The Google Play Store is driving a lot of this m-commerce growth, with App Annie noting major increases in usage on mobile devices using the Android operating system. 
• Amazon thoroughly dominates the shopping app category, although other retail apps are seeing growth. 
• Americans will be using retail mobile apps primarily to buy clothing, shoes, jewelry and accessories this holiday shopping season. 

5) How Can Retailers Drive App Downloads? 

With app-based m-commerce expected to rise, retailers need to put themselves in the best position possible to capture these sales. As a result, it’s critical that retailers drive both downloads and usage of their mobile apps, while also keeping app and shopping cart abandonment rates low this holiday season. 

So what are some ways these retails can drive app downloads? In-app advertising can always help for user acquisition, along with other marketing strategies. There’s a reason why eMarketer predicts retail digital ad spending to be greater than $28 billion in 2020. 

Retailers are going to be very aggressive this year with their digital offerings – even more so than in the past. The fact that major retailers like Walmart and Target are not opening on Thanksgiving Day for the first time in recent memory shows how retailers are further prioritizing digital shopping channels in 2020. This may help set the tone and urgency with other brands and their agencies. 

Specials and app-specific offers can help a lot too. In fact, in looking at daily app install trends over the summer, brands like CVS and Best Buy had the best results when they launched exclusives and app-first offers.  

Already, brands are following this example. For instance, Home Depot announced two months ahead of Black Friday that they were offering discounts staring in early November, while Best Buy is planning promotions earlier this year than in the past.   

Did any of these data points surprise you? What role do you think apps will play this holiday shopping season? Let us know on social media! Send us your comments on Twitter, LinkedIn and/or Facebook. 

Interested in learning more about mobile shopping habits? Want to conduct your own mobile-first research campaign? Reach out today to learn more about InMobi Pulse and its many capabilities. 

About the Author 

Matthew Kaplan has over a decade of digital marketing experience, working to support the content goals of the world’s biggest B2B and B2C brands. He is a passionate app user and evangelist, working to support diverse marketing campaigns across devices. 

To get a better sense of what potential buyers are looking for from retail stores, InMobi recently commissioned a survey using InMobi Pulse, InMobi’s mobile market research solution. The poll reached a diverse panel over 1,600 adults from across the United States, asking questions around what will draw people to local stores and online shopping portals, particularly during the upcoming 2020 holiday shopping season. 

Here’s what our research found. 

1) Mobile is Increasingly A Key Point of Purchase 

Many Americans say they will be researching and buying gifts (including products and services) from their mobile devices this holiday season. Overall, 62% said they would be browsing and buying gifts from mobile this year, with 67% of all women saying the same thing. 

More Americans will be buying from mobile in 2020 than in 2019. Compared to last year, 47% said they will be buying more from mobile this year, while 44% said mobile device usage would remain the same. Only 9% said they would be buying less from mobile this year. 

Most of this mobile shopping is happening on app too. While 47% said they would be using mobile websites for their holiday shopping, 76% said would be using mobile apps for the same purpose. This difference is especially stark with women (45% using mobile web versus 83% using mobile apps).  

Action: Not only is mobile in-app advertising table stakes going forward, but it’s also critical for retailers to invest in both their own mobile apps and popular third-party retail apps. In fact, there should be a sense of urgency towards getting first-party apps up to par, since they are key to both how consumers learn about and buy items. 

2) Retail’s Mobile Target Audience Includes Older Millennials, Gen X and Parents 

While mobile shopping is shaping up to be popular with just about everyone this holiday season, it seems to be especially popular with both people between 36 and 45 years old and those with adult children still at home.  

For instance, 71% of those between 36 and 45 said they would be buying and browsing on mobile this holiday season, compared to 62% overall. And, over half of those in this age group (56%) said they would be buying more from mobile in 2020 compared to 2019. Further, while 48% of Americans between 36 and 45 said they would be using mobile websites for their holiday shopping, a whopping 85% said would be using mobile apps for the same purpose. 

We saw similar trends with adults who have children over 18 still living at home. Not only did 54% of those in this cohort say they would be buying on mobile more this year compared to last year, but they would also more likely to use mobile apps or mobile websites (71% versus 49%). 

Parents with young kids were also more likely than average to be using mobile as part of their holiday shopping journey. For one, 69% of parents with younger kids said they would be both buying and browsing from mobile this year. In addition, they were more likely than the typical American to favor mobile apps over mobile webpages (78% for apps compared to 53% for mobile websites). 

Action: Leverage InMobi custom audiences to identify and target these consumers in retail ad campaigns. This can help to ensure that retailers are reaching their best audiences when running mobile in-app advertising. 

3) Mobile Advertising Should Be Used for Bringing Customers to Both Online Stores and Brick and Mortar Locations 

As our research shows, mobile advertising is far more effective than traditional forms of advertising like local newspaper ad buys for retailers looking to drive sales this holiday season. Overall, 53% said they discover new products through mobile ads, with rates being even higher for those between 36 and 45 years old (59%) and those with adult children at home (58%). 

Top Retail Mobile Ad Formats 

Video ads are more likely to be noticed than any other ad format, with 42% saying they notice these kinds of ads on their mobile devices. Video was followed by native ads (40%), banners (29%) and interstitial ads (25%). 

People between the ages of 36 and 45 notice mobile ads at a much higher rate than their peers. Not only do 53% of people in this age range say they notice mobile video ads, but 46% said they noticed native ads while a whopping 43% said they noticed banner ads. 

Top App Categories for Retail Mobile Advertising 

Where do consumers notice mobile ads? The top answer was social apps (45%) followed by gaming apps (38%). Interestingly, only 36% said they noticed ads on mobile websites. 

But it is worthwhile to note that different types of in-app ad placements perform better with certain groups than others. For example, people between the ages of 26 and 35 are more likely than others to notice ads in social apps, while women are more likely than men to say they notice ads in gaming apps. In addition, people with young kids are far more likely than the general population to notice ads in streaming apps, men reported the highest rates of ad noticing in news apps. 

Best Call to Actions for Mobile Ads 

After seeing an ad for a product that interests them, what action do Americans usually take? By far the top answer across the board was visit the brand’s website, with 60% saying this was their most common next step. 

This is a critical insight for retailers running mobile ads to consider. In light of this step, brands must make sure that there is a smooth transition between the mobile app environment and the mobile web page.  

It’s important to know that, as stated previously many consumers don’t want to buy from a mobile website. This shows that mobile ads can help with discovery and mid-funnel prospecting, but not always direct sales; only 15% said purchased a product directly after seeing an ad. 

Our research did find that mobile ads can be highly effective at driving footfall to brick and mortar stores. After visit a brand’s website, find a brand’s location to visit was the second-most commonly cited post-ad action step.  

In addition, 18% said they either opened or downloaded a brand’s app after seeing their ad; around a quarter of those between the ages of 26 and 45 said they took this action after seeing an ad for a product that interested them. Yet again, this highlights why retailers should invest in their own app and not solely rely on third-party e-commerce stores. 

Action: Embrace mobile advertising (especially in-app advertising) for out-of-store and in-store advertising, since it is often seen and is effective. However, retailers need to make sure they are investing in the right kinds of ad creatives for their target audience, and that they are showing up in the right kinds of apps. Retail mobile ads should also include an appropriate call to action that will likely lead to results. 

4) Expect Increasing Sales of Clothing and Electronics from M-Commerce 

Over half (55%) said they would be buying clothing, shoes and/or bags from their mobile devices this holiday season. This is hardly surprising, as our reporting from last year found the same thing to be true then. 

What else will consumers be buying from their mobile devices this holiday season? Other popular categories include personal electronics (43%), toys (40%), home items like décor, furniture and kitchenware (34%) and beauty and personal care items (31%). Again, this all largely aligns with what our 2019 research uncovered.  

And it shows that Americans are not really making impulse buys on mobile. The kinds of items that consumers are buying using their mobile devices during the holiday shopping season are often major purchases. Many of the top spending categories are marquee spending items, which consumers typically don’t buy on a whim. 

Action: Retailers with offerings in these categories should both embrace mobile advertising and ensure they have quality mobile shopping channels established. 

2020 Holiday Shopping: A Special Event or Business As Usual? 

In many ways, 2020 is very different than any other year when it comes to retail shopping patterns. After all, not only are people more likely to stay at home and avoid crowded indoor spaces, but many people have been economically impacted by COVID-19. 

And yet, in other ways, 2020 shopping trends are not that different than what has been observed in the past. Mobile shopping was on the rise even before 2020, and our data shows that it is indeed here to stay. Mobile continues to be a key part of the retail shopping experience. 

What do you think of our survey results? What will the 2020 holiday shopping experience actually look like? We’d love to hear from you on social media! You can reach out to us on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. 

But of these options, which ones do American consumers prefer? Ultimately, how are the top video on demand services used across devices? That’s what we wanted to find out. 

In July 2020, we surveyed close to 1,900 adults in the U.S. using InMobi Pulse, InMobi’s mobile market research solution. In particular, we wanted to know how many video streaming service apps they had on their favorite devices. 

In terms of video player hardware, we looked specifically at Android and iOS mobile devices, computers (including laptops), media streaming devices like Chromecast, smart television sets, set top boxes like the Xfinity X1 TV box and gaming consoles like Xbox. On the streaming content side, the apps included in our reporting included popular options like HBO’s suite of apps, Disney+, Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime Video, alongside ad supported streaming content options like Pluto and Tubi. 

Here’s what we uncovered 

Video Streaming Services Use on Different Devices 

First, we wanted to see how many of these video streaming/movie/TV apps people had downloaded on each device. While the averages depend on the hardware in question, most consumers have just one to two of these apps per device, on average.  

On the high end were smart TVs and streaming devices, while set top boxes and mobile devices were on the low end. In fact, among those who watch video streaming content on their smartphones and/or tablets, over a third of them have just one mobile app for these purposes. 

And which apps were most likely to be found and used on multiple devices? Netflix, perhaps unsurprisingly, tops the list, with over half of Netflix users using the service on two or more devices. 

This aligns with what we found when we asked about the most popular apps per device. Across all types of hardware, Netflix tops the list. But, beyond that, the order differed notably across devices. Interestingly, the two apps we found to be most popular with Millennial and Gen Z consumers (Disney+ and HBO) were unlikely to be a top three app used on any of the devices we studied. 

We also wanted to look at engagement, to see how the device used to watch video on demand apps impacted time spent with top apps. While Netflix sees a lot of usage on desktops and laptops, Hulu sees the most viewing happen on mobile devices while Amazon Prime Video has a lot of engagement through gaming consoles. 

Which app owners are most likely to have other video streaming apps? Who are the biggest fans of different streaming services? Disney+ mobile app owners are streaming fanatics, with the most app crossover observed on mobile devices. All streaming services have high crossover with Amazon Prime Video, although Amazon Prime Video and Netflix app users have the smallest crossover with other streaming apps. 

How Marketers Can Use These Insights 

As the amount of time spent watching live TV declines, video on demand apps have become the premier entertainment destination for adults in the U.S. After all, our data found that many Americans spend hours a day using these apps. For marketers, this shift represents an opportunity – so long as they understand what this evolution in media consumption actually entails. 

For starters, while paid subscription services are the reigning champs in this space, there is growing usage of ad-supported video on demand services too. No matter the device used, well over half of both Pluto and Tubi app users spend an hour or more each day watching content through these services.  

We expect usage of ad-supported, free entertainment apps to rise in the coming months and years too. This makes these kinds of apps an especially appealing way for marketers and advertisers to reach and engage with their target audiences. 

Of course, it’s important to note the omnichannel nature of this audience. As our data shows, there is no one preferred option for streaming video. Brands that want to run advertising within these kinds of environments thus need to be prepared to have their ads appear on a wide variety of screens, including laptops, smartphones and television sets.  

The TV side of the streaming coin will be an especially interesting part of the equation to watch. The connected television (CTV) space has been growing by leaps and bounds of late, but our research shows that it is still quite fragmented. If you’re interested in learning more about CTV, be sure to download a copy of InMobi’s Connected TV and OTT Viewership in 2020 report today. 

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These insights should be especially valuable for marketers in the media entertainment space. For marketers that work for a streaming service or media and entertainment company, how can this data be most valuable? 

In particular, the biggest takeaway here is the fragmented nature of video consumption today. As the so-called “streaming wars” heat up, streaming services looking to acquire new users need to run user acquisition campaigns across devices.  

The same is true for television networks and movie studios. As streaming services emerge as the preferred way to watch TV shows and films, these companies need to meet their target end users where they are and provide a viewing experience that meets their needs. 

Interested in engaging your best audiences through their favorite apps? Reach out today to learn more about how InMobi can help you win. 

About the Author   

Matthew Kaplan has over a decade of digital marketing experience, working to support the content goals of the world’s biggest B2B and B2C brands. He is a passionate app user and evangelist, working to support diverse marketing campaigns across devices. 

• NBCUniversal officially launched Peacock, its own video streaming app. And in September, Peacock was finally available on Connected Television platform Roku. 
• Disney released the movie Mulan in the U.S. exclusively through Disney+ for an additional $30, racking up record profits and app downloads as a result. 
• Apple released a new bundle package for Apple TV, Apple One, in order to capture more subscribers. 
• Cable television channels like Discovery and BET announced that they would be launching their own video streaming services. 
• Rumors swirled that Quibi, which launched earlier in 2020 as one of the most hyped streaming platforms for mobile devices, was looking to sell itself. 
• HBO, Disney+, Amazon Prime Video and Quibi all garnered multiple awards at the 2020 Emmy Awards. 

Considering everything that has happened in this space over the past few months, we thought it would make sense to take a renewed look at the top video streaming apps for Android (through the Google Play store) and iOS. In particular, we looked at these movie and TV apps: 

• Amazon Prime Video 
• Disney+ 
• HBO Max 
• Hulu 
• Netflix 
• Peacock 
• Pluto TV 
• Quibi 
• Tubi 

And as long as this list is, this doesn’t even scratch the surface of the entire video streaming space since it largely excludes live streaming apps. This analysis looked at video on demand apps as opposed live streaming services like Sling TV, Twitch and Periscope (and its Super Hearts). It also excludes services that offer live broadcasts and other real-time live video streaming options like YouTube and social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. 

Of the mobile apps we did look at, what trends are we seeing? Which apps are gaining users and who are downloading these video streaming services onto their mobile devices? Here’s what we found out. 

Install Trends of The Top Video Streaming Mobile Apps  

Even with so many options to choose from, consumers in the U.S. continue to turn to these apps for entertainment. In fact, from June through August, only one of the apps didn’t have a net gain in new users – and even then that drop was followed by a quick rebound. Even though obtaining some of these services can cost consumers $20 per month or more, the user-friendly nature of the apps and the overall appetite for entertainment keeps driving demand. 

Throughout this period, Netflix was largely the leader in daily app installs. The only other property to log more at any particular stretch in this three-month period was Pluto TV at the beginning of July, following their 31 marathons in 31 days promotion. Indeed, the apps that had some of the biggest week-over-week growth in this period included Pluto, Quibi, Tubi, Disney+ and Amazon Prime Video. 

Who Uses The Top Video Streaming Mobile Apps Today? 

In addition to looking at overall app install trends, we wanted to understand who recently installed these streaming services on their mobile devices. For this exercise, we specifically looked at Disney+, HBO MAX, Hulu, Peacock, Pluto TV and Quibi. 

For the most part, recent app installers in this category are men; this aligns overall with what we generally see for mobile app ownership. Only the installers for Disney+ are majority female, while HBO MAX has the most male-aligned user base in the space (60%). 

The age of app installers in the space does vary quite a bit. For both HBO MAX and Disney+, just under a third of all app installers are under the age of 26. On the other hand, a quarter of Quibi’s app installers  are between 46 and 55 years old, while 23% of Peacock app owners fall into this age range. 

This audience is majority White, although around a third of Quibi’s recent app installers are Black and 16% of HBO MAX app owners are Latinx. On the income front, paid apps like Disney+ and HBO MAX have a higher percentage of installers making over $75,000 a year, while free apps like Quibi and Pluto TV do better at the lower income brackets. 

It’s also important to note that there is a fair amount of overlap in app ownership, with many Americans having two or more video streaming apps on device. For example, 38% of HBO MAX recent installers and 36% of Peacock app installers also have Disney+. In addition, at least one in five Peacock, Disney+, HBO MAX, Pluto TV and Quibi installers also have Hulu. 

People are watching these apps beyond just their mobile devices too. According to separate research InMobi conducted in 2020, many Americans use these apps on their connected television devices. In particular, we found that over 40% of those with a smart TV set and a third of those with a streaming device like an Amazon Fire Stick watch content using three or more apps. And, between 29% and 53% of app owners said they use their favorite apps on multiple devices. 

How to Apply This Data and Make It Actionable: What You Need to Know 

If You're In The Video Streaming App Business: Even though this space became much more crowded over just the last few months, it has not reached its peak. Americans are still seeking out new entertainment options on their mobile devices and connected TV offerings. Through shrewd and thoughtful marketing and advertising, you can acquire loyal new users. 

If You’re A Marketer: As our data shows, ad-supported video streaming apps like Pluto TV, Quibi, Tubi and Hulu, among others, are popular with a wide array of Americans – on both mobile devices and connected TV. Advertising on these channels is a great way to boost brand awareness and acquire new customers. 

What are your thoughts on this analysis? What data surprised you here? Let us know on social media! We’d love to hear from you on Facebook, Twitter and/or LinkedIn. 

And, this holiday shopping season is expected to still be significant despite the current state of the world. According to Deloitte, retail sales are expected to grow year-over-year and will likely top $1 trillion – and it’s reasonable to expect e-commerce and consumer electronics to lead this charge.  

The point on e-commerce is key, as we anticipate more m-commerce amid a larger desire for no- or limited contact transactions due to the pandemic. After all, e-commerce was growing even before 2020, and it’s likely to be even more prevalent this year. 

But who specifically are buying online from electronics stores? For a look at what this sector will look like this holiday season, we looked at three of the top 100 mobile apps for buying consumer electronics online: Amazon, Best Buy and Newegg. 

In particular, we wanted to look at who has these apps on device now. Armed with these insights, we can gain a deeper understanding of who will be driving m-commerce transactions in this space during the 2020 holiday shopping season. 

Consumer Insights for Consumer Electronics Retail Apps 

Perhaps not surprisingly, this is a very male-oriented category. While app ownership overall is more prevalent with men over women, this trend is especially the case in the consumer electronics world. All three apps have majority app owners, but the trend is especially prevalent with Best Buy and Newegg. Over 70% of Best Buy app owners are men, while a whopping 90% of Newegg app owners are male. 

Newegg has a relatively young audience, as over 40% of their app owners are under the age of 36. In comparison, 45% of Best Buy app owners are between 36 and 45 years old. More than 60% of Amazon app owners are over the age of 45, but this is likely a reflection of the fact that Amazon sells much more than consumer electronics. 

All three apps have a fairly affluent audience. For example, around half (49%) of all Newegg app owners make $75,000 or more a year on average. The bulk of app owners in the category are White, with only Best Buy having majority non-White app ownership. 

Interestingly, many Newegg app owners also have the Best Buy app on their mobile devices, and vice versa. These individuals are also likely to have downloaded car-related apps and home improvement retail apps. 

How to Make These Audience Insights Actionable 

This holiday season, these consumer electronics retail apps will want to drive app usage. With consumers likely to spend millions of dollars on these gadgets this holiday shopping season, it’s imperative for these apps to drive installs and adoption now so they can capitalize on these spending patterns in November and December. 

An ideal strategy would be to now drive app installs through a targeted user acquisition campaign. Armed with these insights on what their ideal audience looks like and what they’re interested in, these retailers can run in-app advertising campaigns to the individuals most likely to both download their app and use it to make purchases. 

Interested in learning more about InMobi’s performance advertising capabilities and services? Reach out today to learn more.  

IAB introduced the Transparency and Consent Framework (TCF) in 2018 to set clear guidelines on a more privacy-compliant, opt-in method to collect and process data from a user’s device. While a step in the right direction, the first version of TCF did not have the larger publisher consensus required to drive adoption. Since then, the industry has seen an update on the framework with the launch of TCF 2.0, which now provides sufficient control back to the publisher, while maintaining its core value proposition of user-driven consent management. 

The new version lets consumers grant or withhold consent and exercise their ‘right to object’ to data being processed. At the same time, it allows publishers to gain greater control and flexibility with respect to how they integrate and collaborate with their technology partners.  

New SDKs for iOS 14 and Android 11 

Migrating to InMobi SDK 910 

To win the shoppers this festive season, savvy brands must leverage mobile advertising strategies as early as September to connect with the customer. To help you plan your strategy, we bring to you inspiration from leading brands that leveraged mobile for driving high impact with their marketing efforts.

1. Lifestyle Delivers a High Awareness and Engagement Campaign on Glance

It is estimated that 51% of Indian shoppers will shop for apparel in 2020

With a screen-zero content experience on their mobiles with compelling visual storytelling and content marketing, Glance promoted Lifestyle’s festive clothing collection ‘Melange’ to increase the top of the mind awareness among Indian women.

The Results

• The campaign reached 1.7 million unique users in just 5 days
• The total number of interactions accounted to 78,029
• 12 Million minutes of consumer engagement
• The stories engaged users for 72 seconds on an average

2. Mondelez Engages Mobile-First Buyers through Interactive Video Ads

23% of Indian shoppers will indulge in purchasing gift packs this festive season

‘Cadbury’ range of chocolates are considered no less than a token of celebration in India. They are gifted, shared, and consumed on all festive occasions. When Cadbury aimed to create a product discoverability campaign for their choco-bakery product “Chocobakes” with an interactive mobile video ad campaign, the consumers received it joyfully. 

The Results

• Reached 2.2 Million Audiences
• Recorded a 100% leap in engagement

3. Manyavar Increases Store Footfalls with a High Engagement Mobile Ad Campaign

46% of men and 56% of women will invest in Clothing and Apparel this festive season in India

Manyavar, a brand celebrated for festive and occasion wear in India, launched its mobile-centric ad campaign to increase brand recall and footfalls for stores in Kolkata. The brand leveraged hyperlocal targeting by integrating offline and online (mobile) campaigns, reached massive audiences and delivered high engagement.

The Results

• Reached 200 Million Unique Audiences
• Delivered 200% record engagement than a mobile-only campaign
• Resulted in 5 to 10% increased footfalls across stores in Kolkata

4. LG Spreads Brand Awareness through an Augmented Reality Based Mobile Campaign

22% of Indian shoppers would love to purchase ‘gadgets’ this festive season

LG, a renowned electronics brand launched its AI-powered mobile ad campaign to increase brand awareness for their OLED TV range “ThinQ”. The campaign was launched with an augmented reality-based creative that would allow users to test the features of the television directly on their mobile phones. A first of its kind campaign delivered massive results leveraging mobile-first capabilities.

The Results

• Recorded 4X higher engagement
• 7X higher dwell time on the ad unit achieved
• 136% TV value growth recorded

Marketers can Stay Ahead of the Curve with Mobile this Festive Season

This year’s festive season for consumers is marked by three major events; staying at home, shopping online, and indulging in sports or mobile gaming. Marketers must create mobile-first branded stories and compelling visuals to reach the consumer and enhance brand awareness. Counting on the ‘new age’ trends like influencer marketing to gain consumer’s mindshare can drive higher consideration for the brand.

Mobile is also going to drive significant purchase consideration especially where staying indoors is imperative for Indian shoppers. Shoppable ads and in-app advertising through gaming apps can reach out to the ‘relevant’ consumers and increase conversions. Learn more about building the right mobile marketing strategy from our 2020 India Festive Season Guide that showcases interesting facts and provides insights for marketers to win consumers this festive season. 

Using InMobi Pulse, InMobi’s mobile market research solution, we polled 4,200 Americans in August and September. Questions ranged from how they would vote and how they learn about candidates and the issues, among many other topics. Through this data, we can see how adults in the United States are thinking about the 2020 presidential election (along with down-ballot campaigns at the state and local level) and how political digital advertising can be most effective between now and election day on November 3. 

Based on the data, here are our top three tips: 

1) Target Voters on Mobile 

Overall, 44% said mobile advertising helps them learn about both presidential and local candidates. Only television ads were cited by more Americans as being helpful. 

But with younger Americans, mobile advertising was even more popular than TV ads. Among those under the age of 26, while two-thirds said TV ads helped them learn about candidates, even more (71%) said mobile ads were helpful. In addition, among those between 26 and 35, 73% said mobile ads helped them learn.  

As mobile becomes more popular, it makes sense that mobile advertising becomes an even more effective way to reach potential voters. After all, Americans have been spending more time using mobile devices than they do watching television since 2019. And, close to 90% of all time spent on mobile is devoted to apps. 

In addition, a lot of this app usage occurs outside of properties owned by Facebook and Google. In fact, around half of all time spent using apps is devoted to non-Walled Garden properties. With social media advertising overall and Facebook advertising in particular becoming less amenable to target political campaigning and related ad spending, this makes mobile marketing and advertising an even bigger opportunity for political campaigns. 

2) Ad Campaigns Should Focus on Issues and on Educating Voters 

When asked about what types of ad content would encourage them to vote in the 2020 Presidential Election, 34% said issue education and 31% said issue specific ads while 32% said candidate education. Education-specific ads were most popular among Democrats and Independents, while issue-specific ads were most popular with Republicans. 

Candidate education in particular should be especially key for down-ballot races (i.e. those not running for president). Over half (57%) said they will choose a candidate for local races in the final month of the election. In comparison, 70% said they will decide who to vote for among the two major presidential candidates at least a few months out. While most people know that President Trump is running for re-election against former Vice President Biden and have opinions on those candidates, local elections have by and large received much less fanfare. 

Interestingly, only 22% said ads about deadline reminders would get them to vote, while only 16% said the same thing about ads pertaining to how to vote. Among those who say they won’t vote this year or are unsure whether they will or not, 32% said they were leaning this way because they were not registered. This figure was even as high as 40% for those between the ages of 36 and 45. While political advertisers may rightly be tempted to reach these undecided voters with advertising pushing them to register, our polling indicates that such a move would be unlikely to go over well. 

Mobile advertising can be hugely impactful for reaching undecided voters. For starters, a quarter said they were Independents while 22% didn’t say. In addition, 55% of those between 18 and 25 and close to half (48%) of those between 36 and 45 said they only sometimes, rarely or never voted for the same political party. These young, unaffiliated voters are also the ones most likely to prefer mobile political advertising. 

3) For Optimal Political Ad Spending, Timing and Audience Targeting are Everything 

As a result of COVID-19, many Americans will be voting from home. Among Democrats, 44% said they would be voting via a mail-in ballot or absentee ballot this year, while 37% of Independents saying the same thing. For campaigns looking to target these voters, it will be critical to reach them well before November, as they may be voting in October or even September in some instances. 

Among Independents, close to half (49%) said they would determine who to vote for in local elections on a few weeks before they cast their ballot. In addition, 52% of those under the age of 26 said the same thing. For political advertisers focused on down-ballot races and causes, now is a critical time to get the word out. 

The data around how people expect to vote this year also points to why political advertisers need to be laser focused with their messaging. In an increasingly polarized political environment, advertisers have to make sure they are only talking to specific audiences. It doesn’t make sense to run an ad campaign on mail-in voting when significant chunks of the population have no desire to vote that way, after all. In 2020, the key to success in political advertising will center around reaching specific audience segments with tailored messaging. 

The Voter Journey Needs to Inform Political Digital Advertising Efforts 

As might be expected considering the polarizing nature of the candidates on top of the ticket, turnout may be quite high in this year’s election. Overall, 82% said they would be voting this year. In comparison, 63% of eligible American adults voted in 2016. 

Whether they need to get out the vote among their supporters or convince undecided voters to choose them, political campaigns need to reach Americans through mobile. As app usage continues to rise, it’s becoming an ideal way to educate and advertise. 

Interested in launching an app-first mobile advertising campaign? Reach out today to get started with InMobi. 

About the Author   

Matthew Kaplan has over a decade of digital marketing experience, working to support the content goals of the world’s biggest B2B and B2C brands. He is a passionate app user and evangelist, working to support diverse marketing campaigns across devices. He also previously covered politics and government for the Daily News Tribune. 

To prognosticate on what the future may hold, let’s look to the recent past. We surveyed over 1,500 Americans this summer to see how their summer holiday shopping differed this year. Based on what we uncovered in July around American Independence Day, back to school and overall summer shopping trends, we can see what the future may hold in store. 

Here are our four main predictions. 

1) Holiday Shoppers are Ready to Spend 

People are still likely going to spend a lot, despite the current state of the economy. For example, over half (54%) said they spent more on household goods this summer than they did in 2019, with just 18% saying they were spending less than before. Also, women and households with kids outspent their peers over the summer. 

Interestingly, this rise in spending wasn’t directly correlated with COVID-specific purchases. Many consumers reporting spending more on games, picnics and analog school supplies like notebooks. 

In our mind, this shows how summer spending habits have actually remained relatively stable. Not only will consumers willing to spend more even considering the state of the world, but they were buying the same kinds of things they were buying in 2019, 2018, etc.  

For retailers, that means that their best sellers from the 2019 holiday shopping season may be their best sellers in 2020. In short, expect some level of continuity. 

What This Means for Retailers: Don’t skimp on marketing, as it’s still critical to try to capture consumer spending during this critical time of the year. Even though 2020 has been an abnormal year, consumers are still ready to open up their wallets. Marketing and advertising can ensure that brands and retailers stay top of mind for consumers as they complete their holiday shopping. 

2) Retail Mobile App Adoption for Buying Online is On the Rise 

Mobile – and specifically mobile apps – are becoming an increasingly popular way for consumers to learn about new products, compare prices and buy. In fact, retail mobile app adoption rose 5% per week on average throughout the summer, according to our analysis. 

This is hardly surprising, as m-commerce has been growing for some time. And, it even aligns with what our survey on Black Friday shopping habits found last year.  

What This Means for Retailers: There are a lot of advantages to be had by luring consumers to use first-party apps. By ensuring that shopping occurs on owned-and-operated properties, retailers gain a direct line of communication and unique knowledge on their consumers and their preferences. 

To increase app adoption, lean into in-app advertising. Work with a proven user acquisition partner to get quality app installs. 

In addition, app-centered promos work! Consider baking a promo (like free shipping) into your in-app messaging strategy. This exact strategy worked wonders for CVS this summer; their “Extra Thanks” appreciation event, which included app-only promos, helped them receive more daily app installs than rival Walgreens this July.  

3) Expect Noteworthy Foot Traffic This Holiday Season 

Even as e-commerce and m-commerce grow, brick and mortar shopping isn't going away. For many shopping trips, consumers still prefer to buy in person – even during a pandemic. 

Over the summer, our research found that the majority of consumers opted to buy everything from camping gear and school supplies to kitchen supplies and swimming-related items like sunscreen and kiddie pools in person. Even though all of these items could have easily been bought online, consumers still preferred in to the in-store experience in many instances. 

How will this specifically translate over the holidays? It’s important to note that even when not shopping for staples or last-minute items, consumers bought in person. Research is still likely happening online/on mobile devices, but the final purchase is still going to happen at a brick-and-mortar store in many instances this holiday season. 

What This Means for Retailers: Location-based targeting and advertising can and should be deployed this holiday season. Consumers are still likely to be out and about, and location targeting can ensure that they know where the nearest relevant shopping option is located and that the right peope are exposed to marketing messaging.  

The call to action in a mobile in-app ads, for example, should highlight in-person shopping experience, and can include maps or coupons that can only be used in store.  This can be especially fruitful when marketing stocking stuffers or other smaller purchase items (i.e. the kinds of things consumers are most likely to buy in person). 

When it comes to messaging, bridging the gap from online to in person shopping is important. Highlight convenience, availability and other key in-person shopping motivators – especially for the shoppers that engage online before buying in store. 

4) E-Commerce is Growing in Specific Categories 

In many instances, consumers this summer displayed a clear preference for online shopping. For one, online-first or online-heavy categories like games were more likely to be bought online (71%) as compared to in person (29%). Expect to see similar trends in these kinds of entertainment categories this winter. 

Many clothing purchases will happen online as well. Around half (49%) said they bought swim apparel online this summer, and it’s feasible to expect a similar breakdown for wintery clothing items like jackets, sweaters and socks come November and December. 

In addition, bulkier items like widescreen television sets may be more likely to be purchases online as opposed to in store. For example, 58% said they bought fitness equipment online for delivery this summer, with only 30% bought these items in store. Of course, it makes sense that many consumers would rather have someone else carry heavy items into their homes for them. 

What This Means for Retailers: E-commerce continues to play a larger role consumer's shopping journey, regardless of point of sale. In particular, many consumers will be checking prices and reading reviews posted on e-commerce channels even if they make a purchase in person. 

It’s key to note that what consumers are shopping for will often dictate how they buy. In certain key categories, expect e-commerce to dominate this holiday season. 

For brands and retailers, either drive them directly to a preferred e-commerce portal. If this is not an option, then capture their information with mid-funnel prospecting (this is especially beneficial for consumers who discover items through mobile but feel more comfortable making the final purchase through a desktop or laptop.) 

How Retailers Can Reach Mobile-First Audiences 

It’s important for retailers to note that their audiences are on mobile even if they are not. The average adult spends over four hours a day using mobile, which is more time than Americans spend watching TV. And, close to 90% of all time spent on mobile is spent using apps (50% of all app time is spent using non-Walled Garden apps). This means that retailers need to embrace mobile and in-app advertising to reach their target consumers. 

Using mobile-led insights app ownership and income levels, among other signifiers, retailers can be sure their in-app advertising efforts are solely targeted at the consumers with the greatest propensity to spend with them during the holiday shopping season. By combining high quality mobile ad creatives with unique audience intelligence, retailers can be sure their mobile advertising campaigns reach the right consumers with the right messaging this holiday season. 

But are these fears unfounded? Advertisers and agencies worry about fraud in in-app advertising, but much of it is down to perceptions that have not kept pace with reality. While fraud may have been a major problem once upon a time, it is not a major concern anymore with in-app advertising.  

According to the latest reporting from DoubleVerify in their Global Insights Report 2020, fraud rate for mobile apps declined by nearly one-third in just the last one year, decreasing from 2.8% in 2018-2019 to 1.9% in 2019-2020. Even in comparison to other channels, in-app fraud rates have fare relatively well. DoubleVerify estimates that fraud rate on in-app is 42% lower than the fraud rate on desktop. According to another 2019 study, in-app has 25% less fraud than mobile web. 

Why does in-app advertising then have this unfounded reputation to begin with? Back in the very early days of programmatic in-app advertising, fraud in in-app advertising rose because of two reasons.  

For one, in-app ads commanded higher per-impression costs because of the enhanced targeting and creative capabilities for advertisers compared to other digital channels (in particular desktop and mobile web). As a result, fraudsters had a higher payoff when they got away with their fraud attempts. In addition, back when in-app was an emerging channel, it did not have sophisticated quality controls to catch fraud. 

As the in-app advertising matured, ecosystem players have put in substantial preventive measures to catch and block fraud attempts at every step of the impression lifecycle. Even the most complex in-app ad fraud attempts have been uncovered with the help of sophisticated solutions. And yet, advertisers continue to hold back their in-app investments because of their perception that in-app advertising is more prone to fraud 

Understanding the Current State of In-App Ad Fraud 

While in-app ad fraud is far less of an issue now than it was a few years ago, that doesn’t mean it has gone away entirely. After all, credit cards have been around for decades now but credit card fraud still exists – and it’s unlikely that either forms of fraud will ever disappear entirely, unfortunately. 

In-app fraud can be categorized into three main categories:  

• Bot Fraud – Invalid traffic (IVT) generated by bots that’s designed to look like human traffic 
• App/Site Fraud – Ad request claiming to be from one app or publisher (typically a popular app), but actually originating from other less popular or premium apps  
• Other Device/User-Based Fraud – Other app fraud scenarios like ads playing in background (out of view of legitimate users), ad stacking (multiple ads displayed all at once), click injection (unfairly claiming credit for the final click that leads users to install an app), etc. 

Within these, bot fraud is more prevalent on desktop, mobile web and the recently introduced CTV/OTT (connected TV/streaming video) environments. It is difficult for such fraud to be perpetrated in closed app environments, and most supply side partners deploy solutions to counter them.  

While mobile app fraud rates have declined about 32% year-over-year, they are still roughly twice as high as mobile web fraud rates, according to this 2020 report from DoubleVerify, and warrants for advertisers’ attention and a robust supply-side platform (SSP) selection process. 

How Advertisers Can Safeguard Their In-App Ad Budgets from Fraud 

We strongly recommend advertisers to look for the following things in their supply-side platform partners to make sure they are buying fraud free supply: 

• The SSP should have a large SDK footprint, as SSPs with their own SDK network of publishers typically have controls and guardrails for evaluating traffic quality and ensuring ads are rendered in a viewable environment, which cuts down the risk of bot fraud and device/user-based fraud. 
• They should have comprehensive pre-bid and post-bid invalid traffic (IVT) solutions to check for all inventory quality. InMobi partners with DoubleVerify for their pre-bid and post-bid solution that scans 100% of InMobi’s inventory before it’s made available for DSPs to bid on. 
• The SSP should be a part of industry consortiums and communities (like The Trustworthy Accountability Group and the Interactive Advertising Bureau) that are dedicated to fighting fraud across the ecosystem. This participation can be enormously useful, as TAG-certified channels have been proven to have 88% less fraud than non-certified partners. 
• SSPs should have a robust vetting process for sellers before onboarding them, and the SSP should continue to enforce transparency across supply chain events.  
• Advertisers need to ensure the SSP of choice has a firm commitment to trust, safety and transparency. Exhaustive app-ads.txt coverage, implementation of sellers.json and support for OpenRTB SupplyChain Object are the checkpoints advertisers need to look for while selecting the SSP. Add internal assessments and regular audits on the SSP side, and advertisers can be assured of clean and fraud free supply. 

Fraud in in-app advertising is not nearly as big of a problem as it was a few years ago, but that doesn’t mean that it can be ignored. Still, by working with the right partners that are committed to stamping out ad fraud and promoting transparency, advertisers can be sure their in-app ad budgets are yielding the best results for them. 

Since then, the industry has seen an update on the framework with the launch of TCF 2.0, which makes it more fool-proof and fair while maintaining its core value proposition: user-controlled consent management. 

The new version lets consumers grant or withhold consent and also exercise their ‘right to object’ to data being processed. At the same time, it allows publishers to gain greater control and flexibility with respect to how they integrate and collaborate with their technology partners. But what does it mean for buyers? 

How TCF 2.0 Ensures Standardization 

One of the biggest hurdles with the earlier version of TCF was that Google, one of the largest ad tech players in the market, did not participate in or support the TCF. With the binary consent framework, TCF 1.0 and Google’s own approach to consent framework, suddenly there were three mechanisms to for GDPR compliance in the ecosystem. This resulted in buyers having to prioritize a particular mechanism and consequently limit supply sources.  

With Google now opting in to TCF 2.0, it is now set to become the single consent management mechanism that is widely accepted. As publishers and Consent Management Platforms (CMPs) start supporting TCF 2.0, buyers can confidently make the required changes to parse the TCF 2.0 consent string without having to create workflows separately for supply partners and CMPs. 

How TCF 2.0 Ensures Transparency 

IAB TCF 2.0 has brought in upgrades in policies and implementation of the Global Vendor List (GVL) and the CMP Validator.  

The new Global Vendor List registration allows vendors to select from three legal bases (consent as sole legal basis, legitimate interest as sole legal basis or consent or legitimate interest) as opposed to two legal bases in TCF v1 (legitimate interest or consent) for data processing. This flexible basis allows vendors to accommodate different interpretations of GDPR amongst various data processing agreements. The upgrades on the CMP validator policies also allow vendors to ensure the CMP’s compliance with the latest more stringent guidelines.  

Further, TCF 2.0 also ensures that the end users see the most accurate information about the vendor and their purposes. It accomplishes this by keeping the most recent records of the First and Second layer messaging of the publisher’s UIs.  

InMobi and TCF 2.0 

InMobi is now a certified IAB TCF 2.0 Vendor. In the last few months, we have been working closely with our publishers and industry-leading CMPs (Ogury, Faktor and OneTrust in particular) to enable TCF 2.0 compliant inventory for those demand partners ready to process the TCF 2.0 consent string. This will be available in addition to TCF 1.0 and binary consent inventory. 

We will continue our efforts in making the adoption of TCF 2.0 seamless for both our supply and demand side partners. Please feel free to reach out to us for further information. 

So what can these app and ad ops teams do to put themselves in the best possible position going forward? To find out more, we recently chatted with Chas Castell and Ben Green from PubRev+, a premier independent global consultative agency providing commercial optimization and strategic revenue creation for app publishers. 

Q: What are you doing during shelter in place? Are there any apps you're finding yourself using more frequently these days? 

• Ben: Casual games, news, YouTube, COVID symptom tracker. As with so many other people during this time, I’ve been seeking both escape and connection. I divide my time between feverish scanning of the news and long escape sessions playing games to distract myself from the news I’ve just absorbed. Also, I now buy stocks apparently. I can’t say trade, because I haven’t sold any yet, but I have caught the Robinhood bug. 
• Chas: I’ve ended up playing a lot of our publishers’ games with my children - trying to balance keeping their screen time at a minimum with the fact that they’re now at home and see me playing fun games all the time. (Of course I’m also checking integrations and adhoccing, right...) 

Q: Among the publishers and ad ops professionals you know and work with, what is the mood like for them right now? What's top of mind for them?  

• Ben: The ones I’ve spoken to are nervous, concerned to see how the industry will shake out. There’s still so much uncertainty about everything. Top of mind is holding onto jobs as ad dollars dry up or and there is some desperation over finding work again in a market saturated with job seekers. It actually looks like the elimination of third-party cookies is going to wreak more havoc than the pandemic – at least for publishers. The lapse of funding for enhanced unemployment is going to cause another contraction in advertising as people tighten their belts again. Now we’re seeing lots of cycles being taken up with iOS 14 and the fatigue that comes with that. 
• Chas: It’s mixed. When COVID first hit, there was the usual fear of what would happen to the market. Many brand verticals obviously stopped spending, but performance advertising has remained strong. As we’re now in the next phase there’s a sort of normalcy that’s begun to set in, and some of the travel and event advertising is coming back. For the first time that I can remember people are conscious that the market outlook is very dependent on the political landscape, and the relative competency of the federal government to control the virus. What people are left with is just massive uncertainty. Of course performance advertising is about to be rocked by iOS 14. 

Q: What does the current landscape look like right now for mobile apps?  

• Ben: People have more time on their hands so some apps are going to get a boost, but media apps are struggling because people have no need to look at a small screen when they're stuck at home all day in front of their big one.  
• Chas: CPMs for some ad units are down, while for others they are flat. We are still seeing some end-of-month burst campaigns from brand advertising - it’s a mixed bag. The uncertainty and the normalization of that uncertainty in the market feels very familiar, honestly. We know that consumer spending is going to come down. I think people are just waiting for things to really get bad. Going into Q4 this year reminds me of Q4 2016, where there were so many odd drivers of highs and troughs in the ad marketplace. Like 2016, the U.S. election will be a not-talked-about variable on confidence - and energy - levels in the marketplace, which will affect spend and supply chains. 

Q: What do consumers want and expect from mobile apps right now?  

• Ben: Entertainment, distraction, trustworthy information. 
• Chas: Yeah, I think a lot of distraction. If you look at what is getting into the zeitgeist, it’s comedy and music. All the things that society generally craves when they have to get away from reality. What’s so bizarre is there are two Americas at the moment: one that doesn’t really believe there is virus and is living its life as usual, and one that understands the dangers and urgency but doesn’t know what that means for the future. 

Q: What steps should mobile app publishers and developers be taking now? What about ad ops teams?  

• Ben: Pivot. Experiment with ad models and types that you wouldn’t normally consider in a world saturated by CPM display. Look at CPC/CPA. Look at smaller advertisers, niche products. Brand dollars are up and down, and we don’t know how long ad verticals will have to tighten their belts. If we start the new year in the same lock down there will be a lot of layoffs, which will affect everyone in the brand space. Consider alternatives. Build direct relationships with products and influencers that align with your app’s brand. 
• Chas: I would have said this months ago, but especially with iOS 14 looming on the horizon: look at IAP and paywalls for new content; we have always said to anyone who can listen that the future of mobile advertising is going to be about giving the user choices in the ads they consume. Building trust with your users so they understand and agree to the permission marketing that is happening. Be innovative. For all the cutting-edge technology we have, our industry is just as slow to innovate on creative solutions as others. Do something novel with ad choices in your app. Show the user you want them to have an amazing ad experience. CTV is experimenting with that sort of thing, and reaping the benefits of higher CPMs and better BI. 

Q: While sessions for many apps are up, ad demand is down. What steps, if any, should publishers take to rectify this gap?  

• Ben: Build a dialogue with users about sharing certain information. Create a value exchange. Reward them for providing gender, geo, age, etc. while making it clear that no personally identifiable information will ever leave the user’s device. Only aggregated information will be shared and ONLY for the purpose of targeting more relevant ad information. If users are brought into the conversation about advertising, they’ll be more tolerant of it. Especially given that relevant advertising can actually be a boon. 
• Chas: In addition to finding other monetization loops, look at client optimization. The significant revenue comes from client optimization, fixes and best practices. There is only so much you can do server side. We’ve been getting a lot more publishers who understand the need to have their client code in the best shape, and just how impactful that is to their bottom line. 

Q: What should mobile app publishers and developers do now to best position themselves for success once COVID-19 clears?  

• Ben: Put in place alternative revenue channels now. Even when the brand ad dollars come back, there’s going to be a bloodbath as people do everything they can to compete for them - including offer rock bottom CPMs. 
• Chas: We know that consumer spending is going to fall. We know that the unemployment numbers are going to have a major knock-on effect to the stock market. And we know that the federal government can’t keep people even vaguely afloat forever. We’ve been talking about a market contraction for a while - COVID has just accelerated it, and now we’re going into full recession. The mobile app industry has never really been through a recession. Brand budgets aren’t suddenly going to go back to radio or print or anything like that. It’s taken years and years to persuade brands to spend on mobile, and there is too much infrastructure to change budget allocations now. CTV might start taking more and more from mobile, but that world is so fractured I don’t see that affecting mobile for a good few years. As Ben said, the biggest challenge is going to be competition from other apps. Get yourself set up now with client optimization and creative monetization loops, so you are in the best place to maximize the ad dollars when they come back. Of course we still don’t really know how total ad spend will look going into 2021, but at PubRev+ we think the major brands will want to invest heavily and be associated with that feeling that people will get as we roll out home tests and trial vaccines, and start coming out of COVID (not to mention a new, steady hand at the federal level). I can just imagine lots of 5th Avenue meetings where brands model their post COVID messaging after what Coke has been doing for years, and attach themselves to a feel good emotion - because it will be a worldwide feel good emotion when we get to whatever the other side of COVID looks like. 

Have any additional questions for Chas, or want additional insights on app monetization? Let us know! You can reach Chas at chas at pubrevplus dot com. 

Interested in more insights from Chas? Be sure to check out this 40-minute Q&A with Chas on how COVID-19 has impacted in-app advertising and how mobile marketers can use their skillsets to support their favorite causes.

About the Author/Interviewer       

Matthew Kaplan has over a decade of digital marketing experience, working to support the content goals of the world’s biggest B2B and B2C brands. He is a passionate app user and evangelist, working to support diverse marketing campaigns across devices. 

POPS, the leading digital entertainment company from Southeast Asia, has partnered with InMobi for monetization in Vietnam. The entertainment app, in partnership with InMobi, intends to help advertisers reach their audiences through an always-on device: the mobile and the most engaging ad format: video. The association enables advertisers to leverage advanced programmatic advertising capabilities such as custom audience targeting using content, location and cross-device graphs, real-time analytics and third-party measurement.

Rishi Bedi, Vice President, SEA, Japan and Korea at InMobi shared, “POPS is the leading original content platform from Vietnam. Whether it’s through live concerts, events or digital content, POPS provides a lasting impression on audiences and paves the way for meaningful interactions between the brands and their consumers. Uniquely, POPS boasts of a significant female viewership among its 2 million and more monthly active users, making it extremely valuable for sectors such as consumer goods, home appliances and the likes.”

Shedding more light, Sarika Tulsyan, Chief Revenue Officer - POPS Worldwide said, “InMobi is our top ad monetization partner that brings its global expertise to our region. In a short span of association, we have witnessed 2.5X growth in the ad monetization value with InMobi. With its decade long experience and leadership in the in-app advertising space, InMobi stands among the best.” 

 “POPS and the InMobi Exchange combine the goodness of programmatic and video for advertisers through this engagement. This means access to high-quality skippable and non-skippable video inventory with close to 90% completion rates and MOAT, IAS, and Nielsen measurement,” expressed Punith Holla, Head, Publisher Partnerships in Southeast Asia. 

POPS can be accessed programmatically on the InMobi Exchange through various DSPs including direct access via DV360.  

Check out our blog on accessing inventory on the InMobi Exchange via DV360 for more details. Visit the InMobi programmatic monetization page to learn more about our monetization services. 

About POPS 

POPS is the leading digital entertainment company in Southeast Asia, providing over 212 million subscribers with access to the very best entertainment in the region. Over the past 12 years, POPS has mastered the art and science of connecting brands with viewers and building up communities through meaningful digital content.  

POPS provides diverse content library ranging from music, general entertainment, kids edutainment features, and more from the very best content creators across SEA and beyond. 

To get a better sense of how the mobile advertising ecosystem will cope with these changes, we convened experts from across the supply chain as part of the latest effort related to our InMobi Exchange Customer Advisory Board (CAB). 

As you might have read in our CAB mid-year update from June this year, we decided to change the format of our in-person, large group CAB meeting to video chats with smaller groups. We also saw this as an opportunity to use these smaller groups for more focused chats on specific themes. One of those themes for us this year was identity.  

The Identity group included representation from publishers (Kwalee and MyRadar), demand-side platforms (Criteo, Amazon, Moloco) and our identity partner LiveRamp. You can check out our full list CAB members on this page. 

Here are some insights from the meeting that we think will help you understand how the ecosystem is looking to tackle in-app advertising once iOS 14 is live. 

1) User Consent Opt-In 

While there isn’t a clear benchmark on the possible opt-in rates we might see, most publishers expect it to be anywhere around 20-30%, on the conservative end. Given that approximately 30% of all request volumes today have Limit Ad Tracking set, an app-level prompt will provide further incentive for users to proactively disallow tracking. To mitigate risk, most publisher partners agree broadly on setting up meaningful value exchanges and other tactics to nudge users towards granting app tracking permissions.  

Our discussions point to a long-term strategy where publishers will explore revenue diversification, especially if the opt-in rates drop drastically. This includes exploring possible subscription-based revenue models, diversification through new ad formats (like in-game native and in-game audio), offering in-app rewards in exchange for user consent (like the rewarded video mechanics), etc.  

In the short run though, publishers will consider ways to encourage users to provide consent. This includes banners, alerts and notifications to nudge sticky users, along with tactics like building better onboarding experiences for users by providing the multiple consent-based opt-in prompts (like iOS 14, GDPR and CCPA) in a less intrusive way to drive better conversions. 

2) Alternate Identifiers to Enable Targeting and Bidding 

In the absence of IDFA, the jury is still out on a substitute identifier that can take its place. DSPs in our forum expressed interest in using any available identifier that advertisers are open to, is privacy-compliant and is available at scale.  

One of the options is using hashed emails or publisher login data (emails or phone numbers) in a privacy-compliant framework. Solutions like LiveRamp’s Authenticated Traffic Solution (ATS) is an attempt of this kind. ATS attempts to use publisher data (but not app data) and make that available to advertisers for their targeting use cases. 

While the buy side is open to using all such identifiers at this point, they want to make sure these identifiers are consent-based and provide the consumers with an easy way to opt out. 

3) Additional Data Signals for Targeting and Bidding 

The ecosystem is also exploring other privacy-first ways in which advertisers can continue to run targeted advertisements against user segments without the need to share any user-level ID or personal data. From many conversations with our buy-side partners, contextual targeting appears to be getting more interest as the best alternative to user level ad personalization.  

DSPs are preparing to ingest contextual signals to tune their algorithms accordingly, although industry-wide adoption may take time. DSPs are looking at three types of contextual signals: 

1. Device signals, e.g. battery level, battery charging indicator, device hardware version, network speed, etc. 
2. Content signals, e.g. app category, app page classification, etc. 
3. User ad interaction metrics, e.g. session depth, video completion rates, click-through rates, etc. 

Most DSPs are building out support for device signals because they are quite standard and simple to consume across supply-side platforms. Content signals are interesting to advertisers, but many on the buy side feel that they need to be standardized before they see mainstream adoption in the ecosystem.  

User ad interaction metrics, which are the third category of signals, are especially interesting to performance-first DSPs that focus on down-funnel metrics like user acquisition. DSP bidders can use these in their predictive models to evaluate their value to specific advertisers and campaigns. In fact, some of these metrics like session depth have been used by some DSPs for some time now. But with the iOS 14-related changes, these signals will become much more important and popular with performance DSPs. 

Of course, until iOS 14 is live, we won’t know what opt-in rates will specifically look like and how the industry will need to adapt. For more on iOS 14 from InMobi, be sure to subscribe to our blog and to check out the latest videos on our YouTube channel. 

And for more updates on future InMobi Exchange CAB meetings, stay tuned to our blog. If you’re interested in learning more about upcoming CAB events, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us. 

Remarketing: Rahasia untuk Berhubungan Kembali dengan Konsumen yang Memiliki Ketertarikan Tinggi Terhadap Brand

Dengan adanya COVID-19 yang menyebabkan pergeseran seismik dalam cara konsumen dan brand berinteraksi, saat ini audience lebih banyak menggunakan mobile phone mereka dari sebelumnya.

Maka, brand terus mengevaluasi bagaimana mereka dapat mendorong nilai maksimum terhadap konsumen mereka, dan melalui cara remarketing lah brand menyambut baik strategi pemasaran tersebut. Pengiklan sangat paham dengan risiko penurunan di setiap tahap perjalanan pelanggan; Remarketing membantu memulai kembali interaksi brand dengan konsumen, dimana mereka secara kontekstual dan juga manfaat, sehingga menjadikan remarketing menjadi permainan andalan bagi marketers saat ini.

Remarketing menggabungkan jangkauan relevansi bersekala tinggi dengan komunikasi dan juga personalisasi, seringa memungkinkan pengiklan dapat mendorong konsumen ke langkah selanjutnya dari perjalanan mereka di mobile. Kampanye remarketing yang bernuansa dapat membantu pengiklan mencapai tiga hasil utama:

1. Aktivasi: Mendorong konsumen ke langkah selanjutannya dalam proses pembelian
2. Retargeting: Cross-sell melalui afinitas produk dan search sciences
3. Re-engagement: Mendapatkan pengguna aktif untuk menyelesaikan pembelian dan mendorong pendapatan tambahan

Pendekatan Komprehensif untuk Remarketing

Dalam mencapai hasil yang optimal, saat meluncurkan kampanye remarketing harus menggunakan pendekatan komprehensif yang terencana dengan baik adalah suatu keharusan. Kampanye remarketing yang berpengaruh dibuat berdasarkan 3 faktor utama: Custom Audiences, Creative Optimization, dan Smart Bidding.

1. Membangun Custom Audiences secara Real-Time

Pilar utama untuk memastikan keberhasilan kampanye remarketing adalah menentukan dan mengatur kelompok konsumen secara real-time di dalam aplikasi (in-app), aktivitas terkini, dan atribut yang dipersonalisasi. Pengiklan harus memanfaatkan strategi berikut untuk mengkurasi kelompok dan:

1. Melacak konversi di seluruh channel saat konsumen mengubah status di channel yang berbeda
2. Melacak dan segmentasi konsumen yang tidak aktif di setiap channel
3. Tentukan strategi kampanye remarketing untuk kelompok pengguna individu untuk memaksimalkan transaksi.

2. Pengoptimalan Kreatif untuk Jangkauan yang Lebih Tinggi

Menyesuaikan komunikasi kreatif untuk menciptakan pengalaman yang kaya dan menarik, termasuk penggunaan format iklan yang dipersonalisasi dan interaktif, membantu menjangkau konsumen yang memiliki niat tinggi, mendorong tingkat keterlibatan yang lebih baik, dan konversi yang lebih tinggi.

3. Strategi Smart Bidding yang Mengoptimalkan Pembelanjaan Iklan

Penawaran yang diubah secara dinamis didasarkan pada berbagai atribut yang memungkinkan prediksi iklan yang lebih baik. Hal ini memastikan bahwa belanja iklan dialokasikan pada kecenderungan kebutuhan konsumen untuk bertransaksi, membantu pengiklan bergerak mengoptimalisasikan iklan dengan CTR.

Membangun Seamless User Experiences di Mobile

Pernah bertanya-tanya betapa sulitnya membangun pengalaman pengguna tanpa gangguan yang memenuhi harapan konsumen? Seringkali beberapa faktor kompatibilitas seperti sistem operasi, perangkat, platform (aplikasi, browser web) yang dapat membuat atau menghilangkan minat, saat pengalaman akhir konsumen saat mereka bergerak di berbagai tahapan customer funnel. Taktik deep linking yang tepat dapat membantu menghilangkan kerumitan ini dalam perjalanan konsumen, sehingga dapat menawarkan pengalaman akhir yang menyenangkan ke mereka.

Misalkan konsumen melihat iklan dan ingin membeli produk. Setelah mengklik iklan yang tidak memiliki deep link, mereka akan diarahkan ke Appstore atau Play Store tempat mereka harus mendownload aplikasi terlebih dahulu. Dengan asumsi tidak ada gangguan, mereka kemudian harus mendaftar di aplikasi. Setelah mendaftar, mereka dapat membuka aplikasi. Pengguna tidak akan membuka halaman yang benar kecuali mereka memutuskan untuk mencarinya secara manual dari layar aplikasi utama. Dengan rentang perhatian yang lebih pendek, konsumen modern mengharapkan transaksi terjadi dalam satu klik. Dunia tanpa deep link meninggalkan terlalu banyak tanggung jawab pada konsumen untuk mengambil tindakan yang benar, menyangkal pengguna dari seamless experience.

Gambar 1 Alur tanpa Konfigurasi Deep Link

Deep link memastikan pengalaman konsumen yang mulus bagi pengguna aplikasi Anda. Dengan tautan dalam, konsumen diperlihatkan dengan tepat apa yang mereka cari hanya dalam satu kali ketukan.

Gambar 2 Alur dengan Konfigurasi Deep Link

Iklan remarketing menunjukkan hasil terbaik saat iklan mengarahkan pengguna ke halaman halaman yang mereka diinginkan. Deep link memungkinkan marketers untuk mencegah penurunan dan pembatalan konsumen untuk melakukan transaksi, dan pada akhirnya meningkatkan loyalitas konsumen dan menghasilkan konversi yang lebih tinggi.

Daftar Remarketing Checklist untuk Marketers

Pastikan keberhasilan kampanye remarketing Anda dengan mencentang poin-poin berikut dari daftar checklist Anda:

1. Manfaatkan data pihak pertama, kedua, dan ketiga untuk segmentasi audiens
2. Mengoptimalkan tawaran untuk pengguna keterlibatan tinggi / LTV users
3. Personalisasi iklan berdasarkan minat dan perilaku konsumen
4. Memfasilitasi konversi yang lebih tinggi dengan dukungan deep linking
5. Memanfaatkan penargetan lintas perangkat

Untuk mempelajari lebih lanjut tentang bagaimana pemasaran ulang dapat membantu brand dan marketers membuat yang terbaik dari kampanye mereka, tonton webinar sesuai permintaan di sini.

Download this report, titled Understanding Quality Ad Creative for Mobile Screens, today to learn: 

• Common traits of top ad creatives, including banners and video ads, with details on why interactivity, branding and a strong call to action are key. 
• Why targeted audiences should see customized mobile ad creatives. 
• How top ad creatives can drive ideal ad performance around everything from branding to user acquisition, and what ideal conversion rates look like. 
• Why creatives are a key component to ad spend budgets. 

GET IT NOW

Sneak Peek of the Report 

Get an advanced look at the report before you download it! Check out three of the chapters today: 

Introduction 

What does a successful ad look like? How do brands know if their ads had a positive impact on their target market? 

In the past century, answering these kinds of questions was relatively straightforward. Marketers had developed some benchmarks to determine if a radio, newspaper, or television ad worked, or if a billboard or bus stop ad had its intended effect. Over the decades, advertisers had templates in place for all these media.  

But then digital happened. First in the browser world and then later to mobile and apps, marketers now have the ability to more accurately measure their ads to determine if they were effective. They don’t need only focus groups, surveys or guesswork to determine if their campaigns were successful. They now have data at their fingertips. 

The emerging world of mobile advertising and in-app advertising has created tremendous opportunities for marketers in terms of measurability, reach and targeting. But it comes with its fair share of challenges.  

How can marketers capture attention with a smaller screen and shorter attention spans? With far more data coming through, what should be tracked closely versus what’s just noise? And, how can marketers stay on top of everything when campaigns are transacted programmatically in mere fractions of a second?  

In the world of in-app advertising, old ideas about the marketing funnel are falling away. Today’s consumer journey is far more convoluted, with touchpoints across media potentially working together in unexpected ways to drive sales and influence consumer actions. 

As a result of all this, what does an effective mobile app ad actually look like?  

That’s what we wanted to definitively find out.  

To resolve still-lingering questions and concerns regarding mobile in-app ad creative best practices, InMobi’s in-app advertising experts teamed up with the creative production experts at Celtra. We looked at the creatives used with some of the top mobile in-app advertising campaigns, to see how the ad itself impacted campaign performance. 

Developing Signups and Contacts to Help Drive New Business  

Mobile in-app advertising can go beyond brand awareness as well and is proven capable of driving measurable business success – so long as the right creative is deployed, of course. When optimized ads are deployed intelligently and thoughtfully, brands can successfully drive new signups, new app downloads and new business through mobile app-led campaigns.  

In the in-app world, bottom-funnel performance campaigns have long been measured on a pure install basis. But this provides only limited information. After all, just because someone installs an app doesn’t mean they’ll be a loyal, valuable customer. And, of course, not all brands have apps.  

So what’s a better way of measuring performance for these kinds of campaigns? Increasingly, savvy brands are thinking beyond the event and taking steps to understand how someone who interacts with an ad is later impacting the business and its bottom line. Metrics like post-click conversion rate and acquired user lifetime value thus become what is tracked, as opposed to only raw installs.  

Some brands are even taking this mentality a step further by only buying against these kinds of metrics. Many advertisers are now embracing Cost per Action (CPA) advertising, wherein they only pay when a high-quality user is obtained through advertising. For example, instead of buying on a Cost Per Install (CPI) basis, a food delivery app may prefer to buy on a Cost Per First Order (CPFO) basis, so that they only pay when someone both downloads the app from an ad and then actually uses the app to order food. 

How to Apply These Insights  

As a marketer or advertiser, how can you use these examples in your own future in-app efforts? The key is to always think about what your intended audience wants to see and what will convince them to take a desired next step.   

Mobile in-app advertising has many advantages, but also some downsides. The ability to target and segment audiences is unparalleled, and the features that can be leveraged are wide-reaching. But mobile attention spans are short, and smartphone screens don’t offer a lot of real estate.   

The key, as always, is to offer the right creative to the right person at the right time. This is, of course, easier said than done. But, by developing a key understanding of your audience and what they need to see from you, you can then develop a wide variety of ad creatives to effectively capture their attention and drive desired outcomes.  

To see continued success, it’s helpful to measure quickly and then to iterate off that data as soon as possible. The mobile in-app space moves quickly, and so it’s important to move in tandem with it. A creative that works really well for one week could fall flat next week.   

Take a look at the data at least once a day, and dive into what you’re seeing. Why are some creatives working better than others? Why are some audiences responding better to the campaign versus others? With a close eye and an understanding of mobile in-app advertising best practices, you can be sure that your creatives are always leading to campaign success. 

GET IT NOW

Looking for Additional Insights on Mobile Ad Creatives Best Practices? 

Want to go beyond what’s covered in the report and gain further knowledge on what the best ad creatives should look like in mobile apps that aren’t owned by Google and Facebook? Check out the below resources today:  

• How AI and Machine Learning Make In-App Ad Creatives Better 
• Three-Step Checklist To Making An Effective Mobile Ad Creative 
• Your Guide to Effective Mobile Ad Creatives 
• In-App Creative Basic Benchmarks For Performance Campaign Managers 
• InMobi Transforms Creative Production, Outperforms Averages with Celtra

Of course, don’t forget to pair these resources with your complimentary copy of Understanding Quality Ad Creative for Mobile Screens! 

GET IT NOW

Note: A big thanks to the folks at Celtra to help this report come alive! Brands and advertisers featured in the report include Abu Dhabi Tourism, Alfa Romeo, Asian Paints, Buavita, Clear, CooperVision, Etisalat, Expo 2020 Dubai, Foxtel, Lifebuoy, Philips, Ponds, Rusky Bakes, Subaru and Wendy’s. 

About Celtra  

Celtra is the Creative Management Platform (CMP) for digital advertising. Celtra’s creative production automation software helps creative and marketing teams design, scale, and deliver creative across channels, formats, and languages. Celtra is headquartered in Boston (MA), with offices in New York City, San Francisco, London (UK), Singapore, and Ljubljana (SI). For more information, visit Celtra at www.celtra.com or @Celtra on Twitter. 

Digital Marketing Maturity (DMM) adalah Kunci di dalam era New Normal

Dengan perubahan pola perilaku masyarakat dalam membelanjakan uang mereka, digital menjadi hal prerogatif bagi brand untuk berinteraksi dengan konsumen baru, dan marketers perlu menilai ulang mengenai prioritas dalam mengukur tujuan pemasaran mereka agar tetap terhubung dengan konsumen.

DMM Sangat Penting, tetapi Apakah Brand Sudah Siap?

BCG menyatakan bahwa DMM adalah kapasitas organisasi dalam memberikan pengalaman bagi brand untuk kedewasaan strategi marketing mereka: Nascent, Emerging, Connected, dan Multi-moment. Menurut survei yang dilakukan oleh InMobi, hampir setengah dari pemasar mengkategorikan diri mereka dalam Nascent atau Emerging Stage, menyisakan ruang besar untuk pertumbuhan organisasi. Seperti yang telah terjadi di e-commerce dan industri BFSI (Banking, Financial Services and Insurance) yang telah memimpin DMM Karena mereka telah berada di posisi connected dan multi-moment.

Mengingat keadaan kematangan pemasaran digital, apa tujuan marketers yang perlu diketahui dalam era New Normal ini?

1. Mendapatkan pelanggan baru
2. Memperkuat brand reputation and trust
3. Meningkatkan brand awareness
4. Engage dengan komunitas yang telah ada

Saat DMM berkembang, strategi marketers yang disalurkan melalui channel digital bergeser dari aspiration menjadi tindakan yang dapat ditindaklanjuti. Saat marketers bergerak menuju akhir, yang dapat ditindaklanjuti mereka telah siap untuk mengukur ROI.

Evolusi Strategi dan Perkembangan Kematangan Pemasaran Digital

Mendapatkan pelanggan baru sambil meningkatkan engagement dengan pelanggan yang sudah ada telah menjadi tantangan tersendiri di wilayah Asia Pasifik. Marketers ingin mendorong hasil yang dapat diukur ke depan dengan berinvestasi dalam strategi berikut:

1. Membangun pengalaman pelanggan secara omnichannel
2. Mengakses data konsumen secara real-time
3. Memanfaatkan otomatisasi di seluruh digital Chanel
4. Membangun sumber daya manusia yang terampil

Strategi Utama yang Dapat Dilakukan oleh Brand di era New Normal

Iklan digital akan mendorong pertumbuhan di dunia Pasca-Covid, sementara digital adalah bagian dari sebagian besar strategi pemasaran, 58% marketers menghabiskan kurang dari 40% anggaran mereka untuk digital. Dengan berbagai macam platform untuk dijelajahi seperti TV, OOH, media Cetak, dan radio, anggaran tersebar dengan baik di berbagai saluran digital dan non digital. Pandemi telah mengakibatkan marketers harus mengubah rencana mereka agar lebih fokus secara digital.

Menurut eMarketer, India dan Asia Tenggara mengalami peningkatan yang luar biasa dalam pembelanjaan iklan untuk digital yang tumbuh masing-masing sebesar 33% dan 18% dari tahun 2020 hingga 2021. Pengeluaran iklan seluler juga mengalami peningkatan pertumbuhan di India sebesar 38% dan 20% SEA sebesar 20% dari tahun 2020 hingga 2021. Secara keseluruhan, pasca-COVID, ada peningkatan belanja iklan digital yang signifikan sebesar 69%.

Anggaran iklan bebasis hasil dan in-App akan tumbuh sebesar 87%, dimana marketers akan meningkatkan investasi mereka dalam in-app advertising hingga 40%.

Programmatic buying tetap menjadi channel yang paling efisien bagi marketers untuk menjangkau dan engage dengan audience, dimana terdapat brand-safe environment 100% yang sesuai dengan pedoman industri. Dengan tujuan inti utama mengakuisisi konsumen, marketers mengeluarkan budget iklan untuk mengkomunikasikan campaign melalui iklan yang dapat diukur, dan terdapat penurunan dalam pembelanjaan iklan untuk pencitraan merek.

Artikel juga diterbitkan di BW Businessworld pada tanggal 18 Agustus 2020

We wanted to dig in on this a little further to see if we could identify similar trends on a city-by-city level. Especially in key swing states, how certain counties and cities vote could very well determine whether a state is Red or Blue come election day this year.  

Here’s what we found. 

Overview of Our Mobile Analysis 

First, a note on the data we used. All insights stemmed from InMobi’s various first-party, mobile-first data sources, which stem from our wide SDK footprint from InMobi Exchange along with data from our own mobile properties. We specifically looked at both app ownership and mobile engagement (as measures through mobile website sessions). 

We looked at cities in Red states (specifically Texas), Blue states (California and Colorado) and swing states (Arizona, Florida and Virginia). In each state, we analyzed one city that has historically supported Republican candidates in the last few years and one that tends to vote more for Democrats. 

To further confirm just how each of these cities are leaning politically, we looked at three key categories: news consumption, religion/Bible consumption and NASCAR fandom. On the news side, cities that consume Fox News over NPR or CNN we consider to be more Republican-leaning, while the opposite is true for Democratic cities. In addition, the more likely a city’s residents are to consume Bible and NASCAR content, the more Republican we would consider them to be for our analysis. 

Does App Usage Align With Political Preferences? 

Based on our mobile analysis criteria, most of the cities aligned with our initial expectations. Flagstaff, Colorado Springs, Jacksonville and Virgina Beach do indeed exhibit Republican mobile usage patterns, while all the Democratic cities do have Blue state mobile usage behavior. 

But there were two interesting outliers in Anaheim and Arlington. In particular, NASCAR and Bible content is not very popular in either place, although in each city there is a slight preference for Fox News over the other news sources we used for our analysis. 

Most Popular Apps in Metros 

One thing that really stuck out to us was the extent to which app usage and ownership differed drastically by state. Overall, the two cities in each state were more likely to have similar app ownership trends, while cities in different states that may vote for the same political party were unlikely to have the same apps. 

Colorado Springs and Denver are a good example of this paradigm. While each location is firmly on the opposite end of the current political spectrum, there is a lot of overlap in app ownership trends. For example, a person in Colorado Springs is more likely to have same apps as a person in Denver as compared to a person in Flagstaff or Viriginia Beach. 

How to Use This Data 

For political advertisers, there are a few key takeaways from this city-by-city analysis. For one, it really hammers home the necessity of local targeting. Especially in swing states like Florida, it’s key to reach intended audiences with customized messaging that resonates with them and the issues relevant to that particular part of the country.  

It also helps to highlight how even though each side can count on millions of supporters across the country, there are a lot of nuances in different locations. As our analysis shows, interests can vary dramatically by location.  

For political advertisers, it’s imperative to understand which apps are used in specific locations and why. After all it’s possible to target likely voters through many of these properties. 

This data further goes to show the lack of homogeneity even in solid Blue states or solid Red states. For example, Colorado may go for Democratic candidates these days, but that doesn’t mean that Republican donors and supporters can’t be found in the state. 

Even for non-political advertisers, this is a useful exercise. This analysis further underscores the benefits of geotargeting, highlighting the necessity of understanding consumer trends and preferences on the ground and how they can vary even within the same state. 

Interested in learning more about our data sources? Reach out today to see for yourself how InMobi’s data and audiences expertise can help your ad campaigns win big. 

About the Author  

Matthew Kaplan has over a decade of digital marketing experience, working to support the content goals of the world’s biggest B2B and B2C brands. He is a passionate app user and evangelist, working to support diverse marketing campaigns across devices. He also previously covered politics and government for the Daily News Tribune.

How will those states votes? There’s no way for sure to know until Election Day in November, although polls can be helpful for prognosticating. 

But what if there was another way to guess? Could app usage be a helpful predictor? That’s what we wanted to find out. 

We recently ran a little thought experiment at InMobi, using our various mobile first-party data sources to see which apps were commonly used in swing states. We then compared those usage patterns with what we found in what will likely be solidly Republican and Democratic states.  

Here’s what we found. 

Overview of our App Usage Analysis 

Before we dive into the results, let’s talk about the process a little bit more. As our control group, we first looked at three representative Red states (Alabama, Utah and Indiana) and three representative Blue states (Vermont, Illinois and Washington). To further confirm how each of these six states are indeed leaning, we looked at the following criteria in particular: 

• News app usage: In Red states, Fox News was more popular than CNN or NPR, while the opposite was true in Blue states. 
• Bible apps/religious content consumption: There is overindexing usage of this kind of content in the Red states over the Blue states. 
• NASCAR fans: People living in Red states were more likely than people living in Blue states to consumer NASCAR-related content on their mobile devices, although Utah was a bit of an outlier in this regard. 
• Popular consumer brands: In 2019, Axios and Harris held a poll that looked at the most popular brands among Democrats and Republicans. We then looked to see whether these results align with our mobile usage data. 

Reviewing the Most Popular Apps in Swing States 

With this confirmation in place, we then looked to see how the five swing states we analyzed (Arizona, Florida, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin) aligned based on the above criteria. Here’s how these states are stacking up at the moment: 

• Arizona is leaning Blue. Mobile device users in the state consume more content on CNN than they do on Fox News, and both religious apps and NASCAR are not popular. In addition, the state over-indexes on the Democratically-aligned consumer brands identified by Axios. 
• Florida is leaning Red. Fox News is one the 30 most popular apps in the state, and religious content is consumed more frequently on mobile here than it is in solidly Blue states. The state also overindexes on the Republican-aligned consumer brands identified by Axios. 
• Michigan is leaning Blue. NPR and CNN are more popular than Fox News. The state does over-index on the Republican-aligned consumer brands identified by Axios, although both Bible and NASCAR content isn’t as popular here as it is in Red states like Indiana and Alabama. 
• Pennsylvania is leaning Blue. Not only are CNN and NPR more popular than Fox News, but religious content is not very popular at all in the state. 
• Wisconsin is leaning Blue. While the state does over-index on Fox News over CNN, it also over-indexes on the Democratically-aligned consumer brands identified by Axios. In addition, both NASCAR and religious content are not very popular in the state. 

Most Popular Apps in Swing States 

One thing that became very clear in our analysis is just how different each of these states really are from one another. In particular, a state’s demographics and regionality (where in the country the state is located) really impacted what apps were commonly found in each location.  

Interested in reaching voters/consumers in these swing states or any other part of the U.S.? Reach out today to learn more about how InMobi can help. 

About the Author  

Matthew Kaplan has over a decade of digital marketing experience, working to support the content goals of the world’s biggest B2B and B2C brands. He is a passionate app user and evangelist, working to support diverse marketing campaigns across devices. He also previously covered politics and government for the Daily News Tribune. 

Note: Want to listen to previous editions of Mobile Insights with InMobi? Head to our SoundCloud page for more.   

For this interview, I sat down again with Kunal Nagpal, GM of Publisher Platforms and InMobi Exchange, on August 12. In this conversation, we talked about the current state of political advertising, what political advertisers need to know about mobile and the approach InMobi is taking regarding political advertising, among other topics. Tune in now to hear the whole conversation! 

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Top Quotes from Kunal 

• “They were spending a lot of money on physical events. And so now both [Democrats and Republicans] have sort of changed tracks. We're seeing candidates, as well as the the super PACs behind them, looking now back into the digital space for their spend. We've been seeing a spike come back in the last two weeks or so and we expect the spends to only go up from here.” 
• “I think lot of the ads now are about fund raising. Interestingly, the fund raising, especially for the Democrat side, has been not just about the top of the ticket with Joe Biden. It's actually been going down the ticket into governor races and Senate races and the House of Representative races, and so their fundraising has been a lot more broad based, whereas on the Republican side, most of the fundraising things that we are seeing so far has been for the top of the ticket.” 
• “A lot of the House races and the Senate races tend to be very local, both in their issues as well as in their outreach to the voters. And as you then have to go local, the physical events and the local print, the local TV, that takes precedence.” 
• “I think it's experimental, you know, it's that medium that everybody wants to go after. But the [CTV] space is still not fully developed. There is a lot of fraud in that side on the publishing side, while there's not a whole lot of targeting available right now from the demand side. While everybody wants a piece of the [CTV] cake, it's quite hard to actually execute at scale.” 
• “Many of those campaigns have been very wary of spending money on news websites, given the huge amount of negativity associated with anything by way of breaking news in these pandemic infected times.” 
• “There are also some sort of gaming supply that see some ads. It's not, again, meant to be the perfect sort of environment for a political ad necessarily, but it's the perfect audience. And so a lot of the campaigns have been testing and running some ads in the gaming apps as well.” 
• “I think the audience targeting has improved quite a bit in the last two years ago and as a few of the agencies have this broader data, they've been able to integrate that better with the general audience data.” 
• “There are certain kinds of games in which, the right breaks in between sessions, etc. are a good place where a video ad from a campaign actually could work really well because the person playing that game is the perfect match for that campaign looking to target.” 
• “Why do they need to only go to the walled gardens when they can get a bigger pool of quality data outside?” 
• “As you would expect from any responsible company, we will not let any misleading ad or any misrepresentation come into our exchange and be able to target the users that rely on us for a good quality ad. We will be reviewing creatives, even from the lens of is this photo doctored? Is this message an outright lie? And if so we will flag them and cut them again. I think it's one of those things that you expect to receive from any responsible player. But obviously for us, it's at the core of our offering of a safe environment quality.” 
• “This is a very sensitive topic. We are neutral. We will remain always neutral in the discourse on any issue. You would want us to be responsible about it, and so we will go the extra mile and make sure that there's no, misrepresentation, for example, that happened.” 

LISTEN IN

Interested in running a political advertising campaign on InMobi Exchange? Reach out today to schedule time to chat with one of our mobile experts. 

More Episodes Of Mobile Insights With InMobi    

Interested in listening to more interviews just like this one? Click the links below to tune in.    

• Robyn Meyers On Video Streaming During COVID-19    
• Jobie Tan On Mobile Gaming During COVID-19 
• Rajat Wanchoo On The Needs of CMOs During COVID-19   
• Kunal Nagpal On InMobi Exchange And In-App Programmatic Trends   
• Bismit Bikash Boruah On Ad Buying Trends On InMobi Exchange During COVID-19   
• Tejaswi Gautam On How Telcos Are Managing During COVID-19  

About the Author/Interviewer      

Matthew Kaplan has over a decade of digital marketing experience, working to support the content goals of the world’s biggest B2B and B2C brands. He is a passionate app user and evangelist, working to support diverse marketing campaigns across devices. He also previously covered politics and government for the Daily News Tribune. 

What App Publishers Need to Know 

With iOS 14, publishers and developers are required to provide a purpose string that’s displayed to users through a pop-up and explains why they would want to track a specific user. InMobi fully supports this change being introduced in iOS 14 in the spirit to put the privacy of users first and giving people more control over the way their personal data is managed.   

While we do not yet have any neutral data to benchmark or estimate the opt-in rates yet, it’s likely that the number of users who opt-in will be low for apps in iOS 14. In this likely scenario, implementing meaningful value exchange with the users in return for data should be a priority for publishers.  

What we know today from our analysis testing apps on the iOS 14 developer build are the following:  

Publishers and app developers need to implement the AppTrackingTransparency framework before iOS 14 is released. Failing to do so, publishers face the risk of losing potential ad revenue from users who update to iOS 14.   

Permissions can be sought by the developer only once during the entire lifecycle of the app for a user.   

We expect the opt-in rates to increase if the permission dialog is shown later in the lifecycle of an app, rather than at first launch. Publishers should also consider ways to encourage users to provide consent through notifications or better onboarding experiences that are less intrusive and can drive higher opt-ins.  For example, notification banners can be used to urge users to opt in and, when clicked, leads to app privacy settings, where the user can simply opt in with a single tap. 

In the long run though, irrespective of the opt-in rates in a post-IDFA world, we would recommend publishers consider incentivizing users to enrich first party data as a best practice and continue to educate app users with higher degree of transparency.   

Identity and iOS 14 

Since most key in-app advertising tactics currently rely on using IDFA as an identifier, the quest to find a substitute identifier, one that is privacy compliant and can stand the test of time (measured in ad tech years!), becomes even more significant.    

InMobi will continue to support alternate signals to address basic ad serving use cases includingfrequency capping and setting other rules or measurement use cases including fraud detection that are critical to ensure a positive ad experience for users within an app.    

While IDFA was universally accepted for targeting due to its scale, there are other unique and near-deterministic signals which can be equally effective for such use cases. This includes IDV (the unique device identifier available to publishers across their apps on a given device), independent third-party device graphs and other surrogate identifiers with reliable match rates like IPV6 that could be used at scale for advertising effectiveness.    

Advertisers and iOS 14 

The impact of an IDFA-less world is no different on the advertiser side for demand-side platforms (DSPs). While optimizing advertising campaigns at the publisher and placement level will still be possible, it will definitely not be as effective as a user ID is to bidding strategies and personalization of ad creatives. In its absence though, in-app SSPs/Exchanges with data enriched inventory at scale and robust programmatic pipes will be able to provide specific performance data or contextually relevant signals that DSPs can immediately leverage.   

Although generating installs without a user ID will be challenging, performance-focused DSPs can leverage historical ad metrics (including session depth, historical CTR, historic VCR, domain information, etc.) and fingerprinting based on various data signals to drive user acquisition campaigns.   

For more brand-focused DSPs, that is DSPs focused on upper-funnel branding spends, we will be providing audience capabilities via deal IDs based on historical ad interaction metrics. All of this will happen without data leaving the users device which is in line with the spirit of Apple’s policies. On the other hand, brand-focused DSPs can also rely on a plethora of contextual signals that InMobi is able to provide thanks to its large in-app SDK footprint.  

This includes enriching bid requests with app metadata like content category or page content classification (as per standard IAB taxonomy), device signals (hardware type, operating system version, IPV6, network speed, sound settings, etc.), demographic information-based audience segments and precise (or broad) location information, as permitted by the user on iOS 14.   

We are currently in touch with all our DSP partners preparing the programmatic pipes to read and consume these signals, as InMobi begins passing them in the bid stream. 

Attribution and iOS 14 

That brings us to the last piece of the puzzle - attribution. Attribution is a double-sided problem since IDFA as a signal is required from our publishers (impression and click) and advertisers (when app is open and events within app) for install measurements. Therefore, the opt-in rates will determine the success of user-level app attribution.  

As we understand today, Apple is trying to enforce a privacy-safe install attribution mechanism with SKAdNetwork. While it works for all users and does not require an opt-in, the granularity of attribution is limited.  

Alternatively, advertisers can also choose to deploy attribution fingerprinting models provided by mobile measurement platforms (MMPs) instead of using the SKAdNetwork, in addition to using their services for operational tasks including aggregating install receipts and reporting. However, in case advertisers choose to move away from MMPs and prefer the more deterministic, last-click attribution via Apple SKADNetwork, then InMobi will work with our DSP partners to ensure that the attribution is seamless. This includes helping DSPs distribute the ‘registered Ad Network ID’ to our publishers, enriching oRTB stream with new SkAdNetwork specific objects, all relevant documentation and any other details to enable postbacks, so that the optimization challenges are unblocked.   

How We Are Moving Forward 

There is much to speculate at this point in time. Our intent at this juncture is to help our partners on both supply and demand side clarify questions or doubts on how InMobi can support both monetization and advertising during this transition. While the long-term impact of removal of identifiers on the mobile ad ecosystem needs to be seen, it is indeed a significant move towards providing more control over data to users. Advertising and app monetization, meanwhile, will learn to evolve around these changes on a trajectory that works best for publishers, advertisers and, most importantly, the users. 

Remarketing: The Secret to Reconnecting with High Intent Users 

With COVID-19 causing seismic shifts in the way consumers and brands interact, there is now a captive audience who is receptive to content and is engaging on mobile now more than ever. 

As brands continue to evaluate how they can drive maximum value for their consumers, Remarketing has become a welcome strategy. Advertisers are all too familiar with the risk of drop-offs across each stage of the customer journey; Remarketing helps restart the brand’s interactions with their consumers in a meaningful and contextual manner. Be it reaching that ‘incremental’ revenue gap or engaging lapsed users, remarketing is an ace game for today’s marketers.

Remarketing combines high-scale relevant reach with personalized communication, enabling advertisers to nudge customers on to the next step of their user journey. A nuanced remarketing campaign can help advertisers achieve three key outcomes: 

1. Activation: Nudging users to the next step in the purchase process 
2. Retargeting: Cross-sell through product affinity and search sciences 
3. Re-engagement: Get active users to complete purchase & drive incremental revenue 

A Comprehensive Approach to Remarketing 

To achieve optimal results when launching a remarketing campaign, a well-planned comprehensive approach is a must. An effecting remarketing campaign is built on 3 key factors: Custom Audiences, Creative Optimization, and Smart Bidding.  

1. Building Custom Audiences in Real-Time 

A key pillar to ensuring the success of your remarketing campaign is defining and curating user cohorts in real-time based on in-app actions, recent activities, and personalized attributes. Advertisers must leverage the following strategy to curate cohorts and: 

1. Track conversions across the funnel as the user changes states in the funnel 
2. Track and segment customers who are dormant at any stage of the funnel 
3. Define retargeting campaign strategies for individual user cohorts to maximize transactions 

2. Creative Optimization for a Higher Reach 

Tailoring creative communication to create rich and engaging experiences, including the use of personalized and interactive ad formats, helps reach high-intent users, drive better engagement rates, and higher conversions. 

3. Smart Bidding Strategy that Optimizes Ad Spends 

Dynamically modified bids are based on a variety of attributes enabling better prediction. This ensures that ad spends are allocated on user propensity to transact, helping advertisers move beyond optimizations based on CTR.  

Building Seamless User Experiences on Mobile 

Ever wondered how difficult it is to build an uninterrupted user experience which satisfies consumer expectations? Often multiple compatibility factors such as operating system, device, platforms (apps, web browsers) can make or break the end experience for users as they move across different stages of the customer funnel. The right deep linking tactics can help remove a layer of this complexity in the consumer’s journey, offering users an end experience that is delightful. 

Suppose a user sees an ad and wants to purchase a product. Upon clicking the ad which does not have a deep link, they would be directed to the Appstore or the Play Store where they will have to first download the app. Assuming there is no churn out, they will then have to sign up on the app. Upon signing up, they open the app. The user would not land on the right page unless they manually decide to search for it from the home screen of the app. With shorter attention spans, modern consumers expect transactions to happen in a click. A world without deep links leaves too much of the onus on the consumer to take the right action, denying users of a smooth experience.  

Figure 1 Flow without a Deep Link Configuration 

Deep linking ensures a seamless consumer experience for your users. With deep links, the consumer is shown exactly what they are looking for in just a single tap.  

Figure 2 Flow with a Deep Link Configuration

Remarketing ads show the best results when the ad redirects the user to the desired landing page. Deep links enable marketers to prevent drop off and user churn, ultimately increasing consumer loyalty and delivering higher conversions. 

The Remarketing Checklist for Marketers 

Ensure the success of your remarketing campaign by ticking these points of your checklist: 

1. Leverage 1st,2nd and 3rd party data for audience segmentation 
2. Optimize bids for high engagement/ LTV users 
3. Personalize ads based on user interest and behavior 
4. Facilitate higher conversions with deep linking support 
5. Utilize cross-device targeting 

To learn more about how remarketing can help brands and marketers make the best of their campaigns, watch the webinar on-demand here. 

Digital Marketing Maturity (DMM) is Key in the New Normal

With market disruption speeding up the change of a decade’s behavior in just weeks, digital is becoming a prerogative to interact with the world, consumers are facing new realities, and marketers are re-assessing their priorities to scale their marketing objectives to stay connected with the consumer.

DMM is Critical, But Are Brands Ready?

BCG states that DMM is the organizations’ capacity in delivering seamless brand experiences and is characterized into four stages of maturity levels: Nascent, Emerging, Connected, and Multi-moment. According to the InMobi survey, close to half of the marketers categorize themselves in the Nascent or Emerging Stage, leaving a large room for the growth in organizations. As is obvious, e-commerce and BFSI lead on the Digital Marketing Maturity emerging as the more connected and multi-moment brands.

Given the state of digital marketing maturity, what are the marketing goals in the new normal? Here's the list of goals placed in the order of significance:

1. Acquiring new customers

2. Strengthening brand reputation and trust

3. Increasing brand awareness, and

4. Engaging the existing community of consumers

As the DMM of brands evolves, their strategies on digital channels shift from the aspirational to the actionable. As marketers move towards the ‘actionable’ end, they are better equipped to scale ROI and measurable outcomes.

Evolving Strategies with Evolving Digital Marketing Maturity

Acquiring new customers while engaging the existing customer base has become a challenge in the APAC region. Marketers look to drive measurable outcomes going forward by investing in the following strategies:

1. Building right omnichannel customer experience

2. Accessing real-time consumer data

3. Leveraging automation across channels and

4. Building skilled human capital

Key Strategies for Brands in the New Normal

Digital Advertising will Drive Growth in a Post-COVID world In a pre-COVID world, while digital was a part of most marketing strategies, 58% of marketers spent less than 40% of their budgets on digital. With a wide variety of platforms to explore like the TV, OOH, print, and radio, the budgets were well spread across multiple digital and non-digital channels. The pandemic has resulted in marketers having to pivot their plans to be more digitally focused.

According to eMarketer, India and SEA see a tremendous rise in the ad spends on digital growing by 33% and 18% respectively from 2020 to 2021. The mobile ad spends have also seen an upward trajectory in growth in India by 38% and 20% SEA by 20% from 2020 to 2021. Overall, in the post COVID world, there is a significant 69% increased digital ad spends.

In-app and Outcome-based Advertising Budgets will Grow 87% of marketers will increase their investments in in-App advertising by up to 40%.

Programmatic buying remains the most efficient channel for marketers to reach and engage the audiences in a brand-safe environment with 100% compliance with industry guidelines. With user acquisition being the core objective for marketers, the ad spends are highly directed towards performance campaigns while there’s a downfall in ad spends for branding campaigns.

Disclaimer: Originally published in BW Businessworld on Aug 18. 2020

Specifically, Apple is now requiring every app to gain user permission to collect and use their IDFA for advertising purposes. Apps can only ask for opt-in permission once, the look and language of the ask is largely set, and all iOS apps will be required to ask their users on iOS 14 and greater.  

This move is part of a greater push from Apple around privacy on their end, to ensure consumer data is collected and used in a highly transparent manner. InMobi, and many others in the mobile advertising space, are very aligned with and very supportive of this overall goal.  

At this point, with iOS 14 not set to be released for a few weeks now, it’s still too early to know what the repercussions of this change will be or to otherwise have clarity on what its final impact will be for the ecosystem. But considering that the majority of in-app ad spending in the U.S. occurs on Apple devices and the outsized role Apple plays in the mobile ecosystem, this move regarding IDFA is significant. 

Some say only 15% or fewer will opt in, while more generous estimates see 75% opt-in rates for some apps. Considering that around 30% of iOS device owners in the U.S. have Limit Ad Tracking turned on even though it’s a bit hidden, it’s fair to say that at least half of those using iOS 14-powered devices will opt out – if not more. 

Of course, as opposed to the all-in-one approach of LAT, users will have to opt in for just about every app on their mobile device once iOS 14 is installed. This may mean that opt-in rates post iOS 14 will be lower than present-day LAT opt-in rates. 

As one of the largest players in the mobile in-app advertising world, InMobi is following developments closely. Below, we will outline what we expect to happen as a result of this move, and how this announcement will (and won’t) impact how we work with our brand, agency and demand-side platform (DSP) partners. 

Note: In today’s post, we will be focusing specifically on how iOS 14 will impact advertisers, with a particular focus on performance/user acquistion advertisers. Please stay tuned here for subsequent posts on how iOS 14 will impact InMobi Exchange and our publisher partners, along with additional content around how different components of the in-app advertising ecosystem will be specifically be altered by iOS 14. 

How an Advertiser’s Life May Change Post iOS 14 

Before we prognosticate, it helps to understand how the IDFA is currently utilized. It plays a major role in identity, attribution, efficiency, audience targeting, frequency capping and in fighting fraud, among other areas. 

The IDFA is used for three main purposes by advertisers: 

1. The first is identity/targeting. Simply put this is the way advertisers recognize users in the ecosystem and target or retarget them in pursuit of their advertising goals. Most, if not all, campaigns target a specific set of users, typically based on attributes, affinity and other scores built on top of an IDFA user graph. While the lack of an IDFA removes all ability to build these kinds of user profiles, targeting based on user attributes (contextual or geo) rather than just an identifier may continue to be supported. 
2. The second is efficiency and value management. The IDFA is used to power efficiency driving technology such as frequency capping, ad rotation, dynamic creative optimization and pricing/prediction. Without IDFA, it is also difficult for demand-side platforms (DSPs), ad networks and exchanges that advertisers work with to enforce a frequency cap on user impressions to optimize campaigns efficiently. We expect typical campaigns to move from using IDFA-based optimization to an in-session or non-persistent ID-based frequency capping. While not perfect, this prevents wastage of impressions on the same user. 
3. The third is measurement and attribution. The IDFA is the most critical component of the measurement chain, powering multi-touch attribution, last-click attribution, last-view attribution etc., and is the basis on which all mobile media is measured today. Each of these aspects is impacted significantly by iOS 14. Additionally, depending on the intent of the campaign (upper funnel/branding vs. mid-funnel/prospecting vs. bottom-funnel/user acquisition and retargeting), a different level of cardinality is present in the issues presented, as well as the solution. 

In bottom-funnel advertising campaigns, the impact of this change is profound. Without IDFA, deterministic, user-level attribution for any app install is next to impossible. While Apple’s SKAdNetwork acts as a privacy-compliant substitute, it is limited by its current capabilities. The catch is that advertisers may only receive aggregated install data that will not be useful in understanding and optimizing for lifetime vale (LTV) (unlike LTV/user-level data provided by mobile measurement platforms today). 

Moving Past IDFA as the Single Source of Truth In Mobile Advertising 

It is worthwhile to note that IDFA is just one data signal among many that are currently utilized in mobile in-app advertising. Going forward, we expect more emphasis to be placed on probabilistic and contextual data signals, among other sources of knowledge. 

So what other sources of data will advertisers continue to have access to once iOS 14 is live on most Apple devices? The InMobi SDK will continue to gather relevant data where possible and where allowed. First-party data, whether from the publisher or another source, will still be available (and valuable) too. Historic benchmarks and results can be highly illuminating as well.  

For example, brand advertisers can expect to continue to rely on a plethora of contextual signals that InMobi, with its large in-app SDK footprint can bring on board. This includes enriching bid requests with app metadata like content category or page content classification (as per standard IAB taxonomy), device signals (like hardware version, IPv6, network speed, sound settings, etc.), demographic information-based segments and location information (both precise and coarse, as permitted by the user on iOS 14).   

It’s also important to note that iOS 14 doesn’t impact IDV, which is the publisher-specific user ID common to all App Store apps across the publisher. And, of course, the expected depreciation of IDFA could mean that third-party device graph identifiers like those from LiveRamp and Tapad play a larger role in the mobile in-app advertising ecosystem. These kinds of signals could be used at scale for advertising effectiveness, with reliable match rates.    

Overall, InMobi will continue to support alternate signals to address basic ad serving use cases including setting frequency capping/rules or measurement use cases including fraud detection that are critical to ensure and enhance a non-intrusive ad experience for users within an app. Further, for advertisers not running performance, app install campaigns, certain components of how they work and run mobile in-app campaigns will remain the same. Campaigns focused on scale, reach and brand awareness will likely be only somewhat impacted by the expected lack of IDFA information coming with iOS 14.   

Building a Privacy-First, Post-IDFA Future 

Apple’s moves with iOS 14 will increase transparency and trust in the mobile in-app advertising supply chain, and what’s not to love about that as an ultimate goal? Going forward, InMobi remains committed to continually serving the needs of our demand-side and supply-side partners in a way that best suits end users. 

To summarize, while we continue to iterate on the plan based on new information, our roadmap on the DSP/demand side will include the following things to address targeting needs for advertisers: 

• Enabling alternate identifiers and IP/IPv6-based targeting. 
• Working with multi-touch attribution and cross-device ID players. 
• Enabling contextual targeting based on app page content for buying. 
• Continued investment into location and geotargeting. 

How is InMobi going to address the needs of bottom-funnel or performance campaigns? For them, our roadmap will include the following things to address measurement and attribution needs of advertisers: 

• Support for SKAdNetwork end-to-end, with continued support for MMP-based attribution, and support for a combination of SKAN + MMP attribution, based on advertiser needs.  
• Building integrations with the entire ecosystem to ensure a clean flow of postbacks and attribution data to advertiser reporting dashboard.  
• These pipes will be enabled by InMobi DSP as well as InMobi Exchange for respective partners and client use cases. 

Overall, we are in complete alignment with Apple and aim to support and ensure privacy in in-app advertising – and believe that platforms built to protect user privacy now will continue to remain at the forefront as the industry – including Android – continues to make user-first decisions. Our goal is to work with our partners in ways that both respect user privacy and ensure an efficient and effective advertising ecosystem.  

But how has use of these app-based music streaming services changed during COVID-19? After all, the common convention holds that most people use these kinds of mobile apps during the commute, either in the car or while on public transportation. This helps to explain why time spent with mobile audio media is expected to stay flat between 2019 and 2020, according to eMarketer. 

This is not to say that no one is using these kinds of mobile apps – far from it, in fact. For one, eMarketer noted that the average adult in the U.S. is expected to spend 75 minutes a day on average using mobile audio media. And in polling we conducted in June using InMobi Pulse, InMobi’s mobile market research platform, one in four Americans said they were listening to more music or radio since the Coronavirus outbreak first really began in the country. 

But we wanted to dive much deeper into the mobile music streaming app arena. Specifically, we wanted to know which apps were being downloaded this year, when people were seeking out specific apps and who have been downloading these apps since the middle of March. For these insights, we turned to our first-party data sources and looked at seven of the most popular audio streaming apps available now in the U.S.: Anchor.fm, iHeartRadio, Radio.com, SiriusXM, Spotify, Stitcher and TuneIn.  

Here’s what we uncovered. 

Install Trends of the Top Audio Mobile Apps 

During the first three months of 2020, Spotify was the consistent leader among all of the mobile apps we looked at for this effort. This is hardly surprising, as they have become one of the biggest and most well-known audio apps in the country. There are more than 50 million songs on the platform, and Spotify helped to popularize both offline listening and split monetization options (having both a free version with ads and a paid, ad-free option). 

Spotify also has seen major gains in new app installs since the end of April. For example, in May Spotify saw over 168% month-over-month growth in daily app installs.  

How were they able to see such major gains in the middle of the pandemic? For one, Spotify launched two promotions on May 14, 2020, one targeting new premium activations and another retargeting lapsed premium users. 

In addition, this growth is coming off the back of many new podcast-related announcements for Spotify. Since April, Spotify acquired the ever-popular podcast The Joe Rogan Experience and signed podcast-related deals with celebrities such as Kim Kardashian and Michelle Obama.  

This, of course, is on top of moves made in 2019 to acquire popular podcast producers like Gimlet and The Ringer. In the podcast department, while Spotify doesn’t yet have a million tracks, it soon will – and its podcast-related moves over the past two years are contributing to the app installs Spotify is seeing while many Americans are staying at home. 

Yet despite the strong growth Spotify has seen in 2020, SiriusXM actually had more daily app installs in April and most of the first half of May. In fact, SiriusXM realized well over 167% growth month-over-month in daily app installs in May. On March 31, SiriusXM, which normally does not have a free tier, began offering free streaming on all 300+ channels from April 1 to May 15, 2020. 

It will be interesting to see how SiriusXM fares in the rest of the second half of 2020, especially considering that their daily app install numbers fell below what both Spotify and iHeartRadio were seeing in June. On July 13, SiriusXM bought Stitcher to boost their podcast offerings. In June, Stitcher had over 20% growth month-over-month in its daily app install figures. 

Stitcher wasn’t the only app we looked at that saw month-over-month growth in June. Radio.com (24.8%), iHeartRadio (2.7%), Spotify (41.6%) and TuneIn (2.4%) all saw gains to some extent in the month. 

Who Are Using These Streaming Services Today? 

We also wanted to look at who were installing these kinds of apps on their mobile devices in mid 2020. For this effort, we looked specifically at just iHeartRadio, SiriusXM, Spotify, Stitcher and TuneIn. 

In terms of gender, this category skews male. Across all of these apps, at least 50% or more of app installers are male. This trend is especially pronounced with TuneIn, where close to 68% of all app owners are male.  

Interestingly though, this paints a different picture from what our June survey found. In early June, while 24% of men said they were listening to more music or radio, 27% of women said the same thing.  

It’s definitely possible that while this kind of content is popular across both genders, men are more likely than women to use mobile apps to access audio. In addition, it’s also possible that women were already listening, and so are not new listeners. 

In terms of age, nearly half of Stitcher's app users are between 26 and 45 years old (42.03%). This will be a change of pace for SiriusXM, which has the highest distribution of users between 46 and 75 years old of all of the apps we looked at, with 63.59% of their users falling into this age range.  

Why the difference? SiriusXM is historically associated with car radio, which may help to explain why they do well with this demographic, while many podcasts (where Stitcher specializes) have younger audiences on average. 

Beyond these two apps, Spotify has more of its users under the age of 36 while over 25% of iHeartRadio app owners are between 46 and 55 years old. Similarly, more than 45% of TuneIn app owners are between 46 and 65 years old. 

Interestingly, the June survey found that 41% of young people (specifically those between 18 and 25 years old) were listening to more music or radio of late, far above what people in other age ranges said. Again, it’s possible that they are either not using apps to listen in or are turning to apps we did not include in this particular analysis, like YouTube Music. 

The survey found that people with children at home were more likely than their childless peers to be listening to more radio or music of late. While 22% of those without kids said they were listening to more audio content during the pandemic, 33% of those with kids said the same thing. 

On the app ownership front, the bulk of app owners make between $35,000 and $100,000 a year. Spotify has the highest distribution of users with $35,000 and under (potentially leveraging the free, ad-supported option) while Stitcher has the highest percentage of users in every income range above $75,000 in annual income. 

Of course, it remains to be seen how these trends will hold out over time. As COVID-19 continues to impact all Americans throughout 2020, it will be interesting to note how adults in the U.S. think about and use mobile apps for listening to music, podcasts and more. 

Looking for COVID-19 insights from across the globe? Head to inmobi.com/covid-19 to see how coronavirus has impacted consumer behavior in the Middle East, India, Australia, Indonesia and other parts of the world. 

About the Author      

Matthew Kaplan has over a decade of digital marketing experience, working to support the content goals of the world’s biggest B2B and B2C brands. He is a passionate app user and evangelist, working to support diverse marketing campaigns across devices. Matt enjoys listening to history podcasts and is a former contributor for music website FasterLouder (now Music Junkee). 

Publishers on MAX can deploy our header bidding SDK and find near immediate improvement in the demand diversity and bid depth as more impression opportunities are exposed to a wider set of our demand partners. This leads to higher bid density, fill rate and overall revenue.  

In addition, MAX mediation and our industry leading in-app bidding solution will allow for a seamless improvement in ad load latency for publishers by allowing removal of multiple waterfall lines across too many demand-side partners.  

“We are excited to have this integration option on MAX. Header bidding transitions the yield optimization process processes off waterfalling to programmatic and a more efficient way to transact inventory. We are committed to bringing these benefits to our publishers and ensuring scaling up off their monetization goals,” says Ram (TK) Krishnamurthy, Head of Customer Success, Supply for InMobi. 

Interested in learning more and seeing how in-app header bidding can benefit you? Reach out today for more information and to get started. 

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Download this report today to learn:  

• How sectors such as mobile gaming, quick-service restaurants, video streaming, and grocery shopping have all fared during the pandemic.  
• Which apps people downloaded post-COVID, and who these new app installers are.  
• How brands can reach consumers at home.  
• What’s next on the horizon for mobile usage in the U.S. 

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Sneak Peek of Our Latest COVID-19 Pandemic Report 

Curious to see what this report has to offer? Here’s a free look at three of the chapters: 

Introduction 

Some days, it’s hard to remember what life was like before COVID-19 upended everything. Although most shelter-in-place orders in the U.S. largely weren’t instituted until March, these guidelines quickly and dramatically impacted consumer behavior. Some parts of the country will have been largely stuck in their homes for well over four to five months (or more) by the time this is all said and done. 

Even though the reaction to COVID-19 has varied across the nation, the virus has impacted just about every industry imaginable. With the economy significantly affected and with consumers replacing in-person purchases with online interactions, COVID-19 and shelter-in-place orders have touched every corner of our lives and livelihoods. 

How specifically has COVID-19 impacted various business sectors? That’s what we here at InMobi wanted to find out. By looking at diverse data sources, primarily mobile surveys and first-party telco data, we can see how consumers today are now entertaining themselves, shopping, eating, communicating and more. 

How to Reach Consumers at Home 

As marketers, how can we reach and engage our audiences while they’re stuck at home? Many leading brands have long relied on traditional tactics like out-of-home billboards, sporting event sponsorships, live TV advertising and other forms of marketing that no longer suffice during the pandemic. 

So what can marketers do to pivot? How can marketers reach their target audiences today? 

The key is to use data to appropriately find and reach consumers in ways that matter now. It’s possible to use knowledge of existing audience segments and then map them to the apps and other digital services they’re now using with greater frequency. 

For example, let’s say a major movie studio wanted to promote a new film being released on streaming platforms. To promote the new picture, the studio could look at what apps former movie theater visitors are now using and then show ads promoting the movie in those app properties. Alternatively, other audience segments like cord-cutters and entertainment enthusiasts would also likely be receptive to ads about the upcoming online movie release. 

This is far from the only application of this kind of logic, of course. A grocery delivery app would benefit from reaching people who normally visited the grocery store once a week, along with other key audience segments like foodies and home chefs. Similarly, teleconferencing apps may benefit from reaching both commuters and people who used to go to bars and nightclubs to socialize. 

Other more basic demographic information can prove useful as well. If a brand knows the typical age and gender of their best customers, then they can look to target people of the same age and gender who are not yet customers. 

Of course, the devil is in the details. To do this kind of targeting, brands either need someone who already has highly accurate audience insights and/or can help them make their data actionable. This is no easy task, and it can be especially tricky today. 

Predicting What’s Next 

At some point in the future, the threat (both direct and indirect) posed by COVID-19 will disappear and we can all go back to our lives as they were before. 

Of course, exactly when this will happen and how we’ll feel when it does is anyone’s guess. It’s hard to say which trends and observations seen today will continue for the foreseeable future, even after the virus subsides. 

But it does appear as though that certain mobile-first behaviors that were growing in popularity before 2020 will continue to be popular once the pandemic ends. Mobile gaming, grocery delivery apps and streaming video on demand have all been popular even when the novel coronavirus wasn’t wreaking global havoc. With everyone stuck at home with limited options for entertainment and meals, these kinds of apps have ballooned in popularity. As consumers begin to better understand the convenience and benefits of these apps, expect these kinds of services and solutions to be well-liked and frequently used in 2021 and beyond. 

No one knows how this all will end and what will come of it. But it’s a safe bet to say that mobile apps will continue to play a central role in just about everything we do in the months and years ahead. 

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Like What You’ve Been Reading on the COVID-19 Outbreak? 

There’s a lot more where this came from! Be sure to download your complimentary copy of InMobi’s U.S. COVID-19 Consumer Insights report today for more data and insights on how the pandemic has impacted online shopping, supply chains, food ordering habits, mobile’s role in retail online orders and a whole lot more. 

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Looking for COVID-19 insights from across the globe? Head to inmobi.com/covid-19 to see how coronavirus has impacted consumer behavior in the Middle East, India, Australia, Indonesia and other parts of the world. 

Myth #1: In-App Reach Isn’t Large Enough to Scale Brand Ad Campaigns 

With over 3 billion smartphone users in the world and over 200 billion app downloads, the in-app audience is anything but small. Time spent on mobile devices in most major markets is significantly higher than any other platform including traditional TV, desktops, laptops and other connected devices. 

In North America, the average user spends around four hours a day on their smartphone, and over 90% of that time is spent in-app. Mobile in-app is also the single largest platform to reach Millennials and Gen Z – who are considered “unreachable” by traditional TV.   

Time spent on mobile is quickly growing, and marketers are realizing the importance of engaging with audiences where they spend most of their time. This is why in-app ad revenues have been rising steadily over the past few years. 

Myth #2: Users Spend Most of Their Time Engaging Only with the Largest Social Media Apps 

Over the last few years, mobile users have been spending more time outside of the “Walled Garden” social and communication apps. In fact, the average user spends around 50% of their time on mobile engaging with apps across gaming, entertainment, news. weather, utilities and more.   

Myth #3: In-App Gaming Can Only Reach Young Males 

Gaming is one of the biggest app verticals in terms of users and ad volume, and almost a third of the world’s population will play a mobile game this year. But who are these mobile gamers? 

Contrary to popular belief, mobile games have a very diverse user base – with users across all age brackets, and a roughly even gender split. While mid-core and strategy games attract a predominantly male audience, the gender split for casual gaming is nearly even. And when looking specifically at hyper-casual games, females outnumber males.   

Myth #4: In-App Inventory is Highly Susceptible to Fraud and Brand Safety Issues 

In the minds of many advertisers, in-app advertising is still a proverbial Wild West, filled with shady players waiting to steal your money.  

In truth, however, this perception is far from reality. Over the past few years, the in-app advertising ecosystem has instituted a number of strict guardrails in place to keep fraud low and to ensure that brand ads only appear in the right context and setting. 

For example, with programmatic advertising becoming the preferred choice for both the demand and supply sides, Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) has introduced measures like app-ads.txt, which solves app misrepresentation by preventing inventory from being sold by unauthorized sellers. These standards have been adopted globally across major app publishers, empowering advertisers to transparently buy programmatic app inventory more confidently. 

Pre-bid filters and third-party fraud measurement systems ensure advertisers are protected against fraud. Further, in-app experiences provide predicable, curated content to users which makes them more brand-safe than content that is dynamic in nature – like news and social sites. 

Myth #5: In-App Ads Have Low Measurability 

While independent third-party measurement providers like Moat, IAS and DoubleVerify provide viewability measurement, the launch of IAB’s Open Measurement SDK (OM SDK) has eliminated the need to implement separate SDKs for accurate viewability verification. The OM SDK is an industry-wide standard that offers a common code for facilitating third-party in-app viewability measurement with one SDK. This goes a long way towards reducing discrepancies across partners. In addition, all performance metrics can be tracked and optimized for in-app environments. 

Myth #6: Reaching Desired Target Audiences Through In-App Mobile Ads is Impossible Because There are No Cookies for Targeting 

In-app advertising offers the most accurate and precise audience targeting using mobile device IDs as the identifier. The supply-side platform’s SDK ties the user signals anonymously to privacy-compliant, unique device IDs. Unlike cookies, device IDs cannot be deleted by the user. Hence, device IDs are the source of data for personalized targeting and are far more deterministic than traditional cookie-based identification methods. 

In addition, buyers who have traditionally been focused on cookie-based channels (desktop and mobile web) can leverage third-party cross-device targeting solutions to map cookies with device IDs. This enables buyers to retarget their desktop and mobile web users in a mobile app environment. Amplify brand awareness by targeting users across devices. 

Myth #7: Ad Formats are Not Effective on Smaller Screens 

In digital advertising, banner ads have long been the most common and inexpensive ad format available. As such, the prevailing notion has been that ads are not really seen and that ad clicks are largely coincidental. 

This, however, is not the whole story. Advertisers have a wide variety of ad formats to choose from when running in-app ads, including native ads, interstitial ads and video ads, among other options.  

There are other key benefits to in-app ad formats too. For one, they can be easily customized based on a user’s device, location and interests, which can greatly help improve results. In-app ads can also include interactive features like rich media end cards, which can really help boost click-through rates. 

Myth #8: In-App Advertising is Only Ideal for App Installs 

For years, the in-app advertising ecosystem was largely defined by app install ads run on repeat by the big ad networks. While in-app advertising can be an ideal way to drive someone to the app store, it can benefit beyond this use case as well.  

Thanks to the scale and reach of mobile, in-app advertising are great for brand awareness campaigns. And the unprecedented level of measurability and viewability inherent in in-app advertising, it’s also ideal for mid-funnel prospecting, customer acquisition and customer retention campaigns, among other key use cases. 

Interested in getting started with in-app advertising? Reach out to us today to learn more. 

Note: Want to listen to previous editions of Mobile Insights with InMobi? Head to our SoundCloud page for more.  

For this interview, I sat down with Rohit Dosi, Business Head of Microsoft Advertising at InMobi, on July 13. In this conversation, we talked about the current state of search advertising, what Indians are searching for during the lockdown and the many advantages of Microsoft search, among other topics. Tune in now to hear the whole conversation! 

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Top Quotes from Rohit 

• “Search advertising is very different from the overall display and video advertising world. Search advertising is a lot more based on keyword focused queries, so it is extremely targeted towards its user. In terms of ad formats as well, while there are a lot of new ad formats, which video and display advertising has to offer, but I strongly feel that the search advertising is less intrusive, as the overall experience on the ads is very user intent related. The ads are only showcased when a user actually searches for something in the form of search queries. In fact, surveys have indicated that 90% of the searchers, they know exactly what they are actually looking for. And that's a very, very strong signal, which also makes it a lot more performance oriented. And actually, it's easier to nudge the users towards the final end goal of the advertiser as well, whether it is it is in terms of the purchase that is supposed to be made or in terms of a download or a sign up, which is required to be done." 

• “Search advertising is just not only focused on performance as well, but I think it is helping the users at every end of the marketing funnel, whether it is driving brand awareness or consideration or performance and even retargeting, so I think search advertising is there at all stages of the funnel. It has significant impact across the user funnel. In fact, while there are newer ad formats available in the market, search advertising still contributes to like 25% of the overall digital media spends in terms of market share. And I think it is the second biggest digital advertising format after social as well. So I think it'll continue to grow in the years to come. But search advertising is a really relevant tool for advertisers across their customer journey in terms of marketing.” 

• "Users now are searching for a lot more after COVID as we have seen in the last three to four months. Even during the lockdown situation in India, specifically, people are spending more than six plus hours on their mobile and smartphones. And now with people being on laptops, considering work from home remote situation, they are even spending more time on servers.” 
   
• “Some of the interesting trends that have picked up in the last three to four months is hyperlocal search has increased a lot. So let's say you know phrases like near me, things near me, right? Whether it is grocery near me, doctors near me, vets near me or pharmacies, etc. These are the searches specifically that have started to happen a lot more than they were happening before the COVID situation. I think entertainment searches have increased a lot, searches like best movies to watch, shows to watch, highest IMDb rated movies, etc. are also a lot more what the users are searching for nowadays, I think with social distancing becoming a norm, gas transactions have taken a backseat for the users.”  
   
• “I think they have started to pay their utility bills, whether it's internet or phone charges or buy Wi-Fi recharges, etc., everything is happening on the platform. We do see a lot of these searches also increasing in India and especially with the scale and diversity of cashless payment adoption in India, since that is very vast. A large number of customers are now getting acquainted to the overall online payment norm as well, and I think that's the reason the overall searches in these categories have also been growing.”  
   
• “Other interesting trends that we have seen, what the Indians are searching for is online car and two-wheeler insurances, right? So this is a category while a lot of insurances for vehicles used to happen on an offline basis before. A lot of them are also now searching for online methods of getting these insurances done.”  
   
• “People are looking for online educational courses people do are spending a lot of time on their laptops on their phones at home. So they do want to upscale their skill sets and that's the reason I think online education and courses as a category has picked up.”  
   
• “Gaming is another one there is a massive surge across you know, across the vertical whether it's online gaming, real money games, games like poker, rummy, etc. have seen a massive traction with users spending a lot more time on gaming nowadays.”  
   
• “I think Microsoft search advertising has a relatively higher qualified audience. I think more educated people with higher purchasing power in general. And they use the search engine to discover products and services. So let's say if I was to talk about buying higher ticket items, the items which have higher worth. It will be easier to close that search funnel on being visible compared to any other competitors or search engines out there.” 
   
• “I think a lot of brand discovery and product research also happens on Microsoft search as compared to the other search engines. I think what Microsoft search advertising has unique is a combination of right audience technology coupled with brand safety and data security.”   
   
• “Advertising on Microsoft search is also a must for marketeers, since the audience that you might find here might not be there on any other platform.” 
   
• “Every platform that is there out definitely has its own value. And that's one thing which is also very cool to make some advertising is that it is a combination of right audience technology, coupled with its own unique users. And I think anyone looking out for search, I think search is always on. You know people are always searching, so there is a significant impact that you can create, using search on the user across different funnels, whether it is consideration or brand awareness or performance. And I think Microsoft search advertising does bring in a lot of its own unique audiences and technology for the marketers out there to use.” 
   
• “I think search advertising in general has evolved a lot, with the newer formats that we have. There are a significant, different formats that are now available on search platforms as well. And then those features are also available on Microsoft search advertising. Fairly different creative, innovative formats are now available on search as well for the audience to be able to understand the message and communication a bit better, rather than generally just the traditional text ad format that was there before.” 
   
• “A lot more needed in terms of how you reach your customers. So that is not only the right audience, but I think right messaging is also a very significant component, because I think using creative ad formats or right messaging will definitely affect the consumer and will also definitely influence them in a positive way." 

Interested in learning more about Microsoft Search Advertising? Reach out today to get more information and to get started partnering with MSA and InMobi. 

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More Episodes Of Mobile Insights With InMobi   

Interested in listening to more interviews just like this one? Click the links below to tune in.   

• Robyn Meyers On Video Streaming During COVID-19   
• Jobie Tan On Mobile Gaming During COVID-19
• Rajat Wanchoo On The Needs of CMOs During COVID-19  
• Kunal Nagpal On InMobi Exchange And In-App Programmatic Trends  
• Bismit Bikash Boruah On Ad Buying Trends On InMobi Exchange During COVID-19  
• Tejaswi Gautam On How Telcos Are Managing During COVID-19 

About the Author/Interviewer     

Matthew Kaplan has over a decade of digital marketing experience, working to support the content goals of the world’s biggest B2B and B2C brands. He is a passionate app user and evangelist, working to support diverse marketing campaigns across devices. 

Among the various options available to CPG companies to meet consumer demand, which ones do consumers themselves want to see? How are Americans finding and buying these kinds of consumer products, and how are they choosing with CPG brands to use? 

To find out, we turned to InMobi Pulse, InMobi’s mobile marketing research solution. We polled 1,900 people from across the U.S. from June 11 to 16 to better understand how brand loyalties may be shifting and what consumer behavior in the consumer goods industry looks like today. 

Industry Trends Around Buying CPG Products Today 

In the survey, we asked Americans what was most important to them when buying packaged goods. For this effort, we specifically asked about groceries along with durable goods like personal care items and household care items. 

Price was the top selection, with over half (51%) saying it is the most important factor. It’s an especially key factor for Americans between 18 and 25 (60% of them said it was the most important factor), those between 26 and 35 (58%) and adults with children in the home (56%). This should probably come as no surprise to most fast moving consumer goods companies, as this has long been a key factor in consumer decision-making. 

We also wanted to see if online ordering and delivery options were popular, as many may be unwilling or unable to go into a store. However, only 16% said a delivery or pickup option was preferred, while just 13% said online ordering through a website or mobile app was important. In comparison, 41% said product availability was important while brand loyalty was key for 37% of Americans. 

But as might be expected, delivery and online ordering were more popular among certain segments of the population. In particular, women were more likely than men to say both online ordering and delivery/pickup were key to their purchasing decisions, while households with kids and consumers under the age of 46 were also more likely than others to prefer these options. 

We also asked about where these purchases were happening, and by and large it’s still happening in stores. In fact, 71% said they prefer to buy these kinds of consumer products in brick and mortar stores like supermarkets and convenience stores. Separately, 61% said in-store pickup was their preferred way of buying packaged goods. 

However, people between the ages of 18 and 25, along with households with kids, were more likely than their peers to say that they prefer to buy packaged goods through a store’s app, while those between 36 and 45 years old were more likely than others to say they prefer using a third-party app like Instacart for these kinds of purchases. And, younger consumers and parents were also more likely than other groups to prefer curbside/outside pickup and delivery. 

How to Use These Findings in CPG Marketing Strategies 

For brands in the CPG sector, there are a few key takeaways from this data. For one, even as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to affect all of us, certain key truths about the CPG industry in the U.S. remain intact. Price and brand loyalty are still key above all else. Shelf space is also crucially important as many CPG purchases continue to happen in person in stores. 

Still, despite the continued prevalence of many tried and true purchasing mechanisms and consumer behavior drivers, there are signs that key demographics are beginning to more fully embrace alternative purchasing and pickup options. Younger consumers, along with especially busy folks like parents, are, perhaps unsurprisingly, more likely than their peers to turn to and embrace digital channels like mobile apps while sheltering in place. 

In terms of CPG marketing today, there are a few ways in which these insights can be applied. For one, marketing messaging should continue to highlight low price points and discuss why the brand is especially ideal today. These are critical consideration points for all consumers today, and they will likely continue to be important in the months and years to come. 

Further, marketing messaging should highlight how an item can be best purchased for that particular consumer. While some shoppers will want to know how goods can be bought in person and where they’re available nearby, others will be more receptive to messaging around online purchasing and delivery channels.  

Regardless of the space a brand is in, customization and personalization are crucial today. Every consumer has their own unique set of preferences, buying methods, preferred way of hearing about your product, etc. If marketing does not speak to their current reality, then it will be tuned out. This message is being taken to heart in certain key emerging markets, but it should be followed both in the U.S. and worldwide. 

Benefits of In-App Advertising for CPG Companies 

In addition, just because someone is not interested in using an app to make a purchase does not mean that in-app advertising and marketing should be ruled out – far from it, in fact. Even while Americans are largely sheltering in place, mobile and apps remain as popular as ever.  

According to eMarketer, adults in U.S. spend more time using their mobile devices than they do watching television. And 90% of all time spent using smartphones is devoted to apps.  

On top of this, our own research has found that people are using apps more frequently, including spending more time playing mobile games and watching more streaming video. For CPG brands looking to reach specific audience segments at scale, apps remain an ideal channel. 

Charting the Evolution of Consumer Behavior 

Of course, it’s important to note how these preferences and trends may change over time. While some parts of the country were continuing to open up by the end of June, others were reinstituting shelter-in-place orders as COVID-19 cases started spiking again. As a result, it’s possible we would see very different results if we ran this same survey weeks later. 

As a result, CPG companies need to be flexible and nimble. With the situation continually evolving for Americans, brands in the CPG sector need to fully understand what’s happening on the ground and pivot as necessary. 

Did any of our data points surprise you at all? How have your marketing strategies and buying habits changed of late? We’d love to hear from you on social media! You can reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook and/or LinkedIn. 

About the Author     

Matthew Kaplan has over a decade of digital marketing experience, working to support the content goals of the world’s biggest B2B and B2C brands. He is a passionate app user and evangelist, working to support diverse marketing campaigns across devices. 

We specifically wanted to look at video streaming platform use from March through June of 2020, when many Americans were sheltering in place or otherwise impacted by COVID-19. During this period in particular, how has demand for both paid and ad-supported video on demand services been impacted?  

Streaming on-demand video content has long been popular in the U.S. Based on our data on observed consumer behavior, we expect to see an increase in consumer engagement and usage, but how much and with whom? 

For this review, we turned to the data. Not only did we look at trends from our first-party telco data sources, we have also been conducting mobile-first surveys through InMobi Pulse.  

Here’s what we found. 

Mobile App Install Trends Since March 

By the end of the March, overall use of the top streaming platforms was up 12%. Our own data bears this up, with mobile app installs in the space increasing throughout much of the second quarter of 2020. 

Throughout most of the period, Netflix was the most installed video streaming app across both Android and iOS mobile devices. This is hardly surprising, as Netflix has long had first mover advantage in the space. 

What has been surprising is that at different points in this period in question, installs of the Pluto TV mobile app were greater than or on par with Netflix app installs, in particular during late March and mid April. Pluto TV is a free, ad-supported video player that’s owned by Viacom, and its strong growth throughout this period shows that there is space for non-paid streaming movie and TV apps today amidst a relative glut of paid options, so long as it has high quality content. According to Forbes, “the number of active monthly Pluto TV users jumped 55% from a year earlier” in March. 

Hulu has seen its ups and downs during this period, as has Amazon Prime Video. There have been moments where Hulu was the second most downloaded app in the space, while at other moments it has been leapfrogged by Tubi TV, among others. Amazon Prime Video has started behind many of its competitors back in March, but has seen significant growth starting from the end of March. 

What about newer entrants to this space like Disney+ and Quibi? Disney+ had a spike of installs in March, while Quibi saw notable gains in April through a free trial offer and then again in May. However, Quibi largely lags behind others who are not as focused on mobile as they are.  

Who are Downloading Video Streaming Mobile Apps Today? 

We also wanted to look at the kinds of individuals who have been downloading and using these apps. Are the people who are downloading these apps since March different at all from those downloading these apps earlier in the year? 

What we found was that female app users continually increased during and after the shelter-in-place mandates vs. pre-COVID-19 installers. Further, users between the ages of 26-55 increased during the shelter-in-place mandate but begun to plateau recently. 

Shelter-in-place and recent app installers are more ethnically diverse than the typical entertainment app installers. All non-White ethnicities saw varying increases with the only decrease among White users. 

In addition, users with income levels $35,000 and above all increased during the first month of shelter-in-place, with the largest increases in the $35,000-$125,000 income ranges. These income ranges’ usage continues to rise as the year goes on. 

Highlighting Consumer Sentiment 

Do Americans claim to be consuming more streaming content recently? To find out, InMobi has been polling adults in the U.S. for every month since March to see how their habits are reportedly changing over time. 

For starters, the share of survey respondents who said they are streaming more TV recently went from 25% in March to 35% in May. This is not surprising, and aligns with what our mobile app install data shows. 

It is also important to note that audio streams are increasing of late too, with music streaming being a popular pastime during shelter in place as well. The share of Americans who said they are listening more to music or the radio has gone from 17% in March to 26% in May. 

Streaming Service Adoption Motivations 

We also wanted to see how many streaming services the typical American is willing to pay for and use. Since there are so many streaming services people are willing to pay for or have time to enjoy, how many options would they be open to paying for and using at any one time? 

According to separate mobile surveys, 42% said that they would largely willing to pay for one to two streaming services at one time. Of consumers age 56-65, 31% are not willing to pay for a streaming service, while 28% of households with kids will pay for three to four services. 

We also wanted to look at how people can be convinced to adopt or use a new video streaming platform. Most types of offers will encourage consumers to try a service, but specific content (41%) followed by a free trial (36%) or discount offer (34%) are the strongest drivers. It is worthwhile to note, however, that discounts are an even stronger driver for those 18-25 (52%) and those who are 56-65 (44%). 

It seems likely that video streaming platforms will continue to be well used in the future as well. According to Americans surveyed in June, 60% said they would be uncomfortable attending an entertainment venue even if they were open in the next month. 

Reaching Video Streaming Fans Through Mobile Apps 

How can brands reach these content streamers, especially since some of the top video on demand apps don’t run ads? And, where can video streaming services find their audiences on mobile? Apply InMobi custom audiences to reach the shelter-in-place entertainment users. Here’s a small sample of what’s available: 

• Users of leading video game consoles (people who own a physical gaming console) 
• Movie theater visitors (people who have gone to a movie theater in the past six months) 
• Entertainment enthusiasts (users who have visited any entertainment site or have downloaded any entertainment app in the past six months) 
• Cord cutters (based on app/web behavior and is inclusive of users who were seen with any TV/Video Streaming service downloaded on their device, or who have visited a TV/Video service site in the past six months) 
• Amusement park visitors (Based on user's who visited an amusement/theme park in the past six months) 
• Sports enthusiasts (This audience is based on app/web behavior and is inclusive of users who were found to have downloaded or visited a sports property in the past six months, inclusive of all major sports networks and publications) 

Interested in learning more? Reach out today to speak with one of our experts. 

In part 1 of this blog series, my colleague Reena Mishra shared her views on the critical role that marketing with purpose plays in today’s dynamic and fast-paced environment.  Our partners at Microsoft Advertising undertook a research study on this very theme to evaluate the lasting effects of trust. The study,  "Accelerating brand performance through Love, Trust, and Loyalty” revealed 7 key insights that draw a step by step understanding of the process of building trust and the critical correlation it holds with love and loyalty. Trust not only plays a role in if a consumer purchases a product, but also has a significant impact on brand consideration and growth. Below are some of the key highlights from the report:

1. Trust is a cause of concern across generations

The research recorded over half of the consumers surveyed accepted that their personal information will eventually be stolen online. And only 37% of Gen Z consumers, the generation that grew up with the internet, believe that online companies can be trusted.

To reverse this distrust, businesses should enforce data policies that focus on transparency which has an emphasis on consumer protection. By being responsible, transparent, and proactive, you are building the foundation of trust that will take the brand from being one among many options, to the preferred brand of choice.

2. Trust is at the heart of Purchase Consideration

Understandably, consumers are willing to start a conversation with brands they only trust. The research shows that 85% of consumers will only consider a brand they trust. 

While marketers may default to think data and privacy are the most critical pillars of trust, consumers are also evaluating if they share values with the brand. Is the advertiser ethical and responsible, does the product perform as advertised, does it promote inclusivity? These are only some of the factors that go into building a brand that consumers can trust

3. The Trifecta: Trust, Love, and Loyalty

Source: Maximizing Purchase Consideration Through The Trust Curve

Brand love, and in turn loyalty are built on the foundation of trust. These three elements are critical in driving purchase consideration for consumers across the globe. In fact, 3 out of 4 consumers are willing to pay more for brands they trust. In order to stay true to the trust curve brands must show openness and honesty and deliver on promises they are making.

4. In it for the long run

In order to truly move the dial on trust and in turn loyalty, brands must first ensure that employ the levers of security and appeal. In addition to the attributes, a focus on the following factors can help:

• Privacy and Maintenance

• Shared Values

• Genuine and Authentic

• Delivers on Brand Promise

5. Trust means different things across different verticals

Just as trust can mean different things for different people, trust also signifies different values across verticals. Here is how trust can differ across the verticals of Financial Services and Retail:

Financial Services: In a vertical as sensitive as finance, consumers are looking towards brands who are “open and honest about how my data will be used”. Consumers also shared that brands that support ethical practices within their company to promote positive economic, social, and environmental impact rank high on brand trust, love, and loyalty

Retail: For retail consumers, data transparency, supporting ethical practices, and ensuring that advertising is brand safe and not shown alongside harmful content are top of mind. A retail consumer has many expectations from an advertiser: brand quality, personalized experiences, and promoting ethical practices that leave a positive social, environmental, and economic impact.  

Automobiles:  Auto consumers expect brands to share values that are similar to their own. Due to the heavy investment nature of an auto purchase, consumers evaluate brands with an especially critical eye to ensure that brands deliver on the promises that are advertised. In fact, trust has the highest impact on auto as a vertical, with consumers 7X more likely to consider an auto brand they trust

6. Driving Authenticity

Geniality and Authenticity are critical factors in building a valuable and meaningful connection with your consumer. The value that authenticity drives can be different across verticals.

Retail Services: For retail consumers, authenticity is the ‘value’ they get during the purchase. Be it in terms of a wide variety of choices, ease of shopping, quality of the product, etc.,

Financial Services: Financial services consumers expect hassle-free services and exceptional customer services. Authenticity for them is strong customer experience.

Automobiles: For automobile customers, authenticity is about ‘accountability’ with proactive delivery and standing up on promises.

7. Relatability is key

Consumers today want to see their own values and sense of self are reflected among brands, no matter what vertical they belong to. Be it having the right products, high-quality merchandise, or high desirability, consumers value a connection with a brand that makes them feel like the brand is built or curated for them. This can play out differently for the same customer across verticals. For example, retail customers are concerned about variety, auto customers look towards value alignment, and travel consumers are looking for diverse options

Ultimately, marketers must remember that values drive value. Brands must work towards creating experiences that are inclusive and accessible, by doing so they can create trust, drive loyalty, strengthen relationships and foster a community that lasts the test of time

Interested in learning more? Write to us at mobilemarketing@inmobi.com  

This led to a shift in how many consumers shop, with online grocery shopping and the use of personal shopper services becoming increasingly popular. Both third-part grocery delivery apps (think Instacart or Shipt) and first-party brand apps that facilitate pickup or delivery services (like Walmart Grocery or the Stop & Shop app) saw a spike in new installs and users in March and April. A main driver for this shift, in addition to shelter in place, is the desire for contactless and limited contact purchasing to limit the exposure and curb transmission. 

By June, however, with some parts of the county entering month four of shelter in place and others opening back up for business again, are these trends becoming further entrenched or are consumers moving away from hoarding and online grocery shopping? And have updated guidelines from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) around COVID-19 packaging and transmission impacted how Americans are purchasing groceries? That’s what we wanted to find out. 

To find out, we looked at the data. Specifically, we’ve been polling Americans every month since March using InMobi Pulse, InMobi’s mobile market research platform, to see what adults in the U.S. are saying about their habits. We then supplemented this information with mobile app install data, to see if online grocery services were being downloaded more frequently and to look at who specifically were installing these kinds of mobile apps. 

Here’s what we uncovered. 

Understanding How Consumers Shop for Groceries in June 

Among the more than 1,500 Americans we talked to in early June, a third said they have not changed their grocery buying behavior. In comparison, only 22% said the same thing in April. 

But that’s not to say that grocery buying behavior hasn’t changed at all. In June, 42% said they are spending more on groceries of late – 37% said the same thing in March, while 46% said the same thing in May. Only 6% said they are spending less money on groceries in June. 

This increase may be due to the fact that, in June, 27% said they started cooking at home since the pandemic began. This is down from the 30% who said the same thing in both April and May, although 31% of those between the ages of 18 and 25 said they were cooking more at home in June. 

Thus far, however, it seems that online grocery purchases are not very common. Only 11% in June said they have started ordering groceries online for delivery or pickup – down from 14% in May. In addition, 15% in June said they are shopping for groceries online (down from 17% in April). 

Grocery Online Purchasing App Install Overview 

Our survey data shows that many Americans are largely returning to normal (i.e. not buying in bulk and largely purchasing groceries in person). Does our mobile device app install data back this up? 

In the third-party grocery delivery app space, we are seeing a leveling out in terms of daily installs. While both Instacart and to a lesser extent Shipt saw a major spike in new installs in late March and early April, both are now seeing numbers more in line to what we observed at the beginning of March, before Americans were sheltering in place. In fact, this is one of the few areas where we are beginning to see a return to normal (pre-COVID levels). 

It’s largely the same story in the first-party grocery app space too. For example, the Target, Kroger and Publix apps all saw jumps in late March and/or during various points in April but are more or less back down to their pre-COVID daily install numbers. 

How One Brand is Bucking Trends 

A major outlier here, though, is Walmart Grocery. Installs of the app have grown consistently since mid March and peaked in May. By early June, daily installs of the Walmart app remained well above what Target, Kroger and others are seeing. 

Why is Walmart bucking the trend? They already had a wide physical footprint and strong brand recognition. They also announced express delivery in two hours or less at the end of April and combined all of their previous apps into one Walmart app in March – two moves that put them in a good position to provide a seamless user experience to a wide range of customers. 

It is also worthwhile to note that unlike the third-party apps, many apps owned and operated directly by major grocery store chains offer both pickup or delivery services. This means that consumers can use these apps to buy online but then pick up on site, which enables them to largely avoid delivery fees. 

Who are Downloading Grocery Apps Now? 

Across both the first-party and third-party grocery apps, who have been downloading these apps since March? And how do these new app installers compare to those who downloaded these apps at the beginning of 2020? 

On the gender front, there has been a major spike in female app installers in this space. In January and February, 52% of all app owners were female. But by June, that had jumped to 58%. This aligns with what our survey found, as women were more likely than men to say they had started ordering groceries online for delivery or pickup in May and June of this year. 

In this period, the biggest gains by age were among those between 56 and 75. The share of app installers among this age range went from 23% in January and February to 29% in May and June.  

This again aligns with what our survey found, as the share of those between 56 and 65 who said they had started ordering groceries online for delivery or pickup went from 3% in March to 12% in June. This makes sense, as older Americans are more likely to become very ill as a result of COVID-19 and are therefore less likely to want to go into a physical store. 

What Does the Grocery Category Look Like for the Rest of 2020? 

Unlike with other categories, it doesn’t necessarily look like that patterns established during the first peak of the COVID-19 pandemic are likely to stick around – at least for populations that are not at significant risk of falling ill. By early June, consumers were less likely than before to download and use online grocery services and more likely to have resumed their pre-COVID grocery purchasing habits. 

Of course, it’s worthwhile to mention that this covers trends and actions from the beginning of June. By June 24, the number of new cases per day in the U.S. reached levels not seen since March and April. Should new cases continue to remain high, people may then be more willing to download and utilize online grocery services.  

So what’s the main takeaway from all of this data? For brands in the food and beverage world, flexibility is key right now. As the situation on the ground changes, brands need to be ready. Keep a close eye on what consumers need and care about, and then make sure they have access to the best channels that are required and that make the most sense for the present moment. 

Purpose Begins With Trust: The ROI Of Creating Trust

In the current climate, customers believe that brands they choose to engage with must reflect their values. It is the responsibility of brands to think of a larger purpose, which adds priceless value to the consumer. In today’s world, interaction with the customer might lead to a purchase but it isn’t sufficient enough to turn that one-time purchaser into a loyal consumer. 

By being transparent about your values and practices as a brand you can create true value for your customer. Customers expect brands to focus on inclusive marketing that reflects a genuine, accessible, and authentic brand voice. Building trust is a collective effort between a brand and its customers. Marketers that focus on trust during these uncertain times will foster a community that will build the foundation of a sustainable brand.

Purpose-driven marketing inspires and instills trust. The team at Microsoft Advertising undertook a research study to uncover the drivers of trust with consumers and its impact across multiple verticals. Additionally, we had the opportunity to interact with marketers and agencies about the importance of trust holds in a brand-consumer relationship.

Trust means different things to different people. For marketers, upholding trust means taking the necessary steps to protect people’s privacy, being ethical and responsible, and ensuring your products do what you say they will do. For consumers, building trust in these ways is critical, but it does not end there. Customers expect connections at a deeper level. Hence, marketers must understand that trust goes beyond just protecting customer data and respecting their privacy.

In our survey, 85% of people said they’ll only consider a brand if they trust it. Once you’re in the consideration set, trust is how you can build greater brand love and loyalty that creates higher lifetime value. There’s a 76% correlation between trust and brand love — as trust increases, it impacts peoples’ love for a brand.

Turning One-Time Purchasers Into Loyal Customers

Marketers fail to create a sustained relationship when they don’t understand their customers’ values. They fall back on transactional outcomes which will only last as long as a comparable product comes along with better pricing. To beat the transactional or conversion-based marketing, and ingrain value-based marketing, brands must rethink ways in which they can personalize communication with consumers and share values they believe in.

To understand customers and to cater to what they need at a precise moment in the customer journey the relevance of communication is critical, and something that the customer longs for. And when relevance is associated with a bigger cause, it resonates with the needs of the consumers. When the needs are met, the consumers tend to be repeat purchasers and become brand loyal. 

We’ve identified two strategies that are important to creating genuine and authentic experiences:

• Being aware and inclusive of the needs of the audience
• Creating more purposefully personalized experiences

Personalization And Purpose

Personalization can be a great way to cut through the clutter, but it can be difficult to get right. Marketers must remain careful of overstepping or exerting false familiarity as it can come across as disingenuous. The focus instead should remain on being genuine and authentic. The brand should appear as familiar, responsible, and reliable.  While there is no one size fits all solution, the following insights across verticals can be useful:

Trust is a ‘considerable’ factor for consumers when they choose a brand. The automobile consumers are 7x more likely to consider a trusted brand, financial services consumers 4.7x, and retail consumers 2.8x.

• In the Automotive Vertical, it’s all about standing for what people believe in. ​To make people feel like the brand is for them, it must align with their values.
• In Retail Vertical, it’s about making people feel the brand is built for them. ​They want to know you have the right products, high-quality merchandise, and their favorite brands (if you’re a retailer), which goes a long way in making a better connection with the customer.
• In Financial Services Vertical, ​it’s all about value, education, and service. ​ Make sure to provide good value and ​competitive pricing in addition to educating people on how to manage their finances and prepare for the future.

The Key Takeaway 

72% of consumers are more likely to recommend a brand that supports a good cause. Purpose-driven marketing does not just create brand loyalty among your consumers but also redefines and repositions your business as a whole. All in all, marketing with a purpose can be a great way to help your brand reach out to new stakeholders, reconnect with the current consumers and build a brand ethos that brings positive social, ecological, moral, and cultural changes to the world we are living in today. 

These are values that we not only encourage advertisers to consider but espouse ourselves. For an instance in the case of an initiative with a purpose, we understandably saw a spike in search queries during the peak of the pandemic for terms such as “Sanitizers and Masks”, and Microsoft Search chose not to advertise next to these terms. This was done to ensure that any advertising did not exploit the crisis for commercial gains.

Similarly, in a time when the pandemic is forcing companies and people to re-assess themselves with relevant skill sets and match with relevant opportunities, Microsoft launched an initiative to help 25 million people to ramp up their digital skills. This is a step in a direction to fulfill Microsoft’s mission to “enable every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more”. The objective is to give people access to data on jobs, skills from the LinkedIn Economic Graph by providing free access to content in LinkedIn Learning, Microsoft Learn, and the GitHub Learning Lab, Microsoft Certifications, and LinkedIn job-seeking tools. What seems like a brand strategy here is associated with a bigger cause of enriching job seeker’s learning curve, during the unprecedented times.

Ultimately, brands must remember that values drive value, by building on the base of trust, brands can ensure they foster an environment of brand love and brand loyalty.

Interested in learning more about Microsoft Search Advertising? Write to us at mobilemarketing@inmobi.com

But as time spent on mobile rises, they should consider adding apps into their media portfolio. For one, Americans now spend more time using their mobile devices than watching television. And apps account for 90% of all time spent using smartphones. 

With apps being such a part of everyday life, all brands need to reach out to consumers in-app and know how they can extend their audiences onto mobile. In the context of a multichannel strategy, it’s becoming increasingly crucial for brands to reach people within mobile apps. This is why many companies are adopting a mobile-first approach and beginning to utilize privacy-first, identity-based universal IDs for multichannel marketing. The IDs will help to unlock mobile as a channel, which was earlier blocked. 

Understanding the Current Identity Ecosystem 

While many leading brands are already advertising in-app to some extent, they are hampered in their efforts to make the most of this channel due to a disconnect between the identity solutions used in-app versus what is available in other digital channels, namely browsers.  

Browser-based advertising has been around for much longer, so many leading brands are already familiar with its pluses and minuses. And for a long time, audience targeting in browsers was based on cookies, mostly third-party cookies but also first-party cookies sometimes too. 

In contrast, the core identifying feature on the mobile side has long been the mobile advertising ID or the mobile device ID.  

Of course, these are not the only identification options available both within browsers and apps. But they are the most prevalent. 

The problem arises when advertisers try to look at all of their digital advertising efforts from a more cohesive lens. Third-party cookies don’t always align with mobile IDs, inhibiting a brand’s ability to see how someone is both using the web (on desktops, laptops and/or mobile devices) and how someone is using different mobile apps. It’s quite difficult to implement a multichannel marketing strategy when you can’t track someone from one digital environment to another one. 

As a result of this disconnect, too many brands end up choosing sides. And what ends up winning out are the options they know the best (oftentimes browsers). This is a shame, as it means that many brands are forsaking the reach and scale of apps just in the name of expediency.  

How to Bridge the Gaps and Extend Your Audiences 

Don’t leave apps on the chopping block. Instead, adopt an identification tool capable of helping you understand audience behavior both the in browser and in the app. With third-party cookies fading away and with time spent in-app rising, brands must be able to understand and identify the right audiences regardless of the device they’re using or how they’re accessing media. This is the only way to develop the holistic knowledge that’s key to successful multichannel marketing. 

Just make sure to adopt an omnichannel identification solution that keeps privacy top of mind. Between GDPR, CCPA and other legal frameworks in the works, privacy is key for both consumers and lawmakers. So long as the chosen identity solution is anonymized, not only can brands have a cohesive multichannel advertising strategy, but they can also ensure that consumer privacy preferences are noted across all types of media. 

And being able to extend existing audience segments beyond browsers and legacy media is key for future success, especially as new outlets emerge. In the near future, as connected TV continues to grow apace, brands should want to get ahead of this nascent trend and be able to track their audiences here too, in addition to in mobile apps and on browsers. 

Multichannel marketing is the future, and apps are a key part of any omnichannel plan. Just be sure your audience identification solution can keep up. 

Updates as of June 2020

As we shared in our blog earlier this year, we had decided to work on five major themes. Here are the updates on what work InMobi has been doing over the past six months. 

1) Working To Solve Identity And Measurement Challenges 

 
InMobi became the first mobile supply-side platform (SSP) to integrate with LiveRamp’s IdentityLink solution, which enables InMobi Exchange advertisers to run campaigns with accurate cross-channel targeting and measurement. 
 
We will continue to work with players across the ecosystem to advance the adoption of neutral, open and interoperable identity solutions like IdentityLink through close collaboration with LiveRamp, Beeswax and others. We are continuing to evaluate other identity partnerships that represent the most value for customers in the near to medium term. 

2) Making Emerging Channels Available Through InMobi Exchange 

InMobi launched connected television (CTV) apps on our exchange in Q1 and have seen good adoption. We now cover monetization across several devices including Roku, Apple TV, FireTV Stick, Android TV, Samsung Smart TV and PlayStation.  
 
Advertisers are buying inventory on CTV apps, via VAST video tags, available on both Open Exchange and PMPs. All of this traffic undergoes pre-bid invalid traffic (IVT) filtering and post-bid IVT monitoring by DoubleVerify. 

3) Standardizing Header Bidding for DSPs 

We have gradually ramped up the supply on our exchange available via our header bidding solution for apps, Audience Bidding. It’s a fast-growing segment of our business and demand-side platforms (DSPs) are spending well on this supply. Performance DSPs especially have been among the biggest spenders on this supply. 
 
InMobi’s Audience Bidding solution, which is available via an SDK, enables DSPs to access all of a publisher’s inventory in a unified auction, guaranteeing first look access to 100% of the publisher’s inventory. DSPs also get access to a more user data-rich ad request, as this inventory is enriched by high quality first-party data, including carrier data, before being sent to DSPs. 
 
The Audience Bidding SDK is already integrated with Amazon (Transparent Ad Marketplace), MAX and MoPub Header Bidding platforms, and we are currently integrating or evaluating integration with FairBid, LevelPlay, Prebid and Google AdManager. 
 
In-app header bidding has not moved as fast as desktop header bidding because of technical challenges in apps as compared to the relative ease of implementation on the desktop side, but our years of expertise in in-app monetization and SDK development makes us well-placed to solve this challenge for publishers and DSPs alike. 
 
Meanwhile, we also plan to introduce header bidding supply for CTV and FEP (Full Episode Player) formats. We are working on integrating with SpringServe and Freewheel, and evaluating integration with SpotX, Telaria and Prebid. 

4) Strengthening Mobile Video Advertising 

One of InMobi’s key areas of progress this year has been the work we have been doing to improve the ad performance for our DSPs and buyers through work across our exchange. 
 
Supplementing the investments on in-app header bidding supply that have led to improved performance for DSPs across the board, we have also worked on significant improvements to our ad serving templates. A lot of improvements were focused on enhancing the ad viewing experience for the user and enabling higher ad engagement and better interactivity.  
 
These improvements were the result of insights developed over extensive A/B testing experiments and optimizations. Highlighting the “Know More” button and customizing its color based on region and the region’s sensibilities, enabling user to engage with ads at an earlier time if they so desired, removing elements that induced anxiety when the ad was playing, and end card enhancements were among some of the features that were introduced to drive these improvements. 

5) Improving Monetization For App Publishers 

InMobi’s Audience Bidding SDK, our header bidding solution for apps, has gained significant traction with our publishers this year. It works seamlessly with mediation platforms to send a single ad call to all ad sources simultaneously. Publishers are seeing increased fill rates and revenue compared to their waterfall setups, with DSPs seeing value in first-look, user data-enriched inventory available via the Audience Bidding SDK. 
 
Currently integrated with MAX, MoPub and Amazon’s Transparent Ad Marketplace (TAM) header bidding platforms, we will continue to expand our partnerships in this space to improve monetization for our publishers.  

Next Steps 

As a result of COVID-19, our next CAB meeting will not occur in person. Instead, we will be convening specific members soon over more focused video chats to discuss particular next steps, until it is safe enough to have everyone meet in person.  

We’re looking forward to the next CAB meetings already, and to all of the forthcoming improvements to InMobi Exchange. 

Over 40% of advertisers spend up to 25% of their budgets on mobile programmatic advertising. Programmatic is gaining popularity across the globe with different regions embracing programmatic at different levels of maturity as marketers realize that the channel can aid brands to raise awareness, engage, acquire, re-target users.

Drive Real Action at Scale

Programmatic advertising offers multi-fold benefits for marketers and brands when it comes to reaching their audiences at scale. This means that advertisers can identify, curate, and target custom audiences, reaching them via the always on-medium of mobile. For example, you can precisely target audiences who enjoy watching movies in a multiplex or shopping enthusiasts who love technology devices. With ‘always on’ segments, reaching customers effectively ‘anytime, anywhere’ is made possible by in-app programmatic. 

Thumb Stopping Creatives

Captivating creative experiences can make all the difference to a brand’s campaigns. Be it through video, rich media, or through an augmented reality experiences, the right creative can make a consumer out of a window shopper. Vertical video has been an especially powerful format that has driven significantly higher engagement when compared to other formats such as banner and horizontal video. When paired with the right calls to action (CTA), these immersive formats can drive phenomenal results.

Run Campaigns You Can Trust

Advertisers today have a wide variety of buying choices be it private marketplaces or open exchanges. Regardless of their choice, brands must focus on accessing brand-safe, measurable and transparent media. This can be achieved through a combination of in-house controls, working with 3^rd party partners, adoption of industry standards, and demanding accountability from your partners.

Ready to launch your campaign? Make sure to tick these off your checklist!

1. Identify and define audience segments by supplementing first-party data with carrier-grade data for a holistic view of consumers

2. Choose between different methods of programmatic buying such as Open Exchange (more suited for performance campaigns) vs Private Marketplace (more suited for brand campaigns) based on your needs

3. Leverage rich media, video and interactive formats to captivate users

4. Drive greater brand experience with personalized user experiences

5. Leverage cross-device identity graphs to reach consumers no matter where they are

6. Ensure trust and transparency standards are met by checking for brand safety and ad quality

7. Monitor and optimize campaigns based on the larger goals of your campaigns

8. Make use of retargeting campaigns to drive top of mind awareness, and nudge potential users down the funnel

However, most header bidding conversations in the market have publisher benefits at its core. This has often led demand partners to believe that header bidding is a zero-sum game, which is far from the truth. Header bidding as a technology has both sell-side and buy-side advantages over app inventory that’s mediated through a traditional waterfall model.

1. Access to Significantly Larger Audience

Header bidding addresses a crucial challenge many advertisers face: access to quality inventory and users, at scale.

Let’s look at a traditional waterfall model where the inventory is passed on from one ad exchange to another in order of historic pricing (eCPMs). Each hop down the waterfall takes away the more premium inventory from the available pool of supply. In this scenario, advertisers connected to an exchange that is placed lower in the waterfall model, in all likelihood, will not have access to the same volume of inventory or scale of users that they would like to see or be willing to pay more for. 

In a header bidding world, all exchanges are given an opportunity to respond back with a bid for every single ad request. As a result, platform partners like demand-side platforms (DSPs) can access not just a portion of a publisher’s inventory but all of a publisher’s inventory and users consuming it. Advertisers, consequently, are better positioned to reach more users across the pool of inventory they choose to access.

2. Every Bid Matters (Disintermediation)

Given that waterfall models call demand partners hierarchically, advertisers are treated unequally for each new ad request by default. A marketer willing to pay a highly competitive real-time bid for a specific user or impression will only be able to reach the user if the historical average eCPM of an ad network/exchange that they work with is relatively higher than the other networks or exchanges. Such a system is inefficient because every user or impression opportunity is only valued basis a previous denomination.

This not only creates invisible competition in the form of historical eCPMs but also drives a negative feedback loop wherein advertisers may mistakenly believe inventory to be significantly more expensive than its actual value.

Header bidding allows all partners, irrespective of their historic participation, to have an equal access to premium high performing inventory. All auctions are unified and cleared using real-time bid responses from advertisers. This creates a true, fair mechanism for advertisers to reach the users and impressions they value the most.

3. Increased Transparency of Supply for Better Planning

Marketers strive to estimate, forecast and scale their reach of unique users — and they work with their DSP and exchange partners to achieve a clear understanding of this reach. However, in traditional waterfall models, this modelling is not only inaccurate but also highly variable, making it difficult to forecast into the future.

As a result of the equal opportunity and access to premium high performing inventory it provides, in-app header bidding empowers advertisers to have much more visibility over the supply that works best for them. Keeping the desired outcomes of a campaign in mind, buyers can make informed decisions about the campaign budgets and bid optimally to ensure maximum results.

At its core, TCF 2.0 intends to build a more responsible and self-regulated ad ecosystem. TCF helps demand partners run ads on publishers more confidently. It is both a marker of user consent being respected, and a safe path to buy a publisher's inventory, helping the demand-side collectively build user trust in an increasingly privacy-aware digital world. We expect all our demand partners to begin supporting the TCF 2.0 standard gradually, as we transition in the coming month. 

TCF 2.0 Explained 

The Transparency and Consent Framework was developed in conjunction with IAB Europe and the IAB Tech Lab as a way for publishers and others in the ad tech space to ensure compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the European Union and other consumer privacy laws and regulations. 

One of the main provisions of GDPR is that it requires consumers to specifically opt in to receiving targeted advertising of any kind. What this means is that anyone involved in serving this kind of advertising and messaging must be able to definitively prove that individuals did indeed opt in and that companies are in compliance with the law. 

The goal of TCF broadly and TCF 2.0 specifically is to ensure that ad tech companies have a mechanism through which they can track and note consumer preferences in a privacy-minded way, typically within a Consumer Management Platform (CMP).  

TCF 2.0 is the latest version of the framework and provides publishers and others with greater control and transparency, ultimately making it easier to note ever-evolving consumer preferences and asks in a privacy-compliant manner. 

The first version of TCF was introduced in 2018, while TCF 2.0 was made initially available in 2019. Previously, it was possible to use both, although as per IAB guidelines, TCF 2.0 will be the official framework being supported starting August 15. 

What You Need to Know: How to Get Started 

TCF 2.0 will be adopted by a wider array of stakeholders, making it more widespread than the initial versions of TCF were in 2018 and 2019.  

To ease things and bring uniformity, the industry is now moving to a ‘full consent string’ as recommended by the IAB. This shift in protocol will mean that all publishers will have to prepare their systems for a transition to a consent string that strictly adheres to the IAB guidelines. 

For publishers, this means that TCF 2.0 should be adopted if it’s not in place already. Indeed, like app-ads.txt, expect advertisers and demand-side platforms (DSPs) to soon only buy inventory that has consumer preferences noted in a CMP through TCF 2.0 — if they are not already enforcing use of the standard.  

Given that this scenario will potentially have a revenue impact due to traffic shut down by DSPs, it’s critical that publishers make provisions to be compliant to the IAB standard. On the demand side, expect TCF 2.0 to be the default standard for ensuring compliance for GDPR. 

InMobi and TCF 2.0 

InMobi, as a certified IAB TCF 2.0 vendor, adheres to and supports TCF 2.0.  

Needless to say, InMobi can help ensure that our publisher partners are ready on time to make this shift and avoid monetary loss due to any non-compliance/blockage from DSPs. InMobi is working with industry leading CMPs for its publishers and can work to support other IAB-approved CMPs as well.  

If you are not already processing the consent string as per IAB’s GDPR Transparency and Consent Framework, we strongly recommend that you work with an IAB approved Consent Management Platform vendor at the earliest. 

We know this is a significant transition, but we hope to have your complete support in setting up the process and system changes as soon as possible. Please feel free to get in touch with us in case you need any assistance or require further information. 

Purpose-driven Advertising will Help Build Lasting Connections

Eka Sugiarto, Head of Media – Indonesia and SEAA, Unilever

“This pandemic is far from over and between now and when the vaccine becomes a common practice, there are consumer needs and behavior patterns that shift the demand cycles. Marketers should seize the opportunity to be the best choice by staying relevant and at the same time should venture to improve people’s lives and well-being through their marketing and advertising initiatives. Marketers should also ask themselves, whether brands can be a force for good through thoughtful inspiration, education, and useful information. Brands with strong benefit delivery should make it easy for people to trust the product offering and create a conversion point. A focus on facilitating discovery for customers, explaining “what’s in it for me” through both advertising push and pull will help.”

Retail Experiences Need to Step Up with ‘Digital’ Innovation

Charu Aggarwal, Chief Strategy Officer, India and South East Asia, Havas Group 

“With the pantries now stocked at the push of a button and all kinds of experiences consumed online, brands need to compete not just against brands, but also in which context the consumers choose to interact with them. Access is no longer a reason for people to step into physical stores.  An increase in footfalls in the retail spaces will be shaped by how effectively marketers create ‘Signature Moments’ that are unique to our brands and the physical spaces they are delivered in. Think Burger King Crowns and extra Onion Whopper- it’s a treat that’s best relished in-person and in the vicinity of the outlets.  The Havas Prosumer Study shows that more than 60% of Indian, Indonesian, and Filipino consumers expect the physical spaces to be transformed into Stress Test Zones in the future. Spaces where they walk-in and test the products in a real-life situation, like trying out an outdoor jacket at -15 degrees Celsius or testing desert boots while skidding on the dunes.  What’s more, they want an element of surprise in their retail experiences with 78% prosumers in APAC wanting retailers to share new experiences and offers on mobile when they are in the vicinity.  This need for unexpected experiences demands us to re-think the overall ‘bricks-and-clicks’ experience and how we integrate location, device, and digital to add the long-absent enchantment back into the retail experiences.

Omnichannel Digital Brand Experiences Prevail

Crisela Cervantes, Partner, Mindshare

“As the world slowly opens up post-COVID-19, brands need to understand the impact it has on their consumers and business. First, some consumer behaviors such as purchasing online, and video streaming will continue to prevail and be part of the new normal. Marketers need to rethink their omnichannel brand experience in line with these new consumer behaviors.

 For example, there is a new audience of first-time online shoppers. As a brand how can one cater to their needs and make it easy for them to discover and buy one’s brand online? Essential products that have grown in consumption during the pandemic should continue to invest to maintain sustainable growth. Products that were negatively impacted will need to revisit their marketing strategy and communications to be more in line with what’s important to consumers and take advantage of the new ways to engage with them digitally.

If a brand has not invested in online premium video channels, now is the time to review that approach and see how using TV and online video can help drive demand. While we do not know when the global pandemic will completely end, consumers are more digitally engaged more than ever and new habits they picked-up during the COVID period will remain. Second, on business, marketing now more than ever needs to be agile and do scenario-planning given things can change by the day. To be able to support this, marketers need to invest in the right capability that can respond to the accelerated change in consumers and businesses.  Our focus now is to help brands understand these opportunities and optimize their plans to drive recovery fast.”

Digital-first Initiatives Foster Customer Centricity

Vijay Kumar, Lead, Digital Marketing & CRM, Kia Motors India 

“Marketers need to be available on mediums where their consumers are. Auto sector giants are staring at closed or empty dealerships network. As customers are not preferring to visit the dealership, the dealership needs to connect from where the consumer is on: The digital platforms.Creating virtual experiences on digital platforms prove to work when physical movements are underused. Being online is no longer a prerogative for brands, but being relevant is. Consumers have truly understood the meaning of ‘Essentials’ and business should meet the essentials category to thrive in the competition. Content relevance has never been more significant than in the current times. With an increase in online content consumption, the ads don’t just compete with brands on digital medium but also with OTT giants like Netflix and Amazon Prime for audience Share of attention. Reimagining digital advertising on mobile with contextual and authentic content can drive valuable engagement. “Go Digital” is the new jargon in the pandemic induced times and marketers who succeed focus on digital-first initiatives.”

A Sense of Normalcy Ramps Up Marketing Efforts

Sudarshan Saha, Unilever Lead, Vietnam, Mindshare

“In markets which have been out of lockdown for more than 4-6 weeks, it is common to witness people going about without protective face masks now. In terms of consumer behavior concerning media as well, I believe data now shows that there is no new normal. TV viewership peaks have come down to normal levels and I would estimate online time spent would be the same, as people go back to work, and in certain cases have to work harder than before. Advertising across the board is also slowly gaining back the momentum, to take advantage of the opportunities in hand, and make up for the loss from the previous quarter. 

Owing to the financial impact of the COVID-19 worldwide, consumers would be impacted as economies have dependencies. And that leads to a change in certain lifestyles, habits and purchase decisions. It is important for us marketers to understand and differentiate hence is the impact on purchase behavior linked to short or medium-term financial constraints faced by the consumer vs. change in behavior induced by emotional factors and/or hygiene led factors during COVID-19.”

Amit Jivani, CEO and Co-founder, Simprosys InfoMedia

“I don't think there shall be any significant difference in the way businesses are conducted in the Post COVID-19 environment. Businesses and people will eventually and gradually get acclimatized to the business as it used to be before Dec-2018 as it would be a bit more difficult to scale up and grow with the restrictions of social distancing, extensive use of hand sanitizers and masks. Such restrictions will prove to be counterproductive and unsustainable in the cut-throat competition.  So, to improve the competitive edge, businesses will give up protective measures as and when there is no threat of COVID-19 contraction.  So, we just have to be concerned only for the period during the period in which the virus' presence matters. Once it loses its virality, everything shall be as it used to be pre-COVID-19 era. This includes marketing and advertising strategy as well.”

Brand Communication Needs to Reflect Consumer Journeys

Prashant Sukhwani, Head, Brand and Communication, Burger King India

“Any marketing strategy should reflect the current consumer triggers/barriers as well as the current business situation. COVID has affected both in myriad unprecedented ways irrespective of the industry. As a new normal, a brand needs to undertake genuine safety measures to address COVID concerns of the consumer, which is currently the biggest consumption barrier. Parallel brand communications need to be in snack-able formats as the consumer is bombarded with safety messaging across touchpoints. The marketer needs to make smarter media choices basis current consumer aggregations as well as current media buying economics. Thus, media mix needs to evolve to match new consumer realities. Lastly, any brand communication needs to reflect consumer journeys. This holds true irrespective of COVID situation or any other dynamic macro factors. Only then a brand will be able to become contextual and authentic to the consumers. eg: https://youtu.be/FXSia8b9XsM” 

Digital Darwinism Drives the New Normal 

Shweta Srivastava, Head of Digital, Philips India 

“Covid19 brings a VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous) world where the ‘Smartest will survive’, the one who follows ‘Digital Darwinism’. Organizations transform because of transforming consumers and customers and to attain VUCA, they need Smart Marketers who help them transform quickly.  

With restricted movements and social distancing measures become the New Normal post Covid19 and see a predominant growth in the usage of digital platforms where consumers are always-on. So, the marketing strategy also needs to be up and running on Digital mediums. Advertising has to be smarter to understand the behavior of a smart Consumer and be more relevant to them.  

In the absence of Face to face opportunities, Machines need to analyze their behaviors and predict their moves basis which communication and engagement need to happen. While marketers need to leverage Digital and Artificial intelligence, they also need to upgrade their skills as the new normal sets in.” 

Data-Led Mobile Solutions Lead the Way for Marketers 

Gaurav Shitak, VP and Head, Digital Marketing, Sharekhan  

“The impact of COVID-19 on the life of our customers is going to be unprecedented. As Marketers, we should be cognizant of how the life of our end-consumers is constantly changing. This will also depend on the industry we are working in and accordingly, we may have to make changes in our marketing strategies. However, whichever industry we are working in, the impact is measured in terms of the four pillars, Social, Mobile, Analytics, and Cloud that are going to capture the maximum mindshare of customers. The major drivers for engagement with the consumers on the front-end are going to be: Mobile and Social, and the backend would be delivered by cloud-based solutions along with a strong understanding of analytics and data." 

Digital Ads and Content Will Drive Futuristic Growth  

Karan Mehta, Senior Marketing Manager, Jeevansathi.com 

“Post COVID-19 will demand a different approach from Marketers. Digital Marketers need to wear the hat of growth hackers focusing more on LTV and CX. This time could be a good time to invest in advertising for future customers. Since paid ads are cheaper now, marketers can experiment with few platforms and create a source of traffic for the future. However, ad campaigns need to focus more on driving loyal users. Marketers need to build performance marketing strategies centered on customers and their journey in line with your product offerings. Revisiting your funnel and refining your advertising strategy will help you acquire customers at desirable costs.  Marketers must work on basics and review the media mix during unprecedented times. As media budgets will be back, there will be a demand for High Scale & ROI platforms. Digital marketers should build advertising strategies that will give the maximum ROI and loyal users.  The other significant focus is ‘communication’. Marketers should build real engaging content during and post COVID-19, to engage with their customers.  As a marketer if you have a good engaging content which you want to share with your customers, investing a few dollars will create a demand for future,” 

Rethink, Redefine and Retain is the New-Normal

Venkat Thangi, Head - Digital Marketing, MoEngage 

“1. Consumer Behaviour Changes - Tracking and analyzing consumer behavior changes and purchasing needs is of utmost importance during this time. Since there is a lot of volatility currently, most of your North star metrics might be heavily impacted depending on one’s business vertical. The old playbooks might not be relevant anymore. Marketers might need to rethink messaging, personas, and even strategies.  

2.  Empathy - Knowing what your customers want or are looking for utilizing surveys, studies, and analytical tools, would help marketers in understanding the immediate needs of their target users better. This should flow into the messaging by reworking on the copies, creatives, or landing page/asset content to better suit your consumers' current interests and thereby enhancing customer engagement.  

3. Retention - Retaining is your customers are now more important than ever. Owing to lower conversion rates and interests for most of the non-essential businesses, marketers should focus a lot more on retention as acquisition might be difficult/ineffective for some time. Over-communicating with your users, showcasing how your product can be used or is relevant during this crisis, providing few resources for free or extending your free trial offers, etc. can be some of the ways which can help this cause.” 

Relevance, Connections and Advocacy Thrive Marketing Efforts 

Aditi Anand,  Head - Brand, Media, and Digital at HMD Global  

“COVID -19 is a disruption at an unprecedented scale. There are three strategies marketers can leverage to win in the #NewNormal.  

Relevance Over Reach: Reappraising the brand and product purpose to realign with evolving consumer needs is essential. Trust, value, and necessity will trump discretionary and indulgent.. “At home” and “with my loved ones” will become the focal point of consumer’s life. Brands that can create personalized, meaningful experiences for this new reality will win.   

Tapping into newer consumer cohorts and market segments can also unlock growth. For example, in the smartphone category where much of the marketing has been around vanity fuelled selfies, building security and privacy-focused devices for emerging use cases like e-learning and virtual meetings could be the next growth frontier.  

Connection over Communication – The health and economic fall out of the crisis have reinforced the importance of human connections Brand building through a 30 sec TV ad is a trend of the past. Today’s digital-first consumer is looking to strike meaningful conversations and build authentic connections. Brands need to listen deeply and create opportunities for such encounters. Connecting at the right time and at the right place over shared passions in an authentic, human way can create significant wins.   

Advocacy over Commerce: Word of mouth is the most effective way to win consumers. It’s also the most difficult to garner. But brands that can create loyal fan bases or cult following will eventually win. In building communities, quality is far more critical than quantity. A small but hyper-engaged community can fuel growth at near-zero cost. For the next few quarters, consumer demand is bound to remain sluggish, giving marketers the perfect opportunity to springboard advocacy programs.” 

Growing Digital Platforms Succeed with Great Content 

Inderpreet Sethi, Head -Marketing communication and Media, Great Wall Motors, India  

“Content drives connections and further growth. Content Remains King: Marketers need to be authentic, now more than ever, and trusted by customers. The best way for them to do this is to invest in creating humane & relatable content for advertising. The audience is intelligent & can see through Ads. Brand content needs to be SMART – Storytelling format, Medium Agnostic, Aspirational, Real-Life inspired, and Trustworthy.  

Fight for the most coveted Medium continues: We hear that the pace of digitization has increased for all sectors and more so for the Automobile industry. While this remains true, it is important to understand the role and impact of Digital in different aspects of the consumer journey and also the objective of the brand. Medium selection & media planning is only the aftermath of this understanding.  

The awareness stage of the consumer journey is still being dominated by the traditional medium of TV, but the race with digital is on and with demand for OTT platforms rising, a marketer’s choice is only going to deviate from television.  

Digital will replace most ATL & BTL media with events and experiences going digital in tier 1 & 2 cities.  

For other stages of consumer journey like consideration, digital will grow and marketers will need to focus on relevant content on owned, paid, and earned media.  

For International Auto OEMs, virtual dealership and test-drive experience will help convert prospects. But in India, buying a car is a high involvement process. Hence, Marketers will need to think Phygital (Physical+digital), where digital will only augment the physical presence.” 

Hyper-local Strategies and Balance will Be the Answer 

Roshat Adnani, Country Director, Indonesia, M&C Saatchi Performance 

“The Covid-19 pandemic has been a transformative event. It led to a change in customer behavior which fastened the process of digitization across many industries. During the past few months, people have increasingly embraced digital solutions fostering the growth of E-commerce, EdTech, HealthTech, Online Fitness & Events, and OTT platforms. These products, which until a few months ago were seen as a second option, became an integral part of people’s lives.  

 While the pandemic positively affected the development of some lucky industries, it negatively hit many others. These have been extremely challenging times for marketers who have often been forced to cut down on their marketing budgets to keep their brands alive. As the world opens-up again and people stabilize in their new living habits, marketers need to be prepared for a longer battle especially from a paid marketing perspective. 

Now more than ever, marketing will be a differentiation factor for companies to remind customers that they are back in business. To see better conversions and optimizations, it will be key to create hyper-local marketing strategies and to identify a balance between organic marketing, CRM, and paid marketing. And balance is where the answer to the larger problems lies.” 

Marketing becomes a Centre of Innovation

Hitarth Saini, Head of Marketing, MoneyTap

"Marketing being an innovation center, marketers must take charge of new products, markets, and strategies as the 'new normal' sets in. Marketers need to put their thinking caps on and be a beacon internally for new product ideas. With businesses evaluating every penny they spend, fight for the marketing budget will only get harder. Marketers will start feeling the heat to deliver unit economics profitability. Performance marketing with a razor-sharp focus on ROAS will be the key to sustain in the months to follow. On the same lines, the contribution of organic growth channels & from owned media will be critical as they’ll help bring overall cost-effectiveness. With the economic slowdown already kicked in, consumers’ decision-making process may become longer. Content & brand efforts need to address these & deliver comfort, trust & inspiration for customers to get started on spending again. Also, marketers need to don multiple hats to push the boundary. These are war times & doing more than asked never harmed anyone! Now’s a good time to cross-pollinate ideas within the marketing team itself to let creative juices flowing."

Read further insights on what marketing leaders across Asia Pacific have to say about strategies for the New Normal in part II of this blog series. 

Note: Want to listen to previous editions of Mobile Insights with InMobi? Head to our SoundCloud page for more.  

For this interview, I sat down with Tejaswi Gautam, GM of Device Solutions at InMobi, to chat about the current state of affairs for telcos and wireless carriers in the U.S. In this 22-minute conversation, we talked about how telcos are handling increasing bandwidth, the current state of 5G, the value of value-added services and what telcos need to do now to succeed in the future. Tune in now to hear the whole conversation! 

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Top Quotes from Teja 

• “I think a lot of essential services that all of us have started using, for which we were too reliant on offline channels previously, and all of these put together are driving that surge in data consumption. And that's what is also making telcos think out of the box as to how to sustain some of these high consumption trends with tweaks to their network infrastructure.” 

• “I think some of these trends are not just temporary spikes but are here to stay in the long run.” 
   
• “I must say I'm very impressed by the work that telcos have done. And I'm sure it's not something that they've done recently, but it's been over the last decade or so. I mean, we haven't seen a lot of dropped calls, you've seen our Zoom calls work fine, and even with, you know, like the entire family being in a home, we haven't seen a lot of clogging in the network. Generally I think we've seen a lot of stability on the network, which I think is the biggest contribution that telcos could have done in the current situation, where communication, connectedness information is so, so critical for each one of us, where we just have to stay at home.”  
   
• “I think it's a mixed bag. What we are seeing is in Asia, they're mostly on track from a 5G perspective. We just saw T-Mobile launch their 5G in New York and I know China is forging ahead with their 5G plans. Broadly those plans are in line with the projections. I think from a Europe perspective, obviously the plans are getting delayed, so I think you'll see a slight lag in how the Europe comes online on 5G.”  
   
• "I think when you talk about 5G, you have to talk at two levels. The current 5G, being slightly technical here, is mostly on a low band spectrum, which means that you will likely not see tremendously better speeds compared to 4G, but what you will see is better coverage. So with both T-Mo and Verizon, I think they're up to about a hundred million plus 5G subscribers here in the U.S. but you won't really notice if you're on a 5G compared to 4G. But then again, once these things scale over a period of the next five years, that's where you will really start to see the impact of 5G kick in and actually see the benefit trickle down to some of the services that you consume on a day to day basis. We'll see how things go for now.  From what I know, about 20% of the devices being sold here in the U.S. as of two weeks back are actually 5G devices. So you are seeing consumer shift towards buying 5G capability devices, but then you also need the networks to be capable of providing the benefit there.” 
   
• “Some of the developments that you're seeing happening in the world right now, it will only expedite the transition to 5G because people are realizing more and more the value of having a scalable, fast, efficient cellular network, because everything will likely move digital and it will move at a faster pace going forward. So I think it's all the more critical for a lot of these guys to spend billions of dollars today so that they are better prepared to deal with similar situation in the future.”   
   
• “What a lot of these telcos are trying to do now is consolidate the content into their platform. You do have these large independent content platforms out here, like a Netflix, who have become giants in and of themselves. Right. But at the same time, the means for delivering this content obviously goes through the device and that's where the telco comes in.  
  
  There are different strategies. You would see someone like a T-Mobile now becoming more of an aggregator where in the music space they work with Spotify, Pandora all those guys, but then they have their own platform to surface that content. Then on the other hand, you have AT&T, who actually owns a lot of these content production houses.” 
• “I think a lot of these buzzwords will become reality. You had internet of things, AI, 5G, and I think what is happening right now is people are rethinking and reimagining a lot of these ideas and seeing what it really takes to bring these to the market in the next six months.” 

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More Episodes Of Mobile Insights With InMobi  

Interested in listening to more interviews just like this one? Click the links below to tune in.  

• Robyn Meyers On Video Streaming During COVID-19  
• Jobie Tan On Mobile Gaming During COVID-19  
• Rajat Wanchoo On The Needs of CMOs During COVID-19 
• Kunal Nagpal On InMobi Exchange And In-App Programmatic Trends 
• Bismit Bikash Boruah On Ad Buying Trends On InMobi Exchange During COVID-19 

About the Author/Interviewer    

Matthew Kaplan has over a decade of digital marketing experience, working to support the content goals of the world’s biggest B2B and B2C brands. He is a passionate app user and evangelist, working to support diverse marketing campaigns across devices. 

As content consumption behavior and advertiser ad budgets increasingly shift to digital channels like mobile, viewability as a measure of ad effectiveness has evolved from something that’s nice to have but hard to measure into a necessity. Independent ad viewability verification is now integral to any mobile in-app campaign. Meetrics is one of the first measurement vendors to be certified by the Media Rating Council for the measurement of display and video ad viewable impressions. This partnership opens opportunity for all our demand partners in Europe and across the globe to strengthen viewability measurement and optimize media spends with a trusted partner.

The addition of Meetrics to our panel of leading viewability measurement partners also reinforces transparency on the reach and the impact we deliver for our advertisers through InMobi Exchange. With this new partnership, our demand partners now have more choice in determining which of the many leading measurement partners InMobi works with they want to leverage for their in-app advertising campaigns.

Demand partners running campaigns on InMobi Exchange can now simply choose to measure their ad viewability via Meetrics. Alternatively, advertisers can also get started by appending Open Measurement SDK-enabled tags from Meetrics to their creatives.

“Our partnership with Meetrics to support viewability on OM SDK in-app supply is a reflection of our continued efforts on providing trust and transparency to our customers. We look forward to working with Meetrics to help customers reach their viewability measurement goals at scale,” says Saurav Dutta, Head of Ecosystem Development and Product Partnerships for InMobi.

“We are happy to pioneer with InMobi in mobile marketing and advance quality and transparency on the market,” remarked Manuel Koubek, Commercial Director at Meetrics. “The consumption of mobile media is growing by the day which is why issues such as the measurability and transparency of the resulting ad space is more important than ever.”

Trust and transparency are core to the foundation of InMobi Exchange. InMobi will continue to invest in measurement and safety partnerships to strengthen and safeguard brand safety, inventory quality and viewability for all our advertising partners. You will continue to hear from us as we roll out more such partnerships across the globe.

With most voters still wary of large public gatherings and facing the lingering effects of the pandemic, mobile is the ideal platform as consumption continues to grow over the past many months. In fact, as travel remains subdued and TV consumption continues to shift towards subscription services like Netflix and Disney+, mobile apps outside of the walled gardens will provide the highest ROI. 

Top 4 Reasons Why Political Ad Spending Should Focus on Mobile Devices and Apps Beyond The Walled Gardens 

There are four key reasons why political advertisers should include independent mobile apps beyond Facebook and Google in their digital marketing campaigns: 

1) It’s An Ideal, Data Driven Way to Target Voters 

Let’s say your campaign is looking to reach voters of a certain demographic but you cannot know for sure with television what with a panel based approach allowing you to make only an educated guess about a show’s audience.  

With in-app advertising, however, you can be a confident that you’re actually reaching your target audiences, thanks to the inherent data-driven approach to find audiences for custom needs. Apps come with a lot of data, and the ecosystem has promoted further integration of multiple other data sources to enrich the signals to target and measure the ROI of each campaign.   

For example, a weather app can provide location information, while a social media app often provides basic demographic information. By combining these sources of information, ad exchanges are able to develop unique, highly accurate audience segments that political advertisers can leverage to reach their target constituencies with a high degree of confidence. 

Furthermore, in-app targeting is consistently more accurate since it relies on mobile device IDs instead of third-party cookies. Browser cookies, already on their way out, expire fairly quickly and so targeting is always harder. In comparison, mobile ad IDs are more static and thus more accurate over the long term. 

2) It’s More Measurable Than TV Ads 

Who actually watches television ads? For each TV spot politicians run, how can they determine who watched it and for how long? After all, someone is just as likely to be looking at their phone or walking to the kitchen during a commercial break as they are to be watching an ad and really not paying attention to it. 

TV networks and linear television measurement solutions providers often provide rough estimates, but they’re never 100% accurate. Panels help, but again they’re prone to error and rely on small sample sizes to draw broad conclusions.  

In-app advertising solves this problem unlike any other screen. It’s the most natural place for a user’s attention, and all components of a campaign can be measured and tracked. Mobile app ecosystem offers comprehensive support for third-party measurement solutions to measure campaign effectiveness, across the marketing funnel - be it to measure viewability (based on OM SDK standards), audience reach metrics or any conversion metrics (for example lead generation). 

3) Mobile Advertising Platforms Enable You to Reach a Voter Base at Scale 

The average smartphone owner in the U.S. uses over 20 apps in an average month, according to eMarketer. Further, consider these stats from 2019. Last year, more than 250 million mobile game apps were downloaded and entertainment apps were downloaded well over 230 million times. Other categories, including dating apps, food and beverage apps, travel apps, shopping apps, health and fitness apps, finance apps and music and audio apps too were all downloaded tens of millions of times just in 2019.  

In short, lots of people use lots of apps on any given day. People are beginning to spend more time using apps than watching television. For politicians, political parties and political action committees looking to target voters and talk to a mass audience, apps are the way to go today and independent apps are the perfect way to de-risk the strategy of reaching users on Facebook and be bound to their own rules of verification and measurement. 

4) Formats like Fullscreen Video Ads Ensure Brand Suitability, 100% Share of Voice 

For political advertisers, brand safety and brand suitability are critical. The last thing anyone running for office wants is to be inadvertently connected to an insensitive topic or to a misaligned message besides the advertisement.  

But in the realm of in-app advertising, there are very easy alternatives to these kinds of issues. For starters, some ad formats inherently ensure that the advertiser has a total share of view when the ad is running. In particular, any full screen ad, by taking over the entire screen, functions similarly to a traditional TV ad. No matter what was seen before and after, it’s clear that the ad is completely separated from the content. 

Further, advertisers can always be selective in which kinds of apps their ads will appear. While apps that feature user-generated content can present issues, other types of apps, like news apps, are far more likely to be in line with a politician’s message and advertising. And there are apps that will likely never present brand safety problems, like hyper casual games or language acquisition apps. 

Mobile Apps: The Best Way to Reach People Till the Election Day 

In-app advertising has long been ideal for brand advertisers, and those same advantages work for political advertisers too. In the months ahead, it behooves political action committees, parties and candidates to make the most of these opportunities. 

Interested in exploring in-app advertising with InMobi? Reach out today to learn more. No matter what your needs are, InMobi can help. 

About the Author 

Matthew Kaplan has over a decade of digital marketing experience, working to support the content goals of the world’s biggest B2B and B2C brands. He is a passionate app user and evangelist, working to support diverse marketing campaigns across devices. He also previously covered politics and government for the Daily News Tribune. 

The Connected ‘Device’ Consumer in a New Normal

In the ‘New Normal’ connected world, consumer behavior is changing drastically – indulgence in entertainment on demand, increased networking with people in their lives, adjusting to working remotely, and relying solely on shopping online amongst many other such new habits. Interestingly, the number of connected devices and the data transfer volume have increased. So has the media consumption – happening across a range of devices like the desktop to the laptop, tablet, connected TVs, albeit anchored on mobile.

According to estimates from Cisco’s Annual Internet Report (2018-2023) – the number of devices connected to IP networks is projected to climb to more than three times the global population by 2023, with 3.6 networked devices per capita. This means that brands should no longer continue to merely broadcast ads and influence consumers. A campaign put together for one media channel cannot be slapped onto another and is most likely to fail in engaging your target audience. Undoubtedly, the connected, multitasking, multimedia consumer expects a personalized communication irrespective of the device they are using at their end. Marketers need to unlock the potential to deliver personalized and consistent brand experiences across connected devices, while leveraging the potential of each device to its fullest.

Building Cross-device Identity Graphs using Mobile

Fundamentally, mobile as a medium has a transformational potential as it primarily connects the media experiences across all the digital channels. Very similar to a remote control, it can manage how an individual goes about interacting with media, content, and information throughout the day. Which makes it a uniquely compelling medium to supercharge the brand’s advertising potential. To make it real, tangible, and easy for marketers, the InMobi Audiences platform continuously tracks these user behaviors to build integrated "Cross Device Identity Graphs”, as per a privacy-first framework and unrelenting commitment to consumer transparency/ data compliance guidelines. 

Representation of an ID graph 

Cross-device identity graphs assist in better segmentation of a fragmented population, thereby building a holistic view of an individual or the household. Marketers can therefore not only ensure consistent communications across devices but also enhance the experience based on their stage in the buyer journey. For example, an automobile manufacturer might see value in targeting the household while fashion apparel brands are looking for targeting a specific audience in the age group of 25 to 40-years. Essentially, the household is often the central focus for items purchased by multiple members of a residence and the individual for impulse shopping.

The InMobi Audiences platform ingests Cross Device Identity Graphs to enrich its audience segments profile to ensure a frictionless consumer experience using mobile. These device graphs leverage machine learning to analyze and classify data from various sources and create a unified dynamic view of consumer data; tightly coupled with activation through programmatic advertising and media buying.

Leveraging InMobi Cross-device Identity Graphs for Marketing

InMobi Cross Device Identity Graphs can be valuable for a range of marketing purposes as it offers cohesive customer journeys across devices and channels, including laser-focused targeting, research, and conversion attribution as power-packed media campaign use cases under the hood -

Cookie to device id mapping allows to:

• Identify users across devices (using cookie id), and create a segment of users who had shown interest on laptop/desktop and target them on handheld devices
• Proactively reach-out to users who have shown intent in a device agnostic approach

Household level targeting enables to:

• Target households and not just unique users for higher conversions due to amplification effect 
• Track effectiveness of a campaign using cross device conversions at household level
   

High intent audience prospect ensures that you: 

• Track users through their in-app journey
• Optimize campaigns and increase conversions by targeting the right audience and improving the creative experience
• Create cohorts of users who have earlier shown interest and retarget them

Cross device attribution helps: 

• Attribute user actions across various websites. For example: If a user views an ad on a mobile and later makes a purchase via his/her laptop, the solution allows brands to understand the source campaign driving this conversion
• Close the attribution loop from seeing In-app ads to m-web actions/ conversions

Finally, the most important question to answer is “what’s in it for the consumer?” Mobile-based cross-device identity graphs can unlock the single biggest value-add for all of advertising, if the industry rises to the occasion and seeks to address the consumers’ expectation of a personalized experience, especially in a fragmented ecosystem.

Wondering how to get started with Cross Device Graphs and Household targeting? Contact us or reach out to us at partner-solutions@inmobi.com.

For reference, we define political content as content that references a candidate, political party, elected or appointed government official, election, ballot measure or legislation. 

Political and election ads can run on our open exchange globally but with some specific local law based restrictions. InMobi’s demand partners are expected to comply with these restrictions. For example, New York state laws have specific donor disclosure and disclaimer requirements that advertisers need to comply with for state elections in New York.

Specifically, on the creatives themselves, media buyers need to ensure that the creatives used comply with locally acceptable legal and societal sensitivities. We want to make sure that all political ad creatives running on InMobi Exchange are appropriate for both end users and publishers.  

To this effect, appropriate disclaimers and disclosure requirements must be adhered to by demand partners and publisher partners, as required by applicable laws. As an additional check point, these creatives will be reviewed by our ad operations team and only approved if they adhere to InMobi's content guidelines. 

InMobi has zero tolerance for ads which could be considered as misleading, misrepresenting, hate speech, along with fake images and/or video, and/or such content that provokes violence. If an advertiser is determined to be involved in such unacceptable practices, we will reject the creatives, pause the campaigns immediately and suspend the advertiser in our system, pending any appeals and reviews. 

Elections are always impassioned affairs with divergent opinions, and the 2020 national elections in the U.S. may prove to be no different. It is our goal to ensure fairness for all sides and to respect the needs and requirements of all of our diverse partners. As a media partner, we remain a neutral and un-biased channel for the distribution of appropriate campaign(s). If you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us. 

Now more than ever, the success of a digital campaign depends on addressing the most relevant audiences and driving the most relevant KPIs.  

In this Q&A, we chat with Bismit Bikash Boruah, Director, Programmatic Marketplace at InMobi, and look into changing trends we’re seeing on InMobi Exchange our leading in-app exchange. Listen in to the 32-minute conversation today! 

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Key InMobi Exchange Insights February to May 2020 

Gaming 

Spending in mobile gaming grew in May by 90% compared to February. 

Key Takeaways: 

• 80% of the rise in spending was driven by casual gaming. 
• Spends here are likely increased proportional to an increase in daytime gaming hours. 
• Video continues to be the highest performing format for in-app. 

QSR and Food Delivery 

Food delivery has seen a huge increase while QSR spending remains down. 

Key Takeaways: 

• As restaurants were forced to close, QSR advertising budgets significantly reduced in April. 
• Food delivery brands aggressively increased spends and incorporated “No Contact Delivery” messaging. 
• Traditional QSR brands have recently raised their spending to promote online and mobile app orders. 

Social Media 

Spending for social platforms significantly dipped in March but quickly recovered, with May spending increasing by 83% since February. 

Key Takeaways: 

• Dating apps maintained spends but creatives changed to reflect stay-at-home orders. 
• Professional networks and those that were built around outdoor activities switched off the majority of their spend. 

Hobbies and Interest 

Spending in this category has been up, with a 46% increase in May compared to February. 

Key Takeaways: 

• Cooking-related activities steadily increased. As user engagement rates went up, smaller channels increased their spends for in-app. 
• Health and fitness apps promoted at-home workouts and competed to maintain higher CPMs. 

Entertainment 

Entertainment spending initially rose in March, slowed in April and increased sharply in May. 

Key Takeaways: 

• Advertisers benefited as entertainment consumption on mobile and Connected TV increased. 
• Video streaming platforms and music streaming services accounted for the majority of spending in this category. 

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More Episodes Of Mobile Insights With InMobi  

Interested in listening to more interviews just like this one? Click the links below to tune in.  

• Robyn Meyers On Video Streaming During COVID-19  
• Jobie Tan On Mobile Gaming During COVID-19  
• Rajat Wanchoo On The Needs of CMOs During COVID-19 
• Kunal Nagpal On InMobi Exchange And In-App Programmatic Trends 

About the Author/Interviewer   

Matthew Kaplan has over a decade of digital marketing experience, working to support the content goals of the world’s biggest B2B and B2C brands. He is a passionate app user and evangelist, working to support diverse marketing campaigns across devices. 

We delve into insights from the InMobi Advertising Platform to understand why In-App Programmatic Video advertising has become the front and centre focus for most advertisers. How has video engagement shifted across Asia? Which app categories are delivering the most engagement with programmatic videos? As a sequel to our blog on the video programmatic spends across Asia, we unravel the performance of video programmatic ads in Southeast Asia, ANZ and India for the period between Q2, 2019 to Q1, 2020

Programmatic Video Performance in Southeast Asia

1.Video Ads Deliver Higher Engagement

1. Programmatic videos have delivered an increase in overall Click-Through Rate (CTR) by 3X compared to the aggregate overall CTR of other ad formats.
2. When compared to banner ads, video ads deliver 4X higher engagement

2.Engagement Across Vertical Vs Horizontal Video Formats

1. While spends on vertical videos are lesser than that of horizontal videos, vertical videos have higher impact. Engagement driven by vertical videos is 3X of horizontal videos.
2. Vertical video ads recorded 7X times higher CTR over banner ads, while horizontal ads recorded 2.3X the CTR of banner ads
3. Vertical videos offer 1.5X higher completion rates than horizontal videos
4. Vertical ads offer 3X in terms of engagement from Q1, 2019 to Q2, 2020.

3.App Categories Driving Maximum Engagement

1. The Entertainment category drives the most engagement followed by Finance, Technology, Food & Drink apps.
2. For Shopping, News, Finance, Food & Drink categories, vertical video delivers 2X engagement over horizontal videos

Performance of Vertical and Horizontal Video in SEA

Programmatic Video Performance in ANZ

1.Video Ads Deliver Higher Engagement

1. Programmatic videos are raising overall video Click-Through Rate (CTR) by 7.5X, compared to the aggregate CTR delivered by other ad formats.
2. When compared to banner ads, video ads recorded 12X higher engagement

2.Engagement in Vertical Vs Horizontal Video Formats

1. While spends on vertical videos are lesser than those of horizontal videos, vertical videos delivered maximum impact. Engagement of vertical videos is much higher with a CTR of 1.2X compared to horizontal videos.
2. Vertical video ads recorded CTR 13.5X compared to banner ads while horizontal ads recorded 11X the CTR of banner ads
3. Vertical ads have continued to increase by 37% in terms of engagement from Q1, 2019 to Q2, 2020

3. Apps Categories Driving Maximum Engagement

1. The Entertainment category sees the highest engagement followed by Health & Fitness, Technology, and Music apps.
2. For Business and Food & Drink categories, vertical video delivers 2X the engagement than horizontal videos

Performance of Vertical and Horizontal Video in ANZ

Programmatic Video Performance in India

1.Video Ads Deliver Higher Engagement

1. Programmatic videos are witnessing an increase in overall video Click-Through Rates (CTR) by 3.5X compared to the aggregate overall CTR of other ad formats.
2. When compared to banner ads, video ads are seeing 4.5X higher engagement

2.Engagement in Vertical Vs Horizontal Video Formats

1. While spends on vertical videos are lesser than those of horizontal videos, vertical videos delivered maximum impact. The engagement on vertical videos is much higher with CTR 2.3X of horizontal videos.
2. With higher engagement delivered by vertical video formats, they also have recorded a rise in adoption. There’s an increase in 51% of the adoption of vertical videos year on year.
3. Vertical video also offers higher completion rates i.e. 1.5X higher than horizontal videos

3.Top Category Apps Engaging with Programmatic Video Content

1. The Entertainment category sees the highest engagement followed by Finance, Food & Drink, Education, and News.
2. For Entertainment, News, Finance, Music & Audio categories, vertical video delivers 2X the engagement than horizontal videos

Performance of Vertical and Horizontal Video in India

Two Reasons for Brands to Leverage Programmatic Videos

While we put forth three reasons to choose Programmatic ads in the prequel, here are two more reasons why brands should choose programmatic video:

Programmatic Ads accurately measure Brand and Sales Metrics

Programmatic channels provide a transparent ecosystem for marketers to exactly measure how a creative, ad, or a campaign performed in real-time. Unlike traditional advertising, programmatic video is above the fold and gives an eagle’s eye view of the metrics that enable marketers to make informed and impactful decisions.

Programmatic Ads are Compliant to Regulatory Authorities

Players in the in-app ecosystem (publishers, SSPs, DSPs) work with IAB to adhere to all privacy regulations, even as they evolve over time, just like mobile web and desktop. This ensures 100% compliance in terms of messaging, creatives, placements, and measurement, leaving no room for ad fraud and brand safety concerns.

You can download the full APAC Programmatic Video report here  

This is especially the case with performance advertising. It’s one thing to get someone to look at your ad in order to generate brand awareness; getting someone to click on that ad or engage with it in any way is another matter entirely. 

Getting creatives right for in-app performance advertising is both an art and a science. But what does the data say? What do all of the best performance creatives have in common? That’s what we wanted to find out. 

InMobi studied millions of creatives throughout four months in 2019 to study the effect of ad specifications in in-app performance campaigns. Our goal was to study the effect of ad specs and the quality of render in performance campaigns.  

Based on our findings, we have put together this initial overview for digital marketers. Before you run a campaign, make sure you’re hitting these core points. We hope you find it useful! 

Key Findings 

So what does the data reveal? Here are our top six takeaways for performance marketers looking to run in-app advertising campaigns: 

1. Roughly one in four creatives need to be scaled to some extent to fit into available ad slots. 
2. Between 8% and 10% of creatives that require scaling have image dimensions less than 75% of the slot dim. 
3. In total, around 12% of ad requests reviewed have mismatching slot and creative sizes. 
4. It’s better to make a larger ad be smaller than it is to make a smaller ad be bigger. In fact, downsized creatives have click-through rates (CTRs) that were between 2x and 5x better than expanded creatives. 
5. Mobile devices where the screen aspect ratio is greater than one yields the best CTRs overall. 
6. Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) algorithms are becoming increasingly sophisticated, and are largely successful in determining beforehand whether a creative will be successful or not. The research found a 85% correlation between predicted and actual CTR. 

How Aspect Ratios Impact CTR 

In an ideal world, advertisers would have creative that perfectly fits every possible ad slot made available by publishers. We don’t live in an ideal world though, and around 25% of all creatives used need to be scaled in some respect. 

But how do creatives perform when they need to be scaled? Our data found that creatives perform best when their aspect ratio is less than one (i.e. they’re wider than they are tall). In fact, these creatives performed better than ads where the aspect ratio equaled one (i.e. they were the perfect size for the ad slot). And, when a device has a density ratio of three, ads with an aspect ratio of less than one had CTRs that were 4x above benchmarks. 

• So what does this mean for marketers? We recommend keeping these points in mind: 
• Downscale ads that are 1200x628 and use them in 568x320 slots. 
• Creatives with an aspect ratio of 1.33 in 300x250 slots have higher than average CTRs. 
• Ensure the aspect ratio is less than one when targeting devices with a density of three. 
• In case the Slot Aspect ratio is not equal to Asset Aspect ratio, compare them on width, and strive for a ratio (Asset width / Slot width) as close to 1 as possible. 

How to Properly Scale Individual Ad Creatives 

Let’s conduct a quick thought experiment. You’re an advertiser that only has perfectly square ad creative that’s 600x600. You then have two potential ad slots to place this ad in: one is 300x300 and the other is 900x900. In this wacky hypothetical, are you better off placing your 600x600 ad in the slightly smaller placement or the slightly larger one? 

According to our data, the answer to the above question is A. In fact, ads that are shrunk in size have CTRs that are, on average, between 2x and 5x greater than ads that are blown up to fit the slot. 

If you think about it for a moment, this makes sense. Shrinking an image won’t have a dramatic impact on image clarity, but blowing up sure will. It’s hardly surprising to discover that people are less likely to click on a blurry, pixelated ad creative. 

For marketers, there are two key takeaways from this insight. For starters, just don’t target slot sizes which require upscaling available creatives if at all possible, as it likely won’t lead to anything good. And, be sure to always have on hand creatives with higher resolution or pixel density, to prevent the need to upscale. Ideally, work with partners like InMobi DSP that are averse to selecting a smaller creative to fit an ad slot. 

How Device Types Impact Performance 

It’s important to note that the screen someone is using to see your ad directly impacts ad performance. The higher quality the screen, the better performance you’ll see. 

From a user perspective, this makes sense. If the screen isn’t very good, then your ad won’t look very good either. Would you rather watch television on an old set or on a 4K flatscreen TV? The same principle applies. 

For marketers, this means targeting devices with high-quality screens whenever possible. Luckily, this is becoming less of an issue as just about all mobile devices on the market today (including budget-friendly devices) now offer high-quality screens.  

While screen resolution is something to be mindful of, we don't advise advertisers to solely target them in any specific way over other devices, especially given that scale is the more important expectation. 

How to Use AI to Your Advantage 

In the recent past, few tech trends have received as much hype as AI/ML. This is largely why AI adoption in enterprise environments rose 270% between 2016 and 2019, according to Gartner. 

But has the promise of AI impacted mobile advertising? Our research points to an answer: a resounding yes.  

As part of our research, we looked to see how predictive analytics technology could be used to preemptively determine whether or not a particular creative would be successful and not. And 85% of the time, what the algorithms predicted a CTR would be actually came true. 

This is a huge insight, as testing is one of the most time-consuming and fraught components of creative deployment. But what our research shows is that much of the testing process, including manual and time-consuming A/B tests, can now largely be automated and replaced. Instead of waiting a week or more to determine which creative option performed best before wide deployment, ML algorithms powered by computer vision can provide key insights in a fraction of the time. 

The current creative selection process for InMobi DSP uses AI too. It takes the past key performance indicators of each of the creatives and then develops a strategy to rank them accordingly and serves the best performing ones in most of the cases.  

How Marketers Can Improve Their Performance Creatives Today 

According to our research, there are a few key steps that performance marketers should take as soon as possible to improve their in-app advertising campaigns: 

1. If you don’t have a creative that perfectly fits an available ad slot, then make sure it’s wider than it is tall.  
2. Never try to put a creative into an ad slot that’s bigger than the creative. Shrinking a creative to fit an ad slot is fine though. 
3. Only target devices with high-quality displays. 
4. Use AI/ML to your advantage, so you’re not as dependent on manual testing efforts like A/B tests. 

Ultimately, as always, it all comes down to the user experience. If your creative looks good and is easy to understand, then it’s far more likely to yield good results for you. If it looks bad, is unclear or distorted, then it’s not likely to lead to good results for you. 

Looking to see results from your performance creatives? Be sure to leverage InMobi DSP for your mobile in-app needs. 

Note: Want to listen to previous editions of Mobile Insights with InMobi? Head to our SoundCloud page for more. 

For this interview, I sat down with Kunal Nagpal, GM of Publisher Platform and Exchange at InMobi, on May 1. In this 23-minute conversation, we talked about the current state of InMobi Exchange, how different demand-side platforms are coping with COVID-19 and what brand marketing looks like today. Tune in now to hear the whole conversation! 

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Full Interview Transcript

MATT: 

Hi everyone. Welcome to another edition of Mobile Insights with InMobi. As always, this is your esteemed host, Matt Kaplan from InMobi's marketing team, and today, very excited to have Kunal Nagpal join me. Kunal can you give everyone listening in a quick introduction?  

KUNAL: 

Sure thing, happy to be here Matt. Hi everyone. I am the GM for our exchange and publisher platforms. Basically means, I run the narrative of, what are we making? When do we make it? How do we take it to the market? And then once it's in the market, running that with the help of the different sales teams and the product teams. 

MATT: 

This is your, what, a month into this role, if memory serves me right? 

KUNAL:  

Yeah, just over a month. I used to run the client services unit before, which was basically our account management teams and our operations, everything from ad ops to creative services to the engineering, et cetera. I've given over that into a couple of other different units as I moved into this new role. Yeah, just short a month and a half. 

MATT:  

And can't be a better time to start a new role with all of us stuck at home, right? 

KUNAL: 

Course. I mean, a whole new meaning to battlefield promotions. It's been a challenge, but I love challenges. It’s good.  

MATT: 

So we're all stuck at home sheltering in place. What is your sheltering in place situation looking like these days?  

KUNAL: 

It’s been complicated. On the one hand, I kind of feel like I'm losing my sense of what is the right time to be working because I have a four year old at home and my wife also has a very, very busy schedule. So we've sort of carved out parts of the house where she doesn't see me for a few hours. I don't see her for a few hours.  

And you know, our daughter then has to be engaged by the two of us, and what that has meant is the hours are stretched. So I start pretty early. Anyway I started early for our global presence. I had to cover Asia time zones. Now I start early and then I take a break sometime in the evening, and then I sort of log back again in the night.  

Yeah, it's been a challenge, definitely been a challenge, but I've been noticing how my own usage of the apps have changed over time. Before we all went into shelter in place here in the Bay Area, I wasn't able to focus that much on, Hey I need to be a bit more conscious about my health. I should be thinking about e-education for my daughter, cause she goes to a preschool, but all those topics have now gotten a new meaning for us.  

I used to listen to a lot of music before, just that was my way to focus at work, with some music in the background on my AirPods. Now, music’s unfortunately gone out the window because there’s always so much anyway going on. But I'm using a lot more of my Peloton app. I'm using a lot more of e-education for my daughter. So definitely lives change quite a bit, professionally and personally. 

MATT: 

Yeah, absolutely. That's a lot. What it means to focus, to balance work and home life, it's definitely all over the place, so good luck to you.  

KUNAL: 

Yeah, thanks.  

MATT 

In your new role, especially overseeing InMobi Exchange, which is a big part of our business in North America, what are the big trends that you're seeing right now as it relates to InMobi Exchange specifically, and really just to the programmatic in-app space more broadly right now?  

KUNAL: 

Yeah, it's a little bit funny. I went to school at UChicago and I'm an econ guym and I remember professor after professor warning us that do not consider you as an individual as the average person and therefore try and extrapolate how life should be in any of the economic models. And yet, as I talked to friends and then I look at the data on our own exchange, I realize it's actually holding true. So on our exchange, we've been seeing some very intuitive things.  

A lot of our e-commerce advertisers have reduced their spends because they're just getting a lot of interest generally, as people stop going to the stores, they shift to online purchases, and if they shift on their own, then the need for an advertiser goes down to spend the money to get more users.  

We've seen that obviously, all travel advertising is down to zero. All hotels, all restaurants, all of that spending has been dramatically dropping. In fact, hotels is down to zero. 

But on the other side, just like I'm spending time and money on e-education for my daughter, e-education has become a huge aspect, and we're seeing many of these apps spending money on our exchange to create awareness in what has to be now a crowded field for the users. So that's gone up. 

Econ, health and fitness app usage gone up. Spends and the users that we've run some surveys on the users, those apps are doing pretty well. You've seen podcasts slash music apps usage gone up. You know, some of those things that you would have expected as people spend more time at home, that has gone up. 

Gaming is a huge increase. It has already seen a huge increase, which is again intuitive. If there are more people sitting at home and they can’t do many of the things that they would have liked to do, like going out for dinner, going out for hikes, whatever activity they may have been indulging in before, now they're trying to pass away time with some more games, so gaming industry on the app side has seen unprecedented boom in both the users and the time spent on those apps. So yeah, those are sort of the broad things we have been seeing. 

MATT: 

 Yeah, it's interesting. We all need to stay entertained and connected somehow. And mobile was, at least for me, filling that role beforehand. And in a way, I feel like this has just accelerated what I was already doing, and that sounds like I'm not alone in that.  

KUNAL: 

Yeah. And you know, it's by no means a scientific poll, but I was talking to a few friends of ours, and before we all went to a shelter in place, I was increasingly very conscious about how much time I'm spending on my phone. Both the Android and the iOS gives you those stats of how much time you spent in hours and minutes and in which app, et cetera. And I was very consciously trying to keep that down, with this hypothesis in my head that it's just not healthy to be spending so much time on the phone. 

And yet after the shelter in place went in place the Bay Area, it's not just a question of I don't have a choice. I will have to spend more time on the phone as I get on calls with colleagues around the world. It's also actually now coming to my advantage because on my iPad now, my daughter is learning stuff. That will count towards my screen time. 

I am spending time on a Peloton app. It will count towards the screen time, but I know I'm actually being healthier by spending that time. So it's required a mindset shift also to be okay to spend more time on phones.  

MATT: 

Yeah, I think the whole idea of what a good balance in your life should look like is just inherently so much different now than what it was because what else were you supposed to do? 

KUNAL: 

Exactly. 

MATT: 

It's interesting that you spoke about some of the different trends that are happening on the advertiser side as far as which brands are in and aren't marketing right now, and all that certainly makes sense.  

Kind of further down the buy side, if you will, I know that InMobi Exchange is connected to a lot of different DSPs, demand side platforms. And I'm curious, how have they been reacting to the pandemic and what have you seen from them over the past, say, six weeks? 

KUNAL:   

I think you could probably break this down into the following sort of discrete paths. There are some large DSPs that invariably are acting like anybody who operate in oligopoly, where if you are large enough you will tend to attract more of the advertiser mindshare, especially in times like these. And so you have Google DV360. You have The Trade Desk, you have Amazon's A9, MediaMath, some of these players, and obviously you also have Verizon Oath in that list.  

They are large DSPs and they've always had a very large diversified pipeline of advertisers who always want to work with them, and so they are doing better than what you expected, all else equal. Because by virtue of their size, they're able to maintain the relationships, if not enhanced, with those advisors. They are doing relatively well. 

Now having said that, the brand advertisers are not spending money, which again makes sense if you're going to sit at home, what's the point of me trying to sell you a new car or a new mattress? There's not a lot of buying that was going to happen, at least while you're inside the house, and maybe for a few more months. So brand dollars have uniformly dropped across the ecosystem and we’ve seen the same. And so even these large advertisers are not immune to that. Sorry, these large DSPs are not immune to that. 

Then you have sort of a second category, the smaller, medium business advisers who used to work through different DSPs. Those DSPs are now disproportionately hit.  

SMBs are under huge stress right now. Their business is obviously hugely impacted by the shutdown in various states in the U.S., but also they never had the financial strength to ride out and therefore continue to do many of the things that they would have liked to do in a normal situation. 

What that means is any DSP that was overly concentrated on the SMB side is now hit more. Now I won't go into those names, but we've seen those DSPs drop spends up to 70% in some cases.  

The third sort of category of DSPs has been who did not necessarily work with SMBs, but were very vertical specific. Certain DSPs have always focused on the retail sector. Certain DSPs have focused on the travel sector. Certain DSPs have focused on location as their big focus. As you can imagine, all three of those aspects are now hugely impacted.  

Stores are shut, so there's not much retail spending. Yes, retail brands are trying to move you to online, but A) not every brand has a great online presence, and B) even if they did, it's still requires a large supply chain that is impacted with workers at home.  

Obviously travel is down to zero, so those DSPs are really, really struggling. In fact, we've had some conversations with a couple of our partners that we have great relationships and they’re not sure they will come out as standalone entities after this thing ends. And it's quite sad, but it is reality for them to live through.  

And third, again, location. If everybody's going to be sitting at home, there's not a whole lot of location-based selling to be done. I can't sell you, as an advertiser, if you've come to me and say, Hey I'm a location-based DSP, let me give you this service to show how the users are going through to McDonald's or going through into a Gap store. 

That is not happening anymore. The users are not going outside of their houses. So that's sort of a third category of DSP that we've seen have, and they're very, very disproportionate impacted in these times.  

On the other hand, and our final category of DSPs who focused on user acquisition around verticals like gaming or you have verticals like e-education, et cetera. All of those obviously are doing really well. And in that sense of having that spread of DSPs who've had a diversified business across the spectrum for the exchange has really shown us the strength of a diversified portfolio, if that makes sense.  

MATT: 

Yeah, I think so. I think there's definitely going to be some players that are, as you mentioned, going to get a boost organically, just being who they are and what space they are. But for other app categories, there's now dozens of videos streaming apps that are out there. There's hundreds of games. And so I think you definitely would need a boost to, to capture mind share while you can in this moment.  

KUNAL: 

Yeah. Yeah, exactly.  

MATT: 

And of course complicating all the manners is just, there's a lot of people who are furloughed or out of work, and so they just aren't going to have the money to buy right now. 

KUNAL  

Yeah.  That's an unfortunate reality, right? The latest number show like more than 30 million people in U.S. have now filed for unemployment. That's just a staggering amount of jobs lost. Not just 10% of the population, almost 10% but I think that's 20% of the working population. 

That was never anticipated, ever. And I think the impact of that will be felt for many, many, many months, if not more than a couple of years. Hopefully it will bounce back faster, but it's just as a huge economic depression of the sort of consumer spending that goes down. And so obviously brands have to adjust to that new reality. 

But conversely, as a normal human reaction, in times of extreme stress, you want to take your mind away from these things. And that's when you sort of seek refuge, quote in quote, in games, in meditation apps and some sort of fitness apps. And that sort of explains that other side of the behavior that we are seeing on the exchange.  

MATT: 

Sure, yeah. I think regardless of your economic situation, we're all stuck at home. There's only so much that we can do. Playing a game, streaming something, cooking something, learning a new language, it's all good ways for us to occupy our time.  

KUNAL: 

Yeah. Exactly 

MATT: 

Obviously, none of us will know really how long the pandemic will last, but if you had to gaze into the crystal ball as it were, do you see some of these trends continuing years down the line? Do you think things will pick up again by Q3? What's your prediction? 

KUNAL 

I think there are two sides to this. The first side is as a secular trend, we have been observing year on year how the time spent on mobile apps has been increasing, whether we are time spent on your laptops and even your Chrome or Safari browsers on the phones. 

So that's not going to go anywhere. In fact, that only gets a boost in this time. Ask anyone how they're consuming their news. They're likely spending even less time on their laptop, on the news, but probably now have four news apps installed on their phone. So I think that that trend probably gets a boost. And that's just not something that will change.  

The other side is these sort of spikes, so to say, like the gaming spike that we've been observing. I think some of these spikes, if you look at the medium term (and I'm defining median term, they'll say end of Q3) you will continue to see some sort of enhanced activity.  

It will go down over time. A, as you know, these gaming companies also start focusing on retaining users versus just acquiring new users. And B, as we just talked about, like the economic impact comes into full force of unemployment, people will start conserving a lot more of their savings. And there are some very serious gamers out there.  

But even beyond that, some of these streaming companies who've seen a spike, fitness apps, music apps, you start adding up the subscriptions and it's not a small amount anymore. And so we think, at least by end of Q3, we will see some of that leveling happen, if not maybe a slight dip right after that. As the states reopen up properly, at least beyond Q3 as we look into that and plan for our own revenue, we’re actually anticipating a dip in these categories, to make up for this huge sort of artificial bump up that happened over Q2 and Q3. 

So longer term I think app usage continues to grow. In fact, as we just recently launched our connected TV offering, that side is just growing by like 30, 40, 50% right now. As you were saying before, as more and more people stream and as they remain at home, it's again intuitive to imagine if I have to watch content, video content, and I'm at home, I'd rather watch it on a big screen versus even in my app.  

That side is also booming and I think that's going to get even more of a boost. That’ll probably mean more cable TV disconnects and more of these streaming apps, cause now people have, as you talked about 15 minutes earlier, as your work schedule is completely out of whack, it's even more important for people to watch content when they want to watch it versus what's coming linearly, pre-programmed by the cable network. So it was the kind of thing we’re anticipating.  

MATT: 

Yeah. And of course a lot of the premium linear TV programming that people were paying for, sports in particular, isn't available anymore.  

KUNAL 

True, absolutely. Sports is off and even current programming is right now on hold in many, many places. So people are going to watch reruns and if they want to watch reruns, then they want to watch in a binge way, not waiting for a new episode every other week.  

MATT: 

And we certainly have time to binge. 

KUNAL: 

Exactly. 

MATT:  

Well, Kunal, it's been great chatting. Everyone, thanks for tuning in. Until next time.  

KUNAL: 

Thank you. 

LISTEN NOW

More Episodes of Mobile Insights with InMobi 

Interested in listening to more interviews just like this one? Click the links below to tune in. 

• Robyn Meyers On Video Streaming During COVID-19 
• Jobie Tan On Mobile Gaming During COVID-19 
• Rajat Wanchoo On The Needs of CMOs During COVID-19

About the Author/Interviewer  

Matthew Kaplan has over a decade of digital marketing experience, working to support the content goals of the world’s biggest B2B and B2C brands. He is a passionate app user and evangelist, working to support diverse marketing campaigns across devices. 

For this interview, I sat down with Rajat Wanchoo,InMobi's Global Head for Channel Partnerships and Enterprise GTM, to discuss how chief marketing officers and other marketing leaders are navigating the current situation. In this 20-minute conversation, we talked about why a mobile-first strategy is key even with consumers stuck at home, why it’s not too late to begin the journey towards digital transformation and how businesses that develop a pandemic-proof business that leads to future success. Tune in today to hear the full conversation!   

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Top Quotes and Insights from Rajat 

• Among CMOs, there’s been a “drastic realization that mobile is the key to the kingdom of connected world.” 

• “The CMOs who had a mobile-first strategy under their belt are staying afloat in this pandemic, whereas the other CMOs for whom mobile was an afterthought, we see those businesses are really struggling.” 

• “If you take demand-delayed category of businesses (which are the fixed-cost heavy businesses like retail, auto, telco, fashion, OEMs), we saw two kinds of CMO conversations here in past few months: 
  
  First were those CMOs that already spent the last 4-6 years working with their digital agencies building a digital-first and a mobile-first business. And we can identify these CMOs by looking at the kind of work they are opening in front of us. For example, the way they have converged their MarTech and Ad Tech stacks, championed cross-device targeting, their mobile-first user intelligence platforms, software-defined infrastructure (optimized for mobile traffic), just brilliant - and most of these CMOs have survived because they were able to move their business from physical to mobile during COVID and get some oxygen back.  
  
  But the second category of CMOs were those who were mainly undertaking incremental innovation of their legacy digital infrastructure and never paid full attention to building mobile-first outreach. You see those CMOs under a lot of stress, and their businesses almost nearing a shutdown.  
  
  So bottom line is, this pandemic has brutally exposed the CMOs and CEOs who were actually building a digital-first and a mobile-first business versus those who were just brokering via third-party agencies and escaping the do-it-yourself rigor.” 
   
• "Two categories of response strategies are emerging from the CDOs (chief digital officers). First are those CDOs who have been sitting on pretty large chunks of data on their consumers, audience personas, purchase habits, location, etc., but were not fully exploiting these assets to work for their core business. These CDOs are now aggressively asking our SI partners for deploying a soup-to-nuts monetization stack immediately. I think it's more like a SOS strategy rather a game plan, but this will become the status quo for 3-4 years.  
  
  But the second kind of response strategy is pretty interesting. These are those CMOs who were a bit ahead in the club. They had rich omni-channel consumer data, intelligent CDP platforms and also a robust digital-first strategy in place to reach and transact with customers. Now, these specific CMOs are asking us how they can upgrade their current version of digital platforms, which were desktop-first, cookie-first platforms, to properly perform in the shelter-at-home market, which is primarily mobile-first and CTV-first market, and increasingly a cookieless world. 
  
  So strong is this frenzy around making mobile the first channel, that some of the large banks we met recently, have started separate bank divisions that exists only on a mobile phone. With a totally separate logo branding and online ad tech platform. Same for insurance providers and also media giants. 
  
  It's an exciting time for players like us who were built on mobile first ethos." 
   
• “People are sitting at home. Mobile is the only channel that works like nothing else. And it's deterministic, cookie-free and always-on. Beat that using desktop or CTV. 
  
  Interestingly, even the entertainment players, the OTT and streaming companies who have benefitted from the COVID home-stay, we were told, are having a tough time because there's suddenly a deluge of these OTT, social and gaming apps in front of you and premium OTT (SVOD/AVOD) brands are struggling to get more share of the consumer’s prime time, so I think private marketplaces will start taking more center stage."  
   
• "Mobile is the only screen that today seamlessly extends what you are transacting on a desktop or what you're streaming on a CTV or tagging on social, or now with 5G and IoT, whatever you will see on a connected car dashboard or on your connected fridge screen, your mobile knows that and sees that. Mobile knows your identity, location, what you're watching, your real-time cravings, purchases, searches. I think mobile is the only moment of truth right there in your pocket, which brands have learned during this COVID and exploring aggressively with us." 
   
• “I think very specifically, even if you look at the FMCG, Insurance or high-end fashion brands, for whom mobile was just a channel to display their product and drive branding. They are now convinced about mobile as a core performance and distribution channel."
   
• "InMobi, along with our SI partners, is working on several multi-system requirements for these CMOs, who are asking SIs everything from building their mobile-first architecture, to modernizing their underlying CDP assets, enriching their device graphs with our telco and mobile signals, and relooking at their retargeting strategy beyond the walled gardens in open-garden cross-device environment." 
   
• “CMOs are increasingly wearing a chief digital officer hat more and more now." 
   
• “So think traditional four P's of marketing. Those four P’s are being completely re-thought in mobile-first world.” 
   
• “Most importantly a big undercurrent for Ad Tech is coming via 5G, as the world will be extremely different for CMOs to execute it. In 4G there are only 7 billion mobile phones globally, and brands can't even fully harness that. With 5G we will have 140 billion connected devices online, each throwing data, user signals, location, real-time purchases, preferences, transactions into your CDP. Can you manage that in that realm? The possibility for your brand to engage with the consumer in 5G is enormous, but your brand must think those possibilities must think of credibility.” 
   
• “Mobile is the only key that can continue a user journey across OOH, CTV, Desktop, in-app, your connected home devices seamlessly. You see all those things converging in mobile, so if you don't explore mobile from a performance perspective, you're losing a major hook.“ 
   
• “We are in a pandemic situation where we have been forced to rethink everything. I think we must use this opportunity to open and embrace technologies and to bring more standardization around us, and be more compassionate and close to our consumers.” 

LISTEN NOW

More Episodes of Mobile Insights with InMobi 

Interested in listening to more interviews just like this one? Click the links below to tune in. 

• Robyn Meyers On Video Streaming During COVID-19 

• Jobie Tan On Mobile Gaming During COVID-19 

About the Author/Interviewer  

Matthew Kaplan has over a decade of digital marketing experience, working to support the content goals of the world’s biggest B2B and B2C brands. He is a passionate app user and evangelist, working to support diverse marketing campaigns across devices. 

Since March, we have been surveyed Americans once a month (click here to see the March survey results, and here are the April survey results) using InMobi Pulse, InMobi’s mobile market research solution. For the May edition of this survey, we reached out to over 1,500 people across the country from May 7 to May 13, seeing how people of different genders and ages were reacting to the pandemic.  

Here’s what we uncovered. 

Top 10 Highlights: 

Mobile and Apps: 

• In May, 80% said they are spending more time on their mobile phone, up from 73% in March. 
• 43% in May said they are playing more mobile games, up from 40% in April. 
• 35% of Americans said they are streaming more TV now, up from 25% in March. 
• The share of Millennials who said they are using news apps more frequently increased by 11 percentage points between April and May. 
• 58% said they are using online conferencing tools for work in May, up from 48% in March. 

Shopping and Commerce: 

• 56% said they’re shopping more online. This is a notable increase from 34% in March who said the same thing. 
• The share of Americans who have started ordering groceries online for delivery or pickup has gone up nine percentage points between March and May. 
• The share of Millennials who said they have increased ordering food delivery or takeout went from 9% in April to 28% in May, a jump of 19 percentage points month over month. 
• The share of Americans who have increased ordering food for delivery or pickup has gone up 10 percentage points between March and May. 
• The share of people who said they are using shopping apps more frequently doubled between March and May. 

COVID-19 and Mobile 

As InMobi is very much an app-first company, we are especially curious to see what role mobile devices are playing for Americans today. And the data shows that adults in the U.S. are turning to smartphones and tablets even more frequently these days. 

In May, 80% said they are spending more time on their mobile phone, up from 73% in March. Women are more likely than men to say they are using their mobile phones more frequently now (83% vs. 78%), and usage is higher among people between the ages of 18 and 25 than for any other age group at 94%.  

What specific apps are people turning to more frequently now? Gaming apps topped the list, with 43% saying they were playing mobile games more often; this is up from 40% in April.

Who specifically are playing mobile games more often? For starters, women are far more likely than men to say they’re using gaming apps more (47% vs. 39%). Over half (51%) of people between the ages of 26 and 35 said they’re playing mobile games more frequently in May, but the biggest jump was among those 66 years old and older (31% in April vs. 43% in May). 

Besides mobile games, Americans in May reported using social apps (30%), entertainment apps (25%), music apps (21%), news apps (19%) and communication apps (18%) more frequently. This shows that adults in the U.S. continue to prioritize entertainment and staying in touch with the outside world while sheltering in place. 

Between April and May, fewer women, people with kids at home and people between the ages of 18 and 25 reported using educational apps more frequently. As the school year winds down for many, it makes sense that usage of these apps would decline as well. 

COVID-19 and Social Distancing 

Are Americans staying at home? In May, 65% were avoiding leaving home unless necessary. This is up from March when 61% said this, but far down from the 79% in April who said they were strictly avoiding others. 

Men are less likely than women to strictly social distance (58% vs. 72% in May). Young people are less likely than older Americans to strictly avoid contact with others, with 55% of those between the ages of 18 and 35 taking this level of precaution now. 

COVID-19 and Work 

Perhaps unsurprisingly, many Americans have been negatively impacted by the pandemic. In May, 22% said they were laid off or were furloughed, up from 17% in March and 20% in April. Similarly, the share of those who said they have gone from full-time to part-time employment has gone from 7% in March to 9% in April to 11% in May. In May, 62% of those who said they had been laid off or furloughed were previously making less than $50,000, and three-fourths of this group does not have kids at home. 

Among those working, 36% are working from home. Back in March, only 31% of Americans we spoke to were working from home. 

This has led to a rise in the use of teleconferencing apps, with 58% indicating that they are using online conferencing tools now – up from 48% in March. Zoom continues to be the most popular choice, with 30% of Americans using it more frequently now – up from 24% in April and 13% in March. Other common conferencing solutions used in May include Microsoft Teams (17%), Cisco WebEx (11%) and Skype for Business (11%). 

COVID-19 and Food 

When it comes to groceries, people are less likely to stock up now compared to past months. The share of respondents who said they bought enough groceries for a month went from 27% in April to 21% in May. And the share of people who said they have bought enough groceries for a few days went from 46% in March to 43% in April to 39% in May.  

In May, men are more likely than women to be buying enough for a few days, while women were more likely to be buying enough for a month. We observed a similar breakdown in April as well. 

There has been an increase in people ordering groceries online for delivery or curbside pickup. The share of Americans who are doing this has gone from 5% in March to 10% in April to 14% in May. Americans between the ages of 26 and 35 (a.k.a Millennials) were the most likely age range to start buying groceries in this manner. 

Still, grocery buying remains a critical way Americans are feeding themselves, with 30% saying they have started cooking at home as a result of the pandemic – up from 27% in March. Men were more likely than women to say they have just started cooking at home, and Millennials were likely than other generations to have just started cooking at home now. 

Close to half (46%) of adults in the U.S. said they have been spending more money on groceries since the pandemic began, and this is up from 40% in April and 37% in March.  Among Gen Z survey respondents, 53% said they are spending more on groceries in May, up from 39% in April. 

In May, 31% said they have reduced or stopped eating at restaurants. This makes sense, as restaurants remain closed throughout much of the country. But the share of Americans saying this has gone down from 37% in March to 34% in April to 31% this month. 

COVID-19 and Food Delivery 

Interestingly, 17% of Americans in May said they have reduced or stopped ordering takeout or delivery from restaurants. Still, this is down from April, when 20% said this. 

This biggest month-over-month shift here occurred with people between the ages of 18 and 24. Among Gen Z survey respondents, the share who said they have reduced or stopped ordering takeout or delivery from restaurants went from 24% in April to 17% in May. 

On the flip side, 17% said they have increased ordering food delivery or takeout, up from 10% in April and 7% in March. The share of Millennials who said they have increased ordering food delivery or takeout went from 9% in April to 28% in May, a jump of 19 percentage points month over month. 

COVID-19 and Shopping Behavior 

Despite the current economic situation in the U.S., people are increasing spending in some key categories. In May, 68% of adults said have increased some spending, which is up from 63% in April and 53% in March. Gen Z survey respondents were the most likely to say they have increased spending in some key categories, followed by Millennials. 

Besides groceries, what else are Americans buying more of in May? Top categories include household care items (21%), entertainment (9%), beauty and personal care items (8%), pet supplies (8%) and Wi-Fi and mobile data plans (8%).  

Some of the biggest jumps in spending occurred with Millennials. Here’s how people aged 26 to 35 reported increasing spending between April and May: 

Still, many Americans have cut back on spending in other key areas. In fact, 84% report decreased spending to some extent in May, up from 73% in March. As the economic conditions worsen, this figure may rise even further. 

Who specifically is cutting back to some extent? Women were more likely than men to say they have decreased spending to some extent (85% vs. 83%), and younger people were more likely than older people to have said they were spending less these days. 

How specifically are adults in the U.S. cutting back? What are they spending less on today? In May, travel topped the list (48%), followed by transportation (39%), clothing, shoes and jewelry (37%), entertainment (36%) and beauty and personal care (21%).   

COVID-19 and Online Shopping 

With many physical storefronts closed or only offering limited services, many consumers are turning to online channels to buy the things they want and need. This is hardly a new trend, as e-commerce has been growing in popularity for a long time in the U.S., but the sector is becoming further ingrained in American shopping habits of late. 

According to our May survey results, 56% said they’re shopping more online. This is a notable increase from 50% in April and 34% in March who said the same thing. 

What specifically are Americans now buying online? The top categories in May were clothing, shoes and jewelry (17%), grocery (16%), household care items (14%) and beauty and personal care items (12%).  

It is curious to see clothing, shoes and jewelry leading the pack, especially with so many people still stuck indoors. While this increase may be coming from people buying loungewear like athleisure and sweatpants, there may be other factors at play. 

It is worthwhile to note that the people least likely to be strictly avoiding contact with others (people aged 18 to 35) are also the people most likely to say they are buying these kinds of items online more frequently. In fact, the share of Gen Z survey respondents (18-25) specifically who said they are buying more clothing, shoes and jewelry online has gone from 8% in March to 18% in April to 27% in May. 

COVID-19 and Media Consumption 

What are people doing now to pass the time? A common pastime now is streaming TV, with 35% of people in May saying they’re doing more of this now. This figure is up from 33% in April and 25% in March.  

In particular, 45% of those with kids said they were streaming more TV in May, while 55% of Millennials (26 to 35) and 51% of Gen Z (18-25) said the same thing. This shows how connected TV and video-on-demand viewing is dramatically rising in popularity, especially with people stuck at home. 

Just over a quarter of people (26%) said they are watching more live TV in May. The same percentage said they are listening more to music and/or the radio. 

News consumption has shifted over time. In May, 30% said they were following the news more, but this is down from 33% in April and 38% in March. As the pandemic progresses, people may be less inclined to closely follow the news if they think they’re hearing the same things over and over again. In fact, 16% of survey respondents in May reported using the internet to share news regarding the coronavirus – down from 20% in April and 27% in March. 

The Impact of COVID-19 on The Future 

Americans think that COVID-19 will impact their buying, shopping and entertainment behaviors for a long time. In May, 40% said their behaviors will be altered for six months or longer, which is up from the 20% who said the same thing in April. Back in March, only 11% of Americans thought their behaviors would be impacted this long. 

Indeed, back in March, 61% of adults in the U.S. said their behaviors would be impacted anywhere between two weeks and three months. The share of Americans saying the same thing in May was down to 32%.  

Among women, 44% said in May that their behaviors would be impacted for six months or more, 37% of men said the same thing. The most pessimistic Americans are those between the ages of 36 and 45 and those between the ages of 56 and 65; among each of these cohorts, 18% in May said COVID-19 would impact their behaviors for at least a year if not longer. 

Note: This is the third and final post in a three-part blog series. As the COVID-19 pandemic spreads and dramatically disrupts life as normal, here are our thoughts on what our trusted customers and partners can do to weather the storm. To read the first post on understanding consumers today, click here. You can check out the second post on why in-app marketing and advertising is critical right now here. 

For one, location data is not as powerful now as it used to be, since many people are not traveling as much as they used to. While this is changing in states that are beginning to lift their travel restrictions, many of those within your target markets across the nation are either still sheltering in place or not traveling as much as they used to in the past. Of course, the fact that there are fewer open places for people to go to as well contributes to this point. 

In addition, media consumption behaviors are changing, which impacts the ability of both large and small businesses to understand their audiences. In the past, outlets like radio stations, television networks, print publications and transportation agencies would pass along basic demographic information on the group of people who subscribe, tune in, listen in, etc. But as media consumption has changed, not only are these outlets themselves less effective in terms of reach, but this basic data alone no longer cuts it. 

And, of course, behaviors are changing right now too, which adds an extra wrinkle to identifying a target audience for your product or service. People are not going to physical locations like grocery stores or pharmacies as often, and they are not going to restaurants or movie theaters either. People are also using e-commerce and delivery platforms more frequently, watching a lot more streaming content and using social media platforms more – and during different times of the day.  

Between shelter in place restrictions and economic realities, what people are doing and how and what they are buying has changed dramatically. There’s a reason that for many brands, what they are seeing on measurement platforms like Google Analytics now probably looks very different than it did even three months ago. 

So what does this all mean for marketers? How can they understand their audiences today so they can effectively engage and acquire the right consumers during this new normal? Instead of relying on the old ways of doing things, we recommend that all marketers follow these five steps. 

Step 1: Define Your Target Audiences 

Defining your target audience is a crucial first step that cannot be ignored no matter what is happening in the world. This is a critical, foundational step that needs to be undertaken for any brand. 

Now can be an ideal opportunity to really take the time to understand and identify the right audiences. With other marketing priorities like events being canceled or on pause right now, you may have extra time to dive into the data and develop a better understanding of your ideal audience segments. 

But, do not assume that your target audience in January or February is the same as it should be today. With so much changing in the world right now, it is highly likely that the right audience for your brand may have shifted slightly over the course of the year. 

Right now, mobile apps are a helpful source of audience data. Usage of many apps are on the rise, and a number of app categories have seen a growth in new installs since March. As a result of this increased activity, apps can be a better source of knowledge that legacy media. Plus, by combining data from a variety of apps, marketers can develop a complete picture of their ideal audiences and understand how they are spending their time and what they care about in this unique moment in history. 

Step 2: Determine How Both Existing Customers and Potential Customers Have Changed Their Behavior 

Once you know who both your top existing customers are and who you want to go after in the immediate future, it is beneficial to see how specifically their behaviors have changed in the moment. Are they looking at their phones and other screens more frequently or at different times of the day? How has their economic situation changed, if at all? How are they learning about new products and services, and are they open to changing their buying behaviors and patterns? These are all critical questions to answer. 

It is helpful at this stage to split up both existing and potential customers, to see if there’s a delta between the two groups. Of course, it is more crucial than ever to both help grow the business and to reduce churn. It is possible that the people buying from you now are different in certain respects from those most likely to buy from you in the future, although marketers should take pains to understand both groups – and to meet the needs of both groups too. 

Step 3: Understand Your Target Customer’s Pain Points Now 

What are your ideal audiences worried about right now? This is important to know, as fear and doubt have long been effective marketing messaging criteria. When you develop ads or create content for your content marketing efforts, it will be crucial to address these pain points. But you can’t get to this stage if you do not understand what your target audiences are most worried about in this moment. 

It is possible that passive data alone will not capture all of the information necessary here. If necessary, these kinds of data sources can be supplemented with more active sources like direct consumer surveys, which allow your target audience to directly tell you what they care about and what their pain points are right now.  

Just make sure to capture this information in a quick and timely fashion, as needs and pain points can shift rapidly. Plus, the longer it takes you to gather the right information, the more time goes by before you can take direct steps to address the needs of your audiences. 

Step 4: Redefine Your Ideal Customer Base As Necessary 

At the moment, it can be tempting to think of consumer behavior before and after COVID-19. After all, starting in March was when we all had to shift our behavior in light of the virus and public health.  

But this does not capture the full scale of what is really going on for your audiences. As reactions to the virus evolve and as what is both feasible and available to consumers changes, audience behaviors naturally change in lock step.  

Plus, audience behaviors can vary wildly by where they live, what their economic situation is, who else is living with them, etc. For all of these permutations of your audience segments, behaviors and attitudes will invariably evolve over time. And as a marketer, it is critical to keep up with these changes. 

Step 5: Seek Out Help From the Right Experts for Your Marketing Campaigns 

It is critical to have the right data on hand to really understand your different audiences and what they actually care about today. However, many marketers do not have all of the data they might need. And even if they have the right information, parsing through it all to really understand the crux of the matter is no easy feat, especially for non-experts. 

As Ringo Starr crooned many decades ago, it is beneficial to get by with a little help from your friends. The right expert on hand can provide both the knowledge necessary to really understand the right audience and the expertise to help sift through and make sense of available audience data. 

There are many sources of knowledge out there, but few are as comprehensive, thorough and actionable as data from mobile apps. And in the mobile realm, first-party telco data is the holy grail of information sources, since it is frequently updated, highly accurate, precise and always on. 

To find and reach the right audiences for your marketing campaigns, turn to InMobi. Reach out today to speak with one of our experts and learn more about how our mobile audiences are different. 

About the Author 

Matthew Kaplan has over a decade of digital marketing experience, working to support the content goals of the world’s biggest B2B and B2C brands. He is a passionate app user and evangelist, working to support diverse marketing campaigns across devices. He is currently spending his free time watching too much TV and engaging in various cooking projects. 

Note: This is the second post in a three-part blog series. As the COVID-19 pandemic spreads and dramatically disrupts life as normal, here are our thoughts on what our trusted customers and partners can do to weather the storm. To read the first post on understanding consumers today, click here. 

In this second post, we discuss while why marketers of all stripes need to reach consumers through mobile devices and what a good in-app marketing strategy looks like today. What do brands need to know. 

Understanding the In-App User Experience 

As we noted in the previous post in this series, it’s critical to first and foremost understand the consumer and what they need right now. Once that has been established, you need to then speak directly to them through the media of choice.  

And, increasingly, that is mobile – and by extension the close to 2 million apps now available on the major app stores. April 2020 data from eMarketer highlights this reality: 

• In 2020, close to a third of all media time will likely be devoted to mobile. In comparison, around 28% of all media time will go towards watching TV and around 15% towards desktop/laptop use. 
• Americans are expected to spend just over three hours a day on average using smartphones, which represents a close to 14% increase from 2019 figures. 
• Well over 90% of all time spent using a smartphone is devoted to apps. 

So what does this all show? In short, if you – as a marketer – want to reach consumers, then it’s a good idea to do so through mobile apps. 

This is especially the case with people across the world stuck at home right now. For example, in the U.S., a huge chunk of the population reports playing mobile games and using social media and communication apps more frequently in early April. Americans may have plenty of media options in the home, but mobile is still critical and used often.  

For some marketers, this is a big shift. After all, reaching consumers effectively on a smartphone is very different than reaching someone through TV or even radio. How media is bought, measured and seen differs dramatically on these smaller digital devices.  

But, it’s a shift that marketers need to make – especially right now.  

What Quality In-App Campaigns Should Look Like 

Some brands have been laggards when it comes to in-app marketing. Why is that? 

Historically, the goal of most in-app marketing campaigns was just to get someone to download your app and then engage with your app. As a result, in-app marketing was assumed to just cover tactics like app store optimization (ASO), push notifications (i.e. in-app messages spurring people to use the app or leave positive reviews) and ads with a strong call to action plus download-oriented landing page.  

This isn’t to say that all that isn’t in-app marketing. In fact, for some brands, looking at who opened the app and left good app reviews is still key. 

But, this isn’t where in-app marketing starts and ends. In-app marketing can and should cover a lot more than all this. Even companies that don’t have their own app and/or don’t have performance-centric goals can still very much benefit from in-app marketing. 

Mobile apps can be a great vehicle for telling a branding story. Mobile-first ad formats like fullscreen videos with interactive end cards or rich media interstitials can be a great way for a brand to both reach an audience at scale and capture their attention. Wendy’s is a great example of how mobile marketing can drive and complement branding efforts. 

Of course, as with anything else, the devil is in the details – especially today. It’s critical to understand how consumers feel about advertising and what they expect from your messaging and your brand. Many of us are dealing uncertainty and anxiety right now, and the last thing any brands needs is to come across as tone-deaf during a pandemic. 

As a final point, it’s critical to take one step back and discuss why marketing at all is even necessary right now. After all, considering current economic and practical realities, does it make sense to try to spend limited budget to reach people who have little discretionary income. 

But, it does make to still try and advertise if and when possible. Gaining mindshare is hard, but losing it is easy. Now is the time to reach and directly communicate with consumers.  

Of course, it’s critical to ensure these communications are done with the present conditions in mind. In this present moment, empathy and humanity are crucial. Ideally, the marketing will resonate so much that they will compel users to share that messaging. 

Benefits of In-App Marketing Today 

With everything happening in the world right now, brands may not see in-app marketing – or even marketing at all – as necessary right now. After all, the current situation in the world has had a dramatic impact both on the brands themselves and, of course, on all of us as humans. 

But, brands will benefit from investing in in-app marketing right now. Not only is it an ideal way to reach audiences at scale, even with most of us at home, but it can help brands maintain mindshare and communicate directly with their target audiences. 

Be sure to stay tuned to the third and final installment of this blog series, where we’ll be talking about how brands can identify and understand their best audiences, even while just about everyone is at home. 

About the Author 

Matthew Kaplan has over a decade of digital marketing experience, working to support the content goals of the world’s biggest B2B and B2C brands. He is a passionate app user and evangelist, working to support diverse marketing campaigns across devices. He is currently spending his free time watching too much TV and engaging in various cooking projects. 

Note: This is the first of a new three-part blog series. As the COVID-19 pandemic spreads and dramatically disrupts life as normal, here are our thoughts on what our trusted customers and partners can do to weather the storm. 

In this first post, we discuss how critical it is for brands to understand their consumers in as close to real-time as possible, as the nature of the COVID-19 pandemic changes quickly. How can brands use this time to get closer to their audiences, what kind of data they need and how to source this knowledge. 

How to Understand In-the-Moment Consumer Behavior 

No matter if a company is selling products, services or something else, it should understand what goes into purchase decisions. For example, when a consumer purchases a particular item, what’s compelling her or him to make that decision? Is it based on price or convenience, or more on psychological factors like brand loyalty and perception? 

And, at a more fundamental level, what does this consumer even look like? What is their age, gender and occupation? Where do they live and how much do they make in a typical year? What brands do they like? 

It’s easy to see the value in all this. Of course, all good brands want to confidently answer all of these questions. The problem, however, is in how brands historically collect data. And, these issues are especially pressing in light of the extent to which COVID-19 has upended all of our lives and livelihoods. 

In the past, brands heavily relied on focus groups or data from rewards programs. Of late, many have turned to digital data sources like social media or email address lists. But, these sources of knowledge are either slow or incomplete. Focus groups, for example, can take months to complete, and these kinds of mass gatherings are banned in most places right now anyway. Opt-in email lists and reward programs are great sources of knowledge, but they are often limited. 

So what’s better? Ideally, brands should be gathering complete, real-time sources of knowledge, so they can know right away what their customers care about right now and what they expect from the brand in the moment. 

How to Use Consumer and Market Research to Inform Marketing Campaigns 

It’s one thing to acknowledge the benefits of real-time data. But how can it be gathered and collated in an effective fashion? In this respect, mobile is often ideal.  

In the realm of mobile, there are two key sources of knowledge that are worthwhile to focus in on. For one, telco data can highlight where a mobile device owner is located (since we carry own mobile devices with us all the time) and what they care about (which can be determined through app ownership and usage). Through this knowledge, brands can use app usage data to find out who their ideal audiences are and then target them where they are, both virtually and physically. 

In addition, mobile devices can be a great source of customer perceptions. By running surveys through mobile apps, brands can both reach a wide audience and get insights very quickly. 

It’s easy to see how both sources of information can be valuable to brands in this present moment. We’re all dealing with so much ambiguity in the world. But, through mobile, it’s possible for brands to put their finger on the pulse of their consumers in the here and now, and to track behaviors and perceptions as the pandemic progresses in order to ensure brand loyalty. 

Be sure to stay tuned to the next installment of this blog series, where we’ll be talking about why brands should shift to in-app marketing and how to make the most of mobile apps. 

About the Author 

Matthew Kaplan has over a decade of digital marketing experience, working to support the content goals of the world’s biggest B2B and B2C brands. He is a passionate app user and evangelist, working to support diverse marketing campaigns across devices. He is currently spending his free time watching too much TV and engaging in various cooking projects. 

But to what extent has the use of these kinds of mobile applications really changed of late? Which apps are Americans turning to, and who are specifically turning to streaming services and gaming apps to keep themselves entertained? That’s what we wanted to find out. 

For a better understanding of consumer behavior with mobile gaming and for streaming services, we ran two mobile surveys, one in March and one in April. And for app install trends for iOS and Android (Google Play Store and Apple’s App Store), we reviewed insights from our first-party telco data.  

Here’s what we uncovered. 

Consumer Sentiment Around Entertainment 

As expected, our surveys in both March and April found that people are more inclined now to watch TV shows, play music, stream movies, play games on their phone and overall increase their entertainment app usage habits. In fact, between March and April, the share of survey respondents who said they were now spending more money on entertainment went up by three percentage points. 

In April, close to a quarter of Americans polled said they were watching more TV series and other similar content through cable or satellite, while a third said they were streaming more TV. Overall, 78% of survey respondents said they had changed their media consumption habits in some capacity since the pandemic began. 

Apps and mobile devices (like the iPhone and Android-powered devices) are increasingly critical to feeding media consumption habits now. The April survey found that 21% were using music apps more frequently, while 25% were using entertainment apps more and 40% said they were playing mobile games more frequently. 

Reviewing the Most Popular Entertainment Apps During Shelter-in-Place 

In the video streaming space, the most popular apps were the major paid streaming video on demand players, namely Amazon Prime Video, Disney+ and Netflix. Between March 8 and March 15, week-over-week installs of the Disney+ app were up 46%, while week-over-week installs of the Netflix app were up 55% between March 22 and March 29. 

Ad-supported video-on-demand services saw some growth during certain weeks, but their growth overall wasn’t as strong nor as consistent as it was for the three previously mentioned apps. For example, while week-over-week installs of the Tubi app were up 18% between March 8 and March 15, week-over-week installs dropped 10% the following week.  

Across the major video apps that run ads, usage (which we measure through recorded ad impression opportunities) spiked around March 18. It has declined somewhat from that high point, but it has more or less stayed roughly consistent since then. 

In the mobile gaming space, major publishers like Zynga, Activision and Electronic Arts saw installs of their top apps rise in March. And, usage of apps like Worsdcapes and Words with Friends rose notably in March as well. 

Understanding Entertainment App Users Today 

How are the people installing and using these various entertainment apps in March different from those utilizing these mobile apps during the first two months of the year? In both the streaming video and mobile gaming spaces, there are some notable differences. 

On the video side, app owners in March, compared to the beginning of 2020, are slightly more likely to be female, although the majority of app owners throughout the year are still male. They’re also more likely in March to be between the ages of 26 and 55 and not White. 

On the mobile gaming side, app owners were more likely to be female in March. Also, March app owners were more likely to be between the ages of 26 and 55, with annual incomes between $75,000 and $150,000. 

Identifying and Engaging Entertainment Enthusiasts Today 

Both before and during the pandemic, Americans sought out various forms of entertainment. As options narrow, though, what can brands in the entertainment space do to identify and target the right individuals right now? 

For one, location data can help. Even though no one is visiting places like amusement parks, movie theaters or stadiums right now, it’s possible to see who was previously going to these locations over the past six or nine months and then seeing what kinds of apps these audiences are using now. 

In addition to targeting by basic demographics like age and gender, brands can use mobile-first behavior to develop and leverage unique audience segments. Here are a few examples: 

• Cord cutters 
• Entertainment enthusiasts 
• Sports fans 
• Casual gamers 
• Word game enthusiasts 

Learn more about how custom mobile-first audience segments can be combined with mobile messaging to boost brand performance today. Reach out now for more information and to get started. 

It’s not hard to see why these grocery delivery services are replacing the in-person trip to the grocery store for everyone from big city dwellers in New York City and Washington D.C. to suburbanites and small town residents. After all, why bother waiting in crowded lines both outside and inside the store when you can get your groceries online and then have home delivery? It’s easy to see the appeal of online grocery shopping today. 

Of course, online orders for fresh produce, gluten-free snacks, paper goods and more are nothing new. But, thanks to COVID-19 and a host of other factors, digital grocery shopping has never been hotter. 

To see just how the space was changing and evolving in March and April 2020, we looked at the data. Specifically, InMobi’s Intelligence Solutions build a holistic understanding of consumers across data sources ranging from InMobi Exchange, which reaches 1.6 billion users globally, to first-party telco data to stated feedback directly from the customers. 

Charting the Growing Popularity of Online Grocery Shopping 

Despite everything happening in the world, Americans report spending more money – and more money online – on groceries. In surveys InMobi ran in both March and April, this was a clear trend. 

In particular, when we polled more than 1,500 adults in the U.S. in early April, 40% of them said they were spending more on groceries. And, between March and April, the percent of survey respondents who said they are buying groceries online jumped up by five percentage points. 

Charting The Growth of Third-Party Food and Grocery Delivery Apps 

This type of grocery shopping has been especially popular of late, led by strong brand recognition for top players alongside the brand-agnostic nature of shopping it provides. With leading apps like Shipt (which is owned by Target but works for a variety of stores) and Instacart, consumers get full-service personal shoppers to pick up items across a variety of stores and drop off during dedicated delivery times. For example, even people who aren’t Amazon Prime members could still get coffee from Whole Foods through Postmates. 

In this space, Instacart remains the top performer. Not only does it have more installs than similar apps like Shipt, but the number of new Instacart app installs increased 49% just in the first three weeks of March as well. 

Of course, Instacart wasn’t the only grocery app to see growth during this time period. The number of new Shipt app installs increased 37% in the first three weeks of March, and the number of new app installs for the alcoholic beverage delivery brand Drizly increased 39% in March. 

Postmates is an interesting outlier to highlight here as well. While technically not a grocery delivery app like Shipt or Instacart, it is possible to have groceries delivered through the app. This helps to explain why Postmates saw greater growth in March compared to apps like Uber Eats, DoorDash and GrubHub that just focus on delivering already-prepared food. 

Charting The Growth of Supermarket Brand Apps 

Not to be outdone, many major supermarket chains have begun developing and promoting their own apps. These services have a number of advantages, including free shipping and in-store pickup at set time slots, along with delivery options. Many consumers are already loyal to particular brands as well, and may prefer to work directly with their grocery store of choice. And, these apps can offer inventory that isn’t necessarily just on store shelves. 

Thanks in part to all of these reasons, these direct store apps have seen major growth throughout March and April. In particular, Walmart Grocery, Aldi and Publix saw strong week-over-week install trends throughout much of March. 

Who is Downloading These Apps Now? 

As we noted previously, online grocery delivery has been around for many years now. Shelter-in-place orders have certainly helped to propel this space forward.  

But, who specifically are downloading these apps now, and how do they differ from the audience that downloaded these apps previously? That’s what we wanted to find out. 

For starters, the post-COVID audience is more likely to be female. In fact, the percentage of female app installers rose by over one and a half percentage points in March compared to the first two months of the year.  

In addition, post-COVID app installers are more likely to be over the age of 35. They’re also more likely to make $75,000 or more a year on average. 

This audience is less diverse than it was beforehand too. During the first two months of 2020, around 43% of all app owners in this space were White. But, in March, well over 52% of app owners were White. 

Understanding Grocery Shoppers Today 

As the data shows, shoppers are adjusting their grocery buying habits in light of COVID-19. And, as many consumers grow accustomed to the ease and convenience of grocery shopping through an app, it’s likely that many of them will continue using these outlets even once the threat of the virus dissipates. 

For marketers, this may mean a profound shift in how they reach and engage their target audience. For supermarket brands, these trends highlight a need to push app installs in addition to or instead of driving just footfall to their physical storefronts. And for many consumer packaged goods brands, this highlights how it will become more important soon to have products in someone’s virtual shopping cart as opposed to a physical one. 

To reach today’s grocery consumer, it’s best to have direct lines of communication through apps. This is where InMobi can help. Our custom audiences can help brands determine the myriad apps that former grocery store visitors, grocery app users, parents, etc. use, so you can craft ideal custom messages for all target segments. 

Let us show you how this can work. Reach out today to learn more. 

The Overall Consumer Sentiment About the Coronavirus

While awareness of the actual origin of coronavirus has increased by 4 percent, misinformation continues to abound, leaving Indians in a state of confusion. Measures taken by the government to contain the spread of the virus including the 21-day lockdown, the ban on international travel, and halting interstate transportation are all appreciated by the Indians in the respective order.

40 percent of Indians believe that it will take the world between 6-12 months to get rid of Coronavirus. This is a 90 percent increase since the last survey held before the lockdown. 69 percent of the Indians are concerned about the impact on migrant laborers/daily wage earners and the underprivileged class.

The Shift in Shopping and Media Consumption

There has been a dynamic shift in the way Indians shopped in just one and a half weeks. 14 percent of Indians have changed their shopping behavior of stocking up groceries and household essentials. With fewer folks hoarding items or buying in bulk, others continue to have access to the daily essentials.

With everyone sheltered at home, expenditure on food and WIFI/mobile data usage has seen a dramatic increase resulting in increased consumption of news, OTT content, and music.

The Impact of the Pandemic on Gen Z

Young Indians in the age group of 14 – 24, of which 57 percent are currently still pursuing their education, belong to the Gen Z category. Only 10 percent of them live alone/with friends. 90 percent of them live with their families and have minimal responsibilities towards their home. They have a lot of time on their hands and are keeping themselves engaged.

Gen Z State of Mind and Outlook

• 79 percent Are following social distancing measures. This is 9 percent lower than the average respondent

• 74 percent are feeling negative emotions such as sadness, fear, disgust, and anger

• 75 percent are unaware of the origins of the virus two weeks into the lockdown

• 67 percent feel that the pandemic will subside either in 2 to 3 months or in 6 to 12 months

• 41 percent are worried about the impact on the coronavirus on their education

• 28 percent Feel confused about their future after COVID-19 and have a bleak outlook

Gen Z Lifestyle and Spending Habits

• 67 percent are seeing an increase in their budgeted expenditure on key categories

• Gen Z are the biggest spenders with 26 percent of them upgrading on the WIFI and data usage on their smartphones

• 56 percent of Gen Z prefer to buy for less than a week, especially when it comes to groceries and household essentials

• 20 percent of Gen Z is spending on personal care products compared to 15 percent from Gen X

• 11 percent are picking up a new skill or brushing up old skills. They are also twice as likely to do so than other age groups

Gen Z Media Consumption Trends

• 41 percent of Gen Z are consuming news, 35 percent are playing games while 31 percent are active on social media

• 33 percent are listening to music, 26 percent are actively watching content on OTT platforms while 14 percent are consuming audiobooks/podcasts

The Impact of COVID-19 on Millennials

Young Indians who are in the age group of 25 – 34, of whom 60percent are married, 87 percent live with their families and 50 percent earn above INR 30,000 per month. These folks have relatively more responsibilities and are likely to spend time with their families. They are also tech savvy and rely on technology to get their work done, remain informed and entertained.

Millennials State of mind and Outlook

• 88 percent Are strictly following social distancing measures, with 50 percent following sanitation measures

• 81 percent are feeling negative emotions while fear stands as the dominating emotion with 35 percent feeling it. Millennials are also feeling sadness, anger and disgust.

• 45 percent of millennials feel that the pandemic will subside in 6-12 months

• 40 percent are worried about the impact of coronavirus on their financial health

• 28 percent Have an optimistic outlook about the future after COVID-19 subsides

Millennials Lifestyle and Spending Habits

• 42 percent of millennials are spending more on food items while 58percent, buy their groceries and household essentials for a few days at a time.

• 36 percent of millennials are actively participating in household chores such as cleaning and cooking

Millennials Media Consumption Trends

• Millennials are the largest consumers of news at 46percent. While 27 percent watch OTT content; 22 percent play games on their phones

• 17 percent are taking up online courses and upskilling themselves

• 29 percent are active on social media while 25 percent are staying connected with family and friends via communication apps

The Impact of COVID-19 on Gen X

Mature Indian adults who are above the age of 35, 90percent of whom are married and living with their families. These folks are more settled in life, their opinions are based on the challenges they have faced and overcome. Their behaviors are more in line with the responsibilities they manage daily. Their understanding of the world is wider and deeper.

Gen X State of mind and Outlook

• 87 percent Are strictly following social distancing measures, with 46percent following other sanitation measures

• 56 percent are sad and fearful about the outbreak and its impact

• 45 percent Feel that the pandemic will subside in 6-12 months

• 35 percent Are optimistic about the future after COVID-19 subsides; while if staying alone, only 29 percent are optimistic

Gen X Lifestyle and Spending Habits

• 20 percent of them are juggling while managing work and doing household chores leaving them no or little time for indulgence in other activities

• 32 percent are stocking up on groceries and household essentials for a month

• Only 20 percent are spending on WIFI while 23percent of women are spending more than men on WIFI and mobile data usage

Gen X Media Consumption Trends

• 39 percent are watching TV, much more than any other age group

• Gen X are the least likely category with only 17 percent active on social media, 16 percent consuming OTT videos and 10percent playing mobile games

To gain more insights, read our report on how Indians are responding to the pandemic part 1. If interested in reading the consumer reactions across the world, read our reports on consumer reactions in Southeast Asia, Australia and North America. For more resources on COVID-19, visit InMobi COVID-19 Global page.

The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically impacted every industry, although the restaurant space as a whole has been hit especially hard. Still, in looking at both our first-party telco data and insights from mobile surveys we conducted in March and April, we found that some brands are doing better than others at weathering the storm by prioritizing mobile orders and focusing on app-first customer experiences. 

Understanding the Preferences of QSR Mobile Customers Today 

With most of the country under some kind of shelter-in-place order throughout the majority of March and April, people are far less likely to venture out of the house – even for allowed activities like picking up orders for takeout. In the surveys we conducted in March and April, consumers have said they are not embracing this kind of dining right now. 

Among the more than 1,500 Americans we surveyed in April, a third said they have reduced their visits to restaurants or stopped eating out altogether. This is hardly surprising, as the bulk of restaurants across the nation were closed during this time anyway.  

That’s not to say that there isn’t hope on the horizon. The share of survey respondents who said they have reduced their visits to restaurants or stopped eating out altogether did decline from March to April. This all may mean that Americans are itching to get back to their routines, including getting meals cooked from their favorite restaurants. 

How Different Brands are Faring in This Brave New Digital World 

In the QSR space, there are very different business models, and these key differences have impacted how brands have fared during the pandemic in the U.S. In particular, fast casual brands have seen different trends from those with delivery options or scheduling apps that let people schedule ahead for curbside pickup. 

For example, consider coffee apps from brands like Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts. Many people would turn to these brands in the past to get coffee and treats before and during the workday. But, with many white collar workers no longer going into the office, there’s less of a desire to install these kinds of apps. 

A similar trend has been observed with the apps of brands that focus heavily on in-person dining or more impulsive buying. In particular, while Subway and Chick-Fil-A saw increases in app installs in February and early March, by later March average daily installs began to decline. 

But, some brands have seen a jump in new app installs. Chipotle and Taco Bell have seen an increase, as has Sonic. It makes sense that brands that have highly portable food options that work well for takeout or delivery would do better than expected right now. Plus, the drive-in nature of Sonic may have helped them as well, since it’s easier to socially distance if you never leave your car. 

One interesting outlier from the data is Burger King, which saw a notable rise in new app installs in late March. Unlike some others in this space, Burger King continued to advertise and market itself during the month, and that effort helped them realize notable gains. 

Who Is Using QSR Apps Today? 

As we’ve noted in our QSR app research from 2019, the average app owner in this space is a White male between the ages of 25 and 44 who makes $50,000 to $75,000 annually, although it can vary by brand. But has this changed at all of late? Are the people downloading QSR apps now different than those that were turning to these apps in the past? 

In some ways, we’re seeing a further entrenchment of the key QSR audience. Compared to pre-COVID app installs, the people downloading these apps are even more likely to be male and White. But, users between the ages of 36 and 55 are increasing during the Shelter-in-place mandate, as are users with income levels between $35,000-$125,000 annually. 

How to Identify the Right Customers for Your App 

For QSR brands, getting more app users now can help ensure continued profitability in the present moment and the future once the pandemic is truly over. As a result, it’s critical to target the right audiences in all advertising and marketing efforts. 

Basic demographic information like age and gender is a good place to start. Brands can go further by targeting mobile-first audiences on interest and on their propensity to visit or travel near select locations. 

Learn more about how custom mobile-first audience segments can be combined with mobile messaging to boost brand performance today. Reach out now for more information and to get started. 

1. Tingkat kesadaran masyarakat tentang pandemi
2. Tantangan yang dihadapi oleh orang Indonesia selama krisis
3. Tren langkah kaki pelanggan di tempat-tempat umum yang menarik
4. Perubahan konsumsi aplikasi seluler di berbagai kategori

Bagaimana Orang Indonesia Menanggapi Krisis

Kurangnya Kesadaran tentang COVID-19 di Indonesia

Karena orang tetap dibanjiri informasi yang salah, tingkat kesadaran tentang COVID-19 sangat rendah di Indonesia. Sementara itu, 80% responden tidak mengetahui asal-usul Coronavirus, 40% berpendapat bahwa ini adalah eksperimen bio-medis yang salah antara AS dan Cina. 4 dari 10 responden berpikir pasar basah Wuhan atau konsumsi sup kelelawar bertanggung jawab atas sumber virus. Di tengah pandemi, sangat penting untuk mengikuti jarak sosial untuk menahan penyebaran virus lebih lanjut, tetapi hanya 60% dari warga negara yang menganggap serius jarak sosial di Indonesia.

Hanya 14% yang dapat dengan tepat mengidentifikasi dua gejala utama penyakit ini. 80% dari responden tidak dapat mengidentifikasi empat tindakan pencegahan yang ditetapkan oleh WHO, yaitu social distancing, mencuci tangan, membersihkan dan menutup mulut saat batuk dan bersin.

Tantangan yang dihadapi oleh orang Indonesia selama COVID-19

Di tengah krisis, karena perubahan mendadak yang muncul, responden menghadapi kesulitan dalam pengadaan kebutuhan pokok sehari-hari dan mengelola pekerjaan. Dengan sekolah ditutup, 23% responden menemukan keseimbangan antara merawat anak-anak dan pergi ke kantor. 35% responden menghadapi tantangan dalam pembelian sabun pencuci tangan dan handsanitizers pada saat-saat penting ketika kebersihan pribadi dan masyarakat sangat penting. 12% menghadapi kesulitan dalam mencari pasokan makanan.

Perubahan Preferensi Gaya Hidup dan Belanja di Indonesia

Di tengah pembatasan gerakan fisik, orang Indonesia dengan cepat beradaptasi dengan realitas baru dengan lebih fokus pada aktivitas online. 24% responden menimbun kebutuhan sehari-hari seperti bahan makanan selama sebulan atau lebih. 77% responden memilih produk perawatan pribadi di mana kemampuan membunuh kuman lebih disukai daripada harganya. 32% responden telah benar-benar menghentikan atau membatasi konsumsi makan di luar atau memesan dan memilih makanan rumahan. Terlepas dari tantangan yang dihadapi dalam sumber pasokan makanan, hanya 6% responden yang menggunakan aplikasi online untuk memesan makanan. Karena 60% responden mempraktikkan social distancing, tempat perbelanjaan / mal mengalami penurunan 20% kedatangan customer, dan 15% penurunan pada kedatangan bioskop.

Pergeseran Perilaku Konsumen di Asia Tenggara

Lonjakan Kedatangan di Pusat Layanan Kesehatan dan Supermarket

Sementara pusat-pusat hiburan seperti mal dan teater bioskop mengalami penurunan kedatangan customers, tempat-tempat darurat seperti Rumah Sakit dan supermarket mengalami lonjakan kedatangan customers. Rumah sakit mengalami peningkatan sebanyak 410%, 105% dan 80% masing-masing di Malaysia, Singapura dan Filipina.

Supermarket melihat lonjakan 30% di Singapura, 10% di Filipina dan 148% lonjakan di Malaysia di mana orang tampaknya mencari untuk menimbun bahan makanan penting dan perlengkapan perawatan pribadi.

Orang Beralih ke Aplikasi Seluler untuk Mengurangi Stres

Ketika orang-orang berada di rumah, mereka beralih ke ponsel sebagai sumber hiburan dan untuk menghilangkan stres. Aplikasi pengeditan gambar dan video, aplikasi Buku, Media Sosial dan Permainan adalah penghilang stres utama bagi konsumen di seluruh Asia Tenggara. Penggunaan aplikasi perjalanan (pelacakan penerbangan, penjadwalan ulang tiket, dan pembatalan) tumbuh sebesar 586% dengan orang yang mencoba melacak atau menjadwal ulang rencana perjalanan mereka di tengah-tengah lockdown di Indonesia. Aplikasi komunikasi mengalami lonjakan 900% sementara aplikasi buku dan komik mengalami lonjakan 200% di Malaysia.

Saat kita beradaptasi untuk menghadapi krisis ini, kebiasaan belanja konsumen dan konsumsi media mereka terdapat perubahan yang besar. Untuk membantu para marketers dan publisher menavigasi situasi yang berkembang ini dengan lebih baik, kami melakukan bagian dengan menyediakan data terbaru dan insight tentang tren yang berkembang pesat dalam lanskap media digital.

Lihatlah laporan lengkap tentang perilaku konsumen di tengah COVID-19 di Asia Tenggara dan di Indonesia. Atau, kunjungi halaman Global InMobi COVID-19 untuk menjelajahi audience intelligence kami tentang laporan perilaku konsumen selama COVID-19 di India, Australia,dan di seluruh dunia.

Metodologi Survei: Survei ini dilakukan pada platform InMobi Pulse. 60% responden survei adalah pria dan 40% wanita. 62% responden survei berasal dari Gen Z (di bawah usia 24 tahun, 17% adalah generasi Millenial yang berusia antara 25 hingga 34 tahun dan 21% adalah generasi Baby boomer (di atas usia 35 tahun). Di luar responden survei, 71% lajang sedangkan 29% menikah, yang menunjukkan keragaman penonton yang dibahas InMobi untuk mendapatkan spektrum tanggapan yang luas.

But what is the real motivation to make this shift? 

Second Price vs. First Price 

In a world where supply-side platforms (SSPs), exchanges and in some cases publishers run nested auctions under different clearing schemes, it’s important to have all demand from bidders compete on an equal footing when the final auction is conducted. 

Let’s understand this from two examples.  

Winning bidder at SSP, undeservedly, loses the publisher side auction because of second price. 

Winning bidder at SSP, deservedly, wins the publisher side auction because of second price. 

In a first-price auction, winning bids get to compete at the final auction with the actual bid price they were willing to pay for the impression. In a second-price auction, their bids can become less competitive - some might argue, unfairly - by way of the clearing logic they will encounter in the nested auctions. 

What Should Buyers Look Forward To? 

Higher win rates: Buyers will likely see improved win rates as the first-price auction mechanism eliminates the risk of being undercut by lower bids from competitors. No matter where the decision is being made, your bid at the final auction remains equal to your original bid value. 

Removes unknowns and ensures transparency into pricing: Buyers will now deterministically know what they are going to pay for an impression, without it being affected by competing bids or the clearing logic at the SSP’s end. There is no scope for hidden fees by intermediaries that may be still possible in second-price auctions. 

What Else Should InMobi’s Demand Partners Know? 

During the transition period when both first- and second-price auctions will co-exist, buyers will be able to identify the nature of auction by the “Auction Type” field in the bid request. All first-price auctions will have auction type value as 1, and second-price auctions as 2. 

We are committed to making this transition seamless for you. We will continue to share more information at every point during the transition but if you have any questions in the interim, you should reach out to your Demand Partner Manager. 

For context, first consider the broader shift that made users today spend more time on mobile (and, by extension, apps) than on any other screen. As smartphones went mainstream and as internet connectivity improved, people’s consumption of video, which is the preferred format for media consumption, moved from desktop to mobile web (albeit for a brief time) to mobile apps. This shift happened because of two reasons: 

1. Apps could stream premium long-form (more than five to seven minutes) video content (TV shows and movies) that were often not available on broadcast TV. 
2. People could watch these shows and movies whenever they wanted to. 

But mobile apps cannot replicate the intuitive large screen experience of watching videos. This is where digitally connected TV devices and smart TVs found their natural fit with consumers. And so, naturally, many advertisers are looking at how they can reach their audiences via connected TV. 

Accordingly, a CTV buying option with us is a natural extension of our in-app offerings that are used by tens of thousands of advertisers today as we continue to focus on helping app developers as our core offering. We recently launched our CTV offerings across devices like Roku, Fire TV Stick, Android TV and Apple TV, and now we also support ad buys on Samsung and LG smart TVs, with many more to come. 

Now, just as we think of CTV as a natural extension of a user’s in-app time spend, we think there are four reasons why advertisers also should think similarly to reach their target audience. 

1. The Rise of Digitally Connected TV 

Video has been the most popular form of entertainment for the masses ever since television went mainstream but consumers are moving away from pre-programmed linear TV to connected TV. As eMarketer’s U.S. Connected TV Advertising 2019 report stated: 

“The boom in CTV viewership and time spent is partially driven by cord-cutting. The gap between pay TV viewers and those who forgo traditional TV is closing. We forecast that by 2023, 56.1 million households in the US will be either cord-cutters or cord-nevers, meaning that they’ll access video entertainment through a digital package that doesn’t include pay TV. By comparison, only 72.7 million households will have pay TV in 2023.”  

2. Accurate Audience Profiles 

In advertising, success does not merely depend on how many people you reach but also on who you reach. 

For example, this shift to digital video on connected TV apps (CTV) is driven largely by younger millennials and Gen Z audiences. Consider this note from eMarketer: “US consumers ages 18 to 34 spent 1 hour, 22 minutes daily with CTVs, and those ages 65 and older spent just 24 minutes per day, per Nielsen. For these age groups, CTV equates to 15% and 3%, respectively, of the total time they spend consuming media per day.”  

Now, given that these two audience segments control or directly influence at least $1.5 trillion of annual spend in the U.S. alone, brands can be confident of reaching them over digital TV.  

Audience reach aside though, CTV offers targeting capabilities similar to mobile apps where brands can use first-party and third-party data to reach out to audiences based on their location, interests, behavior, etc. This is in addition to contextual targeting options that allow ads to run against specific content categories (for example live sports, movies and news). For brands already using data for in-app campaigns, there is a minimal learning curve here. 

3. Full Screen, Immersive Ads with Measurement 

A brand marketer is always looking for proof that their ads are being watched and the target audience is fully engaged. This is why full screen video ads became the most popular choice for brands running mobile ads and as measurement has become easier and more accessible, marketers optimize for metrics like viewability and video completion rates as standard KPIs. 

It is therefore easy to see how a connected TV screen in a living room is the perfect showcase for a brand. Ads occupy the entire TV screen so viewability concerns do not exist and advertisers get access to audiences that are fully engaged, perfectly primed to receive the brand’s messaging, given that, by definition, consumers are choosing to watching specific content on CTV at their times of choice 

Moreover, measurement options available on mobile apps (like video completion rates, audience ratings, etc.) are also available on CTV for advertisers to leverage. Measurement is not just restricted to campaign performance but also extends to inventory quality. For example, InMobi Exchange uses DoubleVerify’s advanced fraud checks to scan and filter all of the CTV content available to buyers, similar to our solution for all of our mobile app inventory. 

4. Ease of Extending Campaigns 

Extending your brand’s campaign to CTV is easy if you are already running ads on mobile apps. InMobi Exchange supports CTV ad buys on Open Exchange and via PMP deals that can enable campaigns targeted to specific audience segments. 

In addition, Advertisers can use the familiar VAST standard prevalent in mobile apps for their CTV campaigns as well, eliminating the need to customize creatives specifically for CTV. 

Interested in getting started? Reach out today to learn more. 

Ramadan is a time for marketers to build meaningful connections with consumers and drive growth.  This year, Ramadan faces an obstinate challenge with COVID-19 bringing the global community to a standstill. Amidst these circumstances, brands must take necessary steps to respect community values and sentiments to help consumers feel a sense of normalcy.

Meaningful Marketing in Unprecedented Times

Brands must be respectful and sensitive to the times they are in – sharing valuable information, alleviating stress or core concerns, and most importantly, providing consumers with timely and relevant offers. And, insights on understanding consumer behavior and shopping trends are pivotal for brands to plan their marketing initiatives during the festive season. We handpicked insights from the reports: InMobi Ramadan Insights 2020 and How the Southeast Asian customer is reacting to the pandemic. These insights provide an eagle’s eye view for marketers to understand the pulse of the customers while promoting the spirit of staying connected to the faith and humanity during the festive season.

Curate Audiences for Meaningful Interactions

The festive shopping journey of customers during Ramadan is highly complex, and in these evolving times – building a deeper understanding of changing behavior is primal. Mobile provides marketers the opportunity to gain 5x faster insights, unlike conventional research techniques. These “Voice of the Customer” insights can be combined with location intelligence, app consumption patterns, demographic and purchase intent data signals to curate custom audiences thereby, creating messages that are more authentic and drive genuine responses from consumers.

What is the 2020 Ramadan Consumer like?

1. Gen Z and Baby Boomers are most planned shoppers across age groups
2. Impulsive purchases are the trend of the town in Asia with a significant drop of around 18% in planned purchases
3. 1.5x impulsivity in purchases observed from last year to this year
4. Women comprise a sizeable chunk of smartphone users (45%¹), increasing the scope for marketing women-centric products

Reach Audience Through Mobile Apps

Today’s consumers are adept at smartphone usage and rely actively on apps, spending close to 3.5 hours a day on them. Prayer apps allow the festival-celebrating consumer to manage fasting schedules, networking, and prayers on their mobile device. On-demand video (OTT) apps and Gaming (especially casual games) are the go-to entertainment sources. News apps are their constant source of information – be it day or night; and even more so in these times. Apps are where the connected Ramadan consumer is.

1. 48% of Indonesians use religious apps like Islamic calendars and Quran apps
2. 40% use entertainment apps like OTT, music and video apps during Ramadan
3. 32% use shopping apps to shop right from groceries to clothes
4. 500% increase in usage of video and image editing apps during this crisis  has been observed than the normal times

Communicate Right at the Right Time

While shopping seems to be an integral part of all festivals, Ramadan stands out in terms of gift sharing and charity contributions during the entirety of the month. Brands need to consider the value they deliver during the season through timely communications and relevant creative messaging that build seamless customer journeys.

1. 67% of respondents make their purchases two weeks or earlier
2. 33% of respondents make their purchases during Ramadan

When we first surveyed 1800+ Indonesian smartphone users in February, we learned that 67% make their purchases 2 weeks earlier to Ramadan. However, post March when the pandemic hit Indonesia, buyers are now more inclined to make purchases during Ramadan. This allows brands to continue engaging with a larger population during this time. Retailers should engage shoppers with special offers and personalized content throughout the holy month to build brand relevance and drive impact.

Embrace In-app programmatic

As most consumers are restricted at homes during the lockdown, brands need to ensure that they are where their consumers are. In-App Programmatic proves to be an effective channel to help achieve this goal. Be it ensuring reach at scale with brand safety, precise targeting, or smart budget allocation, brands can rely on in-app advertising to deliver the desired outcomes and beyond.

As marketers balance the fine act of advertising responsibly during the crisis, they can rely on the automation that in-app programmatic offers and make major strides in understanding, identifying, engaging, and acquiring customers.

Reach Your Consumers at Scale

As the cookie becomes obsolete, in-app advertising allows marketers to reach a highly engaged audience via an always on device: mobile. In a world where consumer behavior is constantly evolving, programmatic advertising helps marketers stay nimble and optimize messaging in real-time.

Increase Conversions from Targeted Audience

Audience targeting enables brands to choose the precise sets of audiences who are really interested in their product. And, reaching these audiences is made easier through programmatic advertising. This will be especially key during this Ramadan, as new personas emerge during the pandemic. These include Young Professionals who are first-time Iftar cooks, Working Parents who teach their children during this month or Concerned Parents who double-down on their family’s safety. The InMobi Audiences Platform can curate these custom audiences based on hundreds of signals and allow marketers to build a better picture of the consumer journey.

Address Brand Safety Concerns

A brand safe environment is an inadvertent concern that brands are facing especially in a time where content focused around the crisis is constantly evolving. In-app advertising provides advertisers with a brand-safe environment along with advanced targeting and immersive experiences to solve for the “where” and “how” of capturing consumer mindshare during this unpredictable festive period. Transparency in the ecosystem gives full access and great control for brands to understand the process and outcomes of advertising thus instilling trust to confidently choose the programmatic approach.

Connect using Immersive Creative

As observers find ways to celebrate Ramadan together-but-apart, brands can help. By combining engaging creative formats such as interactive ads or video, with concepts focused on greeting cards or Zakat, marketers can help consumers form real connections this Ramadan. 

Build a Genuine Connect This Ramadan

Typically, during Ramadan, marketers leverage the surges in shopping trends to drive high-performance campaigns. The onset of COVID19 has made this Ramadan different, the marketer must be empathetic and thoughtful to the needs of the Ramadan observer by providing helpful information, identifying and addressing their core concerns, and most importantly providing consumers with purposeful offers.

Delving into data from the InMobi platform, we unravel insights on the growing usage of video programmatic advertising across India, Southeast Asia, and ANZ.

Programmatic Video Advertising in Southeast Asia

1. Video is the most preferred format on programmatic

• Video accounts for 40 percent of all programmatic ad spends in Southeast Asia.
• In Q1 2020, Shopping, News, Technology, Entertainment and Dating were the top spending verticals.
• The top 5 categories saw over 100 percent growth in ad spends.

2. Vertical Video is the way to go for top spenders

• Vertical video accounts for 35% of all video ad spends while landscape video owns the lion’s share.
• Advertisers across industries invest almost equally in vertical video – Shopping (50%), Finance (44%), Dating (43%), and landscape video.

Programmatic Video Advertising in ANZ

1.In-app programmatic video surges

• With a 63% surge in programmatic in-app video buying YoY, Entertainment, News, Business, Health and Fitness, Music, and Video made the most of programmatic video
• The ‘News’ vertical became the highest spender as of March 2020

2.Vertical video grows; Landscape remains a majority

• Australia has seen a steep increase of 162% on vertical video ad spends in the first 3 months of the year.
• Spending on landscape video ads increased by 23% YoY.
• Over half of all programmatic video ads were landscape

Programmatic Video Advertising in India

1.News is the biggest programmatic spender

• Programmatic video ad spends grew 7 percent YoY in India with the top verticals being News, Shopping, Business, Entertainment and Finance.
• News became the top spender Q4 2019 to Q1 2020.
• Shopping saw a 28% rise in spends in Q1, 2020.
• Music and Audio, Health and Fitness, and Education have seen a whopping 500% rise in programmatic video in-app ad spending in Q1.

2.Vertical Video is a New Favorite

• Vertical video spends dramatically increased – 99 percent YoY.
• Landscape video spends still account for a majority – 72 percent - of programmatic video spends.
• Advertisers across industries invest almost equally in vertical video – Entertainment (47%), Finance (45%), and landscape video.

Three Reasons why Brands Should Leverage the Capabilities of the Programmatic Video

Why is programmatic in-app video advertising growing across so many industries across these regions?

1. Mobile Apps Take the Center Stage in Terms of Reach

With the number of consumers using apps is growing rapidly, in app advertising is ideal for reaching them. Programmatic advertising makes it easier to reach the target audience at scale, as opposed to working with each app to place ads. Most importantly, according to InMobi data, consumers from Asia will all be soon mobile-first, which gives scope for Programmatic Video advertising and provides advertisers with an audience at scale

2. Programmatic Video Ideal for Brand Safety and Viewability

Brands are facing the issue of brand safety with ads being placed next to inappropriate content. In-app video advertising can be the perfect solution for this persistent concern as the app content goes through stringent approval process from the respective stores with Google and Apple validating the laid brand safety guidelines.
Another important facet of video programmatic advertising is its viewability. People watch video ads more often than they see smaller, less obtrusive formats like banners. And, with digital advertising, you can measure how many people saw a video ad, for how long and other action driven metrics which is not really possible with TV advertising. User experience can be enhanced with video ads served through VAST tags that ensure the creative is preloaded and doesn’t buffer, so that end users see the ad play seamlessly as soon as an ad opportunity arises in app.

3. Video Ads, When Created Programmatically, Drive Engagement and Innovation

A video ad can contain immersive content such as rich media, interactivity and end cards. For example, a video ad can include a map that shows a user where the nearest brand location is to navigate them in that direction. This creates a captivating experience for the user to take direct action from the ad. Such interactive experiences ensure that the users are engaged innovatively.

Note: Want to check out our first installment in this series where we talk mobile gaming with InMobi’s Jobie Tan? Click here to check it out. 

For our second interview, I sat down with Robyn Meyers, InMobi North America’s  Vice President of West Coast Brand Partnerships, to discuss the current state of entertainment and streaming during the COVID-19 pandemic. In our 18-minute conversation, we talked about the current state of the streaming wars, which kinds of titles are especially popular right now and what media and entertainment companies need to do to see success today during these unprecedented times. Tune in today to hear the full conversation!  

LISTEN NOW

Q&A Transcript 

MATT: 

Hi everyone. Welcome to another edition of Mobile Insights with InMobi. This is Matt Kaplan from InMobi’s marketing team here, and today. I'm very excited to be joined by the one and only Robyn Meyers. Robyn, can you give everyone listening in a quick intro?  

ROBYN: 

Sure. Thanks, Matt. Thanks for having me. So I'm Robyn Meyers. I've been at InMobi for about the past seven years now. I recently relocated from New York to Los Angeles about a year ago, and so I'm super excited to sort of be in the throes of Hollywood now that we can talk about entertainment today.  

MATT: 

Fantastic. Fantastic. Yeah, you know not a bad time, I guess, to be in a warm place considering one of the few things we could do outside of the house is go for walks, right? 

ROBYN: 

That's right. I know. We've been super lucky to be able to get outside and the sun's usually shiny out here in LA, so it's been quite fortunate for us.  

MATT: 

So obviously all of us are very much off our routines working from home, dealing with being stuck inside. What are you and your family doing to stay sane and to make sure you have everything that you need during the pandemic? 

ROBYN: 

Yeah, that's a great question. So we've been consuming a lot of content. We've been cooking, we've been trying to get outside and stay active. I would say that a lot of our life has now sort of centered around apps, which is quite funny given that that's, you know, the industry that we're in. 

We're probably one of the latest, newest members of Disney Plus, which has been awesome for my boys who are five and three. We've been renting Trolls on Amazon Prime Video, which is awesome because it was the first movie that was not in the theater but just out for rental. 

And then, of course Hello Fresh has been lifesaving, so I don't have to meal plan for two meals a day. And then of course, you know, getting outside and tracking our walks and all that kind of good stuff on our fitness apps has been super fun. So that's what we've been up to. And then of course, Zooming with friends and family has been lifesaving for all of our sanity. 

MATT: 

Nice. Yeah, it's funny, I would never think of Zoom beforehand as a social app, but it's definitely been filling that role for many of us, myself included. 

ROBYN: 

Totally. Yeah, I would say that and House Party have been two of probably the most used apps on my phone and my husband's phone lately. We've been reconnecting with lots of friends from around the world, and on House Party it's pretty cool that you can actually play some games in the app as well while you're talking to your friends, which is super fun.  

MATT: 

Nice. It’s on my, my list of apps I think I need to get at some point very soon, lest I'd be out of the house party as it were. 

Awesome, so today I definitely wanted to dive into what's happening in the media and entertainment space. We recently conducted a survey, and of course, no surprise we saw that people are streaming a lot more content. People are using entertainment apps. They're watching more live TV. They're streaming more on their TV. They're using their mobile phones more frequently.  

None of this is hardly surprising. It definitely makes sense. People are stuck at home. They want something to do, something to entertain themselves.  

I'm curious as well. One thing that I saw, that as far as some of the specific titles, as opposed to new titles like Trolls, I saw that it was a lot of comedies and classic titles seem to be really trending with people. Does that surprise you at all?  

ROBYN: 

No, I mean, not at all. I feel like everyone's sort of getting back to feeling those feel-good movies and movies that they know and are comforting. So I feel like, yeah, that comedies being popular is not surprising at all. For me, I feel like I've been wanting to watch old movies that I've always loved, that I haven't seen in a while, sort of for that nostalgic sake. And I feel like that's also been sort of a nice, comforting way to feel better during these Corona times.  

MATT: 

Absolutely, and it's interesting that you mentioned trolls. I know there was a few movies that were slated for a premiere in movie theaters that, as a result instead have now gone straight to streaming services. Do you think this is something that will be a long-term trend? Can we expect more of this to happen in the future or will things go back to the way they were once the threat is over?  

ROBYN: 

Yeah, you know that's a good question. And we've been talking with a lot of our studio clients around what that looks for them.  

I think some of them will continue to do it. Obviously, partnerships and relationships with the actual movie theaters and cinemas are quite important, so they'll obviously want to keep those relationships intact. And I wouldn't be surprised if there was probably a little bit of a mixture of both, in theater and then also online for streaming. 

But, another part of me also hopes that we get back to the drive-in. I feel like when I was growing up, I remember going with my family and I feel like that would actually be a really fun thing to bring back and everyone can sort of stay in their cars and not be worried about getting the virus, being outside of their car, that you can also sort of be around other people. So I'm gunning for the drive-in as the next big comeback.  

MATT: 

Well, certainly if nostalgia is in with viewing, maybe it'll be in with how we're viewing as well. 

ROBYN: 

Yeah, fingers crossed.  

MATT: 

And it definitely makes a lot of sense. You're socially distant, but you still get the big screen experience that you don't always get with home viewing.  

ROBYN: 

That’s right.  

MATT: 

So I want to switch gears a little bit and talk to the formats that people are using for watching, the apps specifically. So as we saw, installs of the big apps like Netflix and Hulu are up in March as opposed to January. What are the big trends that you're seeing in the streaming app space right now?  

ROBYN 

Yeah, that's a great question. We've been pretty fortunate to be working with a lot of the players in the streaming entertainment space and video on demand. 

And I would say that, you know, what we've been seeing is a lot more not only retargeting of existing users to get them to dive deeper into the content, but also more paid support behind acquiring new users. I think especially during times like these brands can't expect that people will just go to the app store and download organically. So I think having that paid support to get users, over the initial hurdle of using the service, especially now that free trials are starting to become longer in terms of length.  

I think Quibi was offering a 90 day free trial, so that makes user acquisition now a bit more manageable from a cost perspective. Hopefully we'll be seeing more of that, as people continue to stay home and consume more short-form content as well.  

MATT: 

I would imagine that user acquisition is more difficult now with so many new services that are coming online. Is that what you're seeing as well?  

ROBYN: 

Yeah, we have been seeing a lot of competition. 

Obviously, the number of people in the world is staying pretty stagnant, but the number of users that are now up for grabs, I think, by all of these new services is getting much more heated.  

So what we've seen just recently in the past, I would say, week or two, is that costs are actually increasing to acquire new users as the proliferation of these services continues and as more brands heat up the market in terms of user acquisition. So I'm really interested to keep our pulse on that, to see where that trend goes and if it ends up leveling out in terms of efficiency.  

MAT 

Yeah. You know, you already mentioned Quibi, which launched very recently. Both HBO MAX and Peacock are expected to launch very soon. I think Peacock is going to be launching later this year, HBO MAX in May.  

Are we reaching a point where maybe there are too many apps for consumers to choose from, or do you think some of these new entries still have, have space to play in in the market?  

ROBYN: 

Yeah. You know, I think that there's always going to be room for lots of players. I mean, let's not forget that we came from a very consolidated world of a few cable players with hundreds, even thousands of channels. So I think that we're just seeing that decentralization.  

And honestly, I find that my five-year-old remembers which shows are on which platform way more readily than I do. So I do think that it's almost becoming second nature for consumers to, exactly where they want to find all of their content. 

And I do think that this decentralization is just one of the phases in the cycle that we're in right now. I wouldn't be surprised if we ended up seeing some larger aggregator apps or even having smart TVs play a more centralized role in how we end up finding content. 

So I think it's to be seen where this will take us, but I think that it's certainly not surprising given the thousands of channels that we were used to looking through on our cable back in the day. 

MATT:  

Yeah, that's a good point. I haven't been a television subscriber in a while, so I forget what that ecosystem is like. That's definitely a good reminder that there's definitely a precedent for this.  

ROBYN: 

Totally, yeah. I think when we moved out to LA a year ago, we cut the cord. So it was just a year ago that everything was in one place, and I kind of miss it. I must say it's been super challenging to remember what is where and where we can find all the content that we want. While I didn't love the cable pricing, I think there was certainly a lot of value in the organization and the logistics of finding what you wanted a bit easier.  

MATT: 

Well at least you have a child with a good memory to help you out, right?  

ROBYN: 

I'll just keep relying on my five-year-old  

MATT: 

There’s worse systems to use, I guess. 

ROBYN:  

That's right.  

MATT: 

But it's interesting that still, amidst all of this, there has been some consolidation in the industry. 

ROBYN: 

Yeah. I think consolidation was sort of inevitable, when we've seen obviously the huge acquisition of Fox by Disney. And now we're seeing all of these new platforms get acquired by some of these larger entertainment brands, so obviously NBCU acquiring Vudu from Walmart and Tubi going to Fox, and I think that this is going to continue.  

The proliferation of all these apps can't keep going on for so long without them being supported by sort of a larger platform and pocket. So I think we can probably expect to see a lot of this continue to happen in the coming year. 

MATT: 

Yeah, absolutely. And you know, one thing I think is interesting, what I've seen is that some of the ad-supported streaming apps like Pluto have been seeing an increase in usage and in installs, because it's free, it's ad supported, so you don't have to pay a fee in the same way you have to with Netflix or HBO.  

I'm curious, do you see those ad-supported services becoming potentially more popular as more services come online, or do you think that the paid options like what HBO is doing are going to be the default for at least the most popular options? 

ROBYN: 

You know, I think there's always going to be a market for free and always a market for premium. I think that there are many people out there who just want their content for free and they think that there should be no barrier to accessing it. So I think that those apps that are free will continue to be supported by ads. And, you know, I think that that's good for the industry. 

And of course, there's some people that just prefer to hang on their Disney Plus or Netflix and are not interested in being disrupted by ads. So I think that those two audiences will always sort of co-exist nicely. And I think that that's also good for the industry as well. 

MATT: 

Yeah, there's never going to be a one size fits all that works for every person and every video streaming service.  

ROBYN: 

That’s right. 

MATT: 

So in this environment, what can media and entertainment companies do to gain mind share?  

ROBYN: 

Yeah, so I think we've been seeing a lot of that. Obviously if you take a scroll through any of your social media platforms, you're probably seeing ads for these platforms like Quibi and starting a new 90-day trial. 

I think that many brands are really starting to dive deeper into the data, around some new audience demographics. And InMobi’s specifically been helping brands sort of better understand not only who the brand's audience profile is but also what competitors are doing around specific audiences for, I think more informed and insightful targeting. So I think that we're seeing data.  

I think we're seeing a lot more creatively when it comes to using a variety of formats, including vertical video, including full screen rich media interstitials, native units, sort of a good mix to drive both high impact awareness but also really efficient engagement and conversion.  

So I would say across the board we've been seeing some really strong performance creatively from many of these entertainment brands. And I think that that'll just keep getting stronger since obviously the content is so good and their eyes are so good. So I think for InMobi and for brands, it's been an exciting time to be in this space. 

And then not only to be able to drive users down that funnel, but then also to then retarget them to keep them in the app and let them explore new content experiences, as they further engage with these entertainment brands.  

MATT: 

Great. Yeah, I think that makes sense. This is such a, an unprecedented period. I think if you're one of these brands, you have to make sure you have a quality, thoughtful data-informed strategy to make sure that you are there for your audience.  

ROBYN: 

Yeah, that's right. I think many brands, especially now in the entertainment space, are really sympathizing with consumers, right? Like we're all human and everyone is sort of in this together. So I think that entertainment brands are uniquely positioned to really deeply connect with consumers on this level and be sympathetic to what consumers want right now, which is I think a huge thing for the industry. 

MATT: 

Yeah, absolutely. You know, I think if you're not having that human connection, it's so easy for someone to tune you out and to not listen to what you have to say or use your service or watch your programming, whatever it may be.  

ROBYN: 

Yeah, that's right.  

MATT: 

To end this, I'd love to hear, I know you have a chance to speak with the advertisers and marketers at many of these media and entertainment brands. What has been your main advice to them? 

ROBYN:  

Yeah, I mean, I think our main advice has been around, to talk to consumers the way they want to listen and where they are spending the most time. And I think apps have been a huge place where consumers are continuing to spend even more incremental time. 

And, of course not just to rely on organic growth. I think, of course, during this time we can expect a lot of organic increases in the market. But I do think that paid support will always be necessary, to continue to fuel and increment user bases moving forward.  

So especially during this competitive time, getting in front of consumers is critical when they're looking for new content and new shows. So I think that it's been a super important time to really step up from a brand perspective and really get the right creative out in front of users when they're looking for new content. 

MATT: 

 Fantastic. Yeah, that makes total sense to me. I'm convinced. Well, Robyn, thank you again for joining us today. Any final word for the listening public?  

ROBYN: 

Oh, that's great. Thanks, Matt. It's been super fun to get to do this with you today. I would just encourage everyone to keep staying home, staying safe and keep watching more and keep downloading those apps.  

MATT: 

Fantastic. Well, Robyn, it's been a pleasure as always to chat with you. And everyone, thanks again for tuning in. We'll see you next time. 

About the Author/Interviewer 

Matthew Kaplan has over a decade of digital marketing experience, working to support the content goals of the world’s biggest B2B and B2C brands. He is a passionate app user and evangelist, working to support diverse marketing campaigns across devices. 

The surveys ran from April 13-24 and reached close to 1,000 adults through their mobile devices across the two countries. Respondents were split across gender and age ranges. 

Here’s what the data revealed. 

COVID-19's Impact on Media and Digital Behavior 

Among survey respondents in Saudi Arabia, 24% of them (and 30% of men polled) said they have been watching more news. In UAE, 41% of consumers polled (and 46% of survey respondents over the age of 34) said they have been watching more news. 

Beyond staying on top of the latest happenings, people in the region have been turning to apps to stay in touch with others and for entertainment. In Saudi Arabia, 50% of users polled said they have spent more time on social media apps since the outbreak began, while 34% said they are using entertainment apps like Netflix more and 21% said they are spending more time playing mobile games. 

People in the UAE are using apps similarly as well. Among people polled in that country, 51% said they are using social media apps more frequently and 40% are using communication apps like WhatsApp more often. 

COVID-19's Impact on Work 

The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically impacted the global economy, and its economic impact has been felt in the Middle East as well. Among all survey respondents, one in four said they have already dealt with salary cuts and/or a loss in business. In Saudi Arabia, 19% of users said they had seen salary cuts or a loss in business, while 15% said they were laid off or had to shut down their business. 

The impact has been even more severe in the UAE. While 13% there said they had been laid off or had to shut down their business, 28% of people polled in the country have already dealt with salary cuts or a loss in business. 

COVID-19's Impact on Consumer Behavior 

With stores and shops largely shut down, consumer behavior in both nations has shifted. Overall, one in five said they have started buying more online, while 35% said they have been buying less in stores since the outbreak took hold. 

Among consumers in Saudi Arabia, 35% said they were buying less in store and 18% said they were buying more online. Similarly, among UAE survey respondents, 36% said they were buying less in store and 23% said they have been buying more online. 

Among those that are still buying, mobile plays a critical role in helping them purchase products. In fact, 85% of those in the UAE and 80% of those in Saudi Arabia said they get the most information about the products they purchase from mobile devices. 

What are people buying now? In terms of personal care items, in Saudi Arabia, 58% of respondents said they are prioritizing the purchase of hand wash and soaps, while 61% of respondents in the UAE said the same thing. But, among people in the UAE specifically, 15% said they have spent more money on household care items, while 9% said they have spent more on beauty and personal care items. 

COVID-19's Impact on Food Buying Behavior 

Both Saudi Arabia and UAE are currently under lockdown, and that has impacted grocery and food buying behavior in both countries. In Saudi Arabia, 45% of consumers said they have bought enough groceries for a few days, while 11% said they started ordering groceries online for pickup or delivery.  

Similarly, among UAE survey respondents, 53% said they have bought enough groceries for a few days, while 11% said they had bought enough groceries for a month. Further, 10% said they started ordering groceries online for pickup or delivery. 

When people are going to the grocery store, they are spending more money than before. Close to half (45%) said they are spending more on groceries. In comparison, just 9% of all people surveyed said they were spending more on entertainment. 

Among survey respondents in Saudi Arabia, 38% said they are spending more on groceries now, and 19% said they are spending more on groceries online. And, in the UAE, 51% said they are spending more on groceries and 31% said they are spending more on online grocery. 

Groceries and pantry staples are key now, as people begin cooking from home more frequently. Among people in Saudi Arabia, 39% said they have started cooking from home since the lockdown began, while only 5% said they have increased food delivery. 

Similar behavior was observed in the UAE. Among consumers in that country, 36% said they had started cooking from home since the pandemic began while only 7% said they have increased food delivery. 

It’s possible that this reticence to avoid delivery and takeout could be due to cleanliness and contamination concerns. Among people in Saudi Arabia, 35% said hygiene of the kitchen was the most important factor they kept in mind when buying food from outside the home. Among UAE  32% said the same thing. 

COVID-19's Impact on Financial Activity 

Even with the region under lockdown, people in both countries are still conducting financial activities. Over half (52%) of all users polled report using financial/banking apps, while 79% say they’re using digital banking/financial tools overall. More specifically, 27% of all survey respondents said they are currently using mobile banking apps even during the lockdown. 

In Saudi Arabia, 46% said they are making online purchases through digital channels, while 29% made local money transfers and payments. Among UAE users polled, 35% said they are conducting local money transfers and payments through digital channels, while 31% said they are presently transferring money overseas this way. 

For all of this financial activity, mobile is key. A quarter of people in Saudi Arabia said they are currently using mobile banking apps, while 17% said they were using money transfer apps. In the UAE, 29% said they are currently using mobile banking apps, while 16% said they were using money transfer apps 

COVID-19's Impact on Advertising 

What can brands do to stay top of mind with consumers during the pandemic? According to close to two-thirds of people we surveyed, the answer is advertising. Overall, 62% in Saudi Arabia and 68% in UAE said mobile advertising helps them discover new products and services at this moment.  

Further, compared to other ad formats, 43% of survey respondents in Saudi Arabia said they notice and view video ads the most frequently. However, in the UAE, the top choice was picture/image-based ads. Across all consumers polled, 38% said they preferred video ads while 27% selected picture/image-based ads. 

Outlook On COVID-19 And the Future 

How optimistic are consumers feeling about the future? In Saudi Arabia, 24% said they expect COVID-19 to impact their behaviors for the next two to three months. Close to a third (31% to be exact) of consumers in the UAE feel similarly. Across both geographies, one in five survey respondents thought it would last six months or longer. 

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Top Insights on Mobile Apps vs Mobile Websites

Here’s a sneak peek on some of the top differences across categories between the visitors of a mobile website and an app’s owners:

• App owners are more likely to be male than female, in most cases.
• Unlike with gender, there’s no clean split between app owners and mobile website visitors. It really depends more on the space versus the medium itself. But, more often than not, mobile web visitors tend to skew slightly younger.
• More often than not, app owners tend to make more money per year than do mobile website visitors.
• Typically, regional preferences and brand loyalties trump mobile web versus app. For example, Chipotle app owners are more like Chipotle’s website visitors that they are like Tesla’s app owners.
• Across the board, app owners are more likely to be White than Non-White. Mobile website visitors are often majority White as well, but the difference isn’t as stark as it is on the app side.
• More often than not, what a mobile website visitor is interested in aligns with what app owners of the same brand and space are interested in.

First Chapter of Mobile Application vs Mobile Sites Report

Before you download the entire report, Apps vs Mobile Websites: Understanding Their Users, get a sneak peek of the first page:

“In 2020, consumers in the U.S. are expected to spend close to four hours a day with their favorite mobile devices (3:49 to be exact, according to eMarketer). Across all mobile devices, around 87% of all time spent is devoted to apps - and it jumps to 90% when looking just at time spent using smartphones.

But this doesn’t mean the demise of mobile web browsers. While apps make sense for some use cases, they’re not ideal for certain transactions. Just looking up a quick fact or making a one-time purchase? Mobile web is probably your best bet. Logging into your favorite social network or playing your favorite game? Apps are more ideal here.

So who specifically downloads apps, and who tends to visit mobile websites? To find out, we turned to InMobi Pulse. InMobi Pulse builds a holistic understanding of the customers from across data sources ranging from InMobi Exchange, which reaches 1.6 billion users globally, to permissively-sourced deterministic first-party telco data to stated feedback directly from the customers.

We aimed to better understand how these audiences compare by looking at mobile web visitors and app owners (i.e. people who have the app downloaded on their phone) in the following categories: streaming video, e-commerce and retail, auto, health and fitness, pharmacy/convenience store, home and garden, and quick-service restaurants (including food delivery apps and coffee and pizza chains, among other major brands)."

Like what you’re reading? Be sure to download the report in full today!

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How to Use The Report’s Insights in Your Mobile Strategy

Should your brand have a mobile website and a mobile app, or just one? It depends, although the data shows that since each channel has a distinct audience, it often makes sense to invest in both and to ensure everyone has positive user experiences.

But, it does depend on business vertical. Some industries are much better off investing time and efforts into apps, while others may be better served with just a really good responsive website that’s mobile friendly, no matter what kind of internet connectivity someone may have or what kind of operating system they use.

For both the demand side and supply side, our report provides key insights on audiences. Who should you be targeting, and where can they be found? Before engaging and acquiring consumers, it’s critical to understand and identify who they are what they care about.

For example, let’s say a publisher of gaming apps is pursuing more app downloads. Before beginning the campaign, it’s critical to dive into the data. What app stores do different audiences utilize? Will conversion rates likely be higher in certain locations over others? These questions are critical to answer, and our latest report provides key details for advertisers and publishers in a wide variety of verticals.

These insights can be beneficial for monetization too. According to a 2019 app monetization survey conducted by InMobi, many app developers and publishers don’t necessarily know a lot about their app users. Less than half of those polled said they know the age and gender of their app users, 16% know the hobbies and interests of their user base and just 7% know what other apps they use.

By having more insights on the different types of people using their app, not only can app publishers and developers have smarter user acquisition campaigns in place, but they can also uplevel their monetization efforts. Advertisers are willing to pay more to reach certain audiences. App publishers and developers can make their apps more enticing destinations for advertisers by highlighting how their audience is unique and potentially hard to find anywhere else.

In marketing and app monetization, just like any other field, it pays to know your audience. By downloading our latest report, Apps vs Mobile Websites: Understanding Their Users, you get unique insights on the mobile web and mobile app audiences across industries. Be sure to grab your copy today.

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About the Author

Matthew Kaplan has over a decade of digital marketing experience, working to support the content goals of the world’s biggest B2B and B2C brands. He is a passionate app user and evangelist, working to support diverse marketing campaigns across devices.

Our Commitment to Data Privacy: What You Need to Know About This Data

InMobi takes user privacy extremely seriously. We meet the most rigorous governance, compliance, and security standards. We have collaborated with consumer advocacy groups and incorporate guidelines from multiple federal government agencies to define industry-leading practices for data governance in the U.S.

Users retain complete control over the data they provide, have a choice in whether they participate and have transparency as to how their data is utilized. Subscribers have constant access to their privacy elections through multiple telco touchpoints. The patented anonymization platform ensures data sets are 100% secure, and are refreshed to ensure all data are anonymized.

To find out, InMobi ran another mobile survey. This time, we directly surveyed over 1,500 adults in the U.S., asking them the same questions we asked back in March. The survey, which reached individuals in every corner of the country (see note below), ran from April 2 to the 10th and had the same representation in terms of age and gender as the last survey.

Top 5 Takeaways:

1. Young People Are Craving Entertainment
   According to the April survey, 57% of respondents in this age range said they are spending more time using entertainment apps. And, 18% of survey respondents aged 18-25 now say they are spending more money on entertainment, a 7% increase compared to March’s results.
2. News Fatigue is Real
   People in the U.S.aren’t watching the news as frequently as they were in March. For example, in March, 41% of parents polled said they were following the news more. In April, that percentage dropped to 30%. The total share of all survey respondents who said they are checking news apps more frequently dropped by nine percentage points between March and early April.
3. People Are Spending More on Groceries
   In early April, 40% of survey respondents said they are spending more on groceries of late. But, only 17% of survey respondents said they are buying groceries online, even though installs of grocery delivery apps like Instacart and Shipt rose in March.
4. Phone Calling Has Increased
   It comes as no surprise that phone calling is up as people seek to stay in touch with others while many of us shelter in place. The latest survey found that 22% of respondents say they are using their mobile devices to make more calls. A third of respondents between26 and 35 years old say that they are making more phone calls with their mobile device. In April, half of those surveyed said they’re using the internet to make calls more frequently.
5. These Changes in Consumer Behavior Might Last For a While
   36% of respondents said COVID-19 will impact their media consumption and spending behaviors for the next two to three months. Between March and April, the biggest jump was in the share of survey respondents who said their behavior will be impacted for the next six to 12 months.

Here’s what else the survey reveals about the current state of the nation regarding COVID-19.

COVID-19's Impact on Digital Behavior: Impact on Mobile Usage

In early April, 40% of all survey respondents said they are spending more time playing gaming apps. Between March and April, there was an increase in share of respondents between the ages of 36 to 45 and people between56 and 65 that said they were playing mobile games more frequently. In April, 45% of survey respondents with kids in the house are using mobile gaming apps more frequently.

Social apps usage is especially high among younger people. In fact, 66% of survey respondents aged between 18 to 25 said they are spending more time using social apps since the coronavirus outbreak first started in the U.S. and over a third of survey respondents in this age range in April said they are using communication apps more frequently.

COVID-19's Impact on Television:

The percentage of people who report streaming more TV content across devices now has notably increased, jumping from 25% in March to 33% in early April. In fact, this month, 54% of survey respondents aged 18-25 said they are now streaming more TV. Connected TV usage is growing at a rapid clip, with many people now accessing video content through different apps and services across multiple devices, including television sets.

Around one in four people surveyed this month said they are watching more live TV. The percentage of people aged between 46 to 55 who said they are watching more live television rose significantly from 17% in March to 29% in early April.

Social Distancing Overview

Last time, only 61% of people surveyed said they were very strictly reducing contact with others. Thankfully, that figure has now shot up to 79% of survey respondents.

A major difference between then and now is with people between 36 and 45 years old. In our first survey, only 57% of respondents in this age range said they were strictly avoiding contact with others. In the latest survey, this figure grew to 82% of respondents among this group.

Overall, women are more than likely than men to be strictly avoiding others. Older respondents are slightly more likely than younger survey respondents to be practicing social distancing.

COVID-19's Impact on Work

One in five people said they were laid off or furloughed this time around, up from17% from our last survey. Women are more likely to be not working now, with a quarter of all women polled in April now saying they have been furloughed or laid off. And, 28% of survey respondents between the ages of 18 and 25 now say they are out of work.

Among those that still have jobs, over one in four are now working from home. The number of people who are required to work from home jumped from 16% to 20% this time around, with women and younger people being the most likely to be working from home right now.

Among the work-from-home crowd, 24% of survey respondents now say they are using Zoom. Last time around, it was only 13%. People across all ages and genders are using Zoom more frequently in April compared to March. Microsoft Teams also saw a significant increase in usage, albeit smaller than Zoom.

COVID-19's Impact on Consumer Behavior

Overall, among early April survey respondents, 37% said they have not increased spending. This is down from March, when 47% said they had not increased spending. Only 17% of survey respondents in April said they have not decreased spending.

According to the early April survey results, 35% said they are spending less on clothes, shoes and jewelry. Around a third said they are spending less on entertainment, and over a third have decreased spending on travel and transportation.

There are some areas where survey respondents are spending more. For instance, 18% of survey respondents aged between 18 to 25 now say they are spending more on entertainment. And, the percent of male survey respondents who said they have decreased spending on entertainment went from 36% in March down to 29% in April.

In early April, 50% of survey respondents said they are not shopping online more frequently, with people 56 years old and above being less likely than their younger peers to say this.

COVID-19's Impact on Food Buying Behavior

In early April, 40% of survey respondents said they are spending more on groceries of late. But, only 17% of survey respondents said they are buying groceries online.

Close to half of survey respondents aged 46 to 55 said they are spending more on groceries now. This may be because over a third of those in this age group have started cooking from home due to COVID-19. Overall, among all survey respondents in April, 30% said they are cooking at home more frequently now.

According to our latest survey, 27% of respondents said they have stocked up on enough groceries for a month, up from 18% in March. Last month, 32% of survey respondents said they didn’t change their grocery buying habits at all; in April, only 22% of survey respondents said the same thing.

Impact on Food Delivery:

According to our April survey, 20% of respondents said they have reduced or stopped ordering food for delivery or takeout. The percentage of survey respondents aged 18 to 24 who have decreased their delivery and takeout behavior went from 12% in March to 24% in early April.

Outlook On COVID-19 and The Future

According to the April survey results, 36% of respondents said COVID-19 will impact their behaviors for the next two to three months. Between March and April, the biggest jump was in the share of survey respondents who said their behavior will be impacted for the next six to 12 months.

The survey responses in April reflects the ever-changing nature of the pandemic. But, no matter how long we are all sheltering in place, we will definitely continue looking closely at these trends.

Interested in more COVID-19 insights? Head to www.inmobi.com/covid-19 for data and analysis on how the world is coping with the pandemic, how it’s affecting consumer behavior and how marketers are advertisers are reacting to a rapidly changing landscape.

Note: 37% of survey respondents in April were from the Southern U.S. 23% were from the Midwest, 19% were from the Western U.S. and 15% were from the Northeast. The remaining survey respondents elected not to indicate where they live.

For our very first interview, I sat down with Jobie Tan, InMobi’s Director of Business Development, to discuss the current state of mobile gaming during the COVID-19 pandemic. In our 18-minute conversation, we talked about why people are turning to mobile gaming apps in this moment in time, which kinds of titles are especially popular right now and what games need to do to see success today during these unprecedented times. Tune in today to hear the full conversation!

InMobi · Mobile Insights with InMobi: Q&A on Mobile Gaming with Jobie Tan

Q&A Transcript

MATT:

Hi everyone. This is Matt Kaplan from InMobi's marketing team. Thanks for tuning in to our first ever edition of Mobile Insights with InMobi.For our very first guest, very excited to have Jobie Tan with us today. Jobie, can you give a quick intro of your role here at InMobi?

JOBIE:

Hey Matt, how’s it going? Thanks for having me.I head business development for global games over here at InMobi, and I work with publishers and developers, working with them to help them monetize their apps.

MATT:

Awesome. Great. So, so Jobie, you know, obviously, we've all been very much impacted by COVID- 19. It's caused everyone to be at home much more often as we're all social distancing.And, as a result of this, how, has COBID-19 and Coronavirus impacted the world of mobile gaming?

JOBIE:

Yeah that’s a great question. Matt, you know, a lot of us have been affected.I'm at home with my two sons, age four and nine, and we're all challenged with, you know, having to do some remote learning in school and working at the same time.But, you know, I seen it asa little bit of a blessing in disguise. You know, we get to spend a lot more time with the family.

And, also gaming has increased in the past a few weeks ever since, you know, we've all been ordered to stay at home. App Annie predicting the industry will surpass $70 billion in revenue this year.Right? And, in 2019, Asia Pacific accounted for 40% of the market, followed by 26% in North America. And we've seen a huge increase in hyper casual games.

Yeah, game publishers, they're waging UA wars, trying to acquire as many users as possible. And, you know, they're all vying for that number one spot in the, you know, top hundred, top 200 of the app store, Google play store, right?Hitting that number one spot, it's massive. That means, you know, millions (of downloads) and, you know, hundreds and thousands of, of daily active users, which make up for, you know, significant amount of audience for them, right?

These are made up of a new, mostly, casual games, hyper casual games, casual arcade and puzzle games.And, you know, we've also seen the staying power of classic games, right? The Fruit Ninjas and Flow Frees that have been around for so long. Words with Friends, Crossy Roads and Wordscapes, Angry Birds, you name it.

MATT:

Interesting. Do you think that, in this time, that people, in a way, a familiar game offers comfort perhaps?

JOBIE:

Yeah, definitely. That's definitely the case, right? You know, it offers comfort. It gives them something to do, right?We've got a lot more time to pass right now.There's no travel time. There's time we're waiting at home, and maybe you want to squeeze in a little bit of alone time also.

MATT:

Yeah, absolutely. So, you mentioned casual and hyper casual games a few times. It's obviously been, even before all this happened, a very hot space in the games market. Why do you think that category continues to do well? And are there any particular types of games within that category that are really seeing an uptake in users right now?

JOBIE:

Yeah, Matt.Gaming in general, has done great in the past few weeks.We've seen the huge rise of hyper casual games within the past year.Just a few weeks ago we had that crazy slap craze.There was probably three slapping gaming apps on the top 10, 20 of the app store. So it's pretty crazy, the genres and types of games that come out.

And we've seen a resurgence of puzzle games and word puzzle games, right? These games, you know, people play on the train. People play while they're waiting for their meals to cook. People play while they're putting their children to sleep. A lot of these games, you know, kill time and give you a little bit of, of comfort, give you a little bit of quiet time. I mean, that's what people use them for.

What I have seen in the past few weeks that has ramped up significantly is games with a social aspect, games where you reach out to friends, to family in the next city, the next town. And in my case, sometimes even in another country, right?

These games are, you know, Words with Friends where you play with people all over the world. You know, this game has been around for years, right? It's not a new game by any sense, but it reached the top four of the gaming app store the other day, right? Which is amazing.

And there's other social theme games that are popping up and reaching the top 100 and 200 of the app store, you know, and games like UNO and Heads Up and Scrabble Go. None of these are new games, but they all have a social aspect. They all bring in a community aspect. People play with each other, where they don't get a chance to do that while you’re quarantined at home with this shelter in place mandate that we've got from our government, right?

We want to reach out to people. We still want to interact with our friends and family, so why not play games with them?

MATT:

Yeah. Yeah. I think we're, because we're all stuck at home, we're craving social interaction in a way that we can't get, so I definitely see the value of these kinds of games.

It's interesting, I take the train every day and I see people playing more solitary games often during their commute, right? And so it's interesting to see that some of these games with the more social component are starting to become popular as well as a result.

JOBIE:

Definitely.

MATT:

And that very much aligns with, InMobi recently did a survey that found that 70% of Americans are playing more mobile games now. Hopefully I cited that number right. Or 70% are using their mobile devices more, and obviously gaming is a huge part of that.

It's definitely interesting to see how this space evolves.Especially interesting that it's a lot of known titles that are doing well. Do you think any new titles are going to be emerging maybe in the next few weeks?

JOBIE:

Ah, that's always there, Matt. Like I mentioned earlier, these new titles and lots of new developers coming up from all over the world are vying for that number one spot.And, you know, sometimes they're paying for that number one spot, right?

They’re acquiring new users left and right. Yeah, people want to acquire new users right now. UA is going on quite heavily? just to get a slice of that pie, you know?Try to get a slice of that audience that's available right now.

MATT:

Yeah, absolutely. And maybe you don't want to mention any specific titles, but are there any types of mobile games that you've been finding yourself playing a lot over these past few weeks?

JOBIE:

Uh, yeah. So, I've been playing this game called, it's actually a solitaire game, Match Solitaire. It's got a, you know, it's on the solitary genre, but it combines it with a match three genre.I'm at home with my kids and my wife, as I mentioned, so it's nice to, you know, take five minutes of alone time and play some of that, so it's real great.

And, you know, Words with Friends, I'm definitely playing with the family. I'm originally from the Philippines, so it's great to play with them that huge title.

And of course there's the Wordscapes game that I play pretty often also.Also goes along with that alone time. So it's a good mix with the old and new, I think.

MATT:

Nice. I now have a few titles I now need to download myself.

JOBIE:

Yeah, definitely. Well, let me know what you like.I’m pretty familiar with these games.

MATT:

Nice. Yeah. I think if any of these social games I may need to challenge you soon Jobie.

JOBIE:

For sure. For sure.

MATT:

So I want to pivot gears a little bit. So you work a lot with the app publishers in the gaming space, with gaming app developers. And I know a topic that you often talk to them about is related to monetization.So right now, we are in a very particular time as a result of COVID-19. So what does that mean as far as monetization for mobile gaming is concerned?

JOBIE:

Well monetization for mobile gaming, it's - that audience is available right now, right? It's huge.So for casual games, we've seen an influx of other games being advertised within these games today. Like I mentioned, user acquisition has been going through the roof because of that available audience. And, you know, everyone's battling for that number one spot. So there is a large amount of inventory right now, and I think the advertisers are definitely catching up.

COVID-19 has had in the first few weeks of it definitely, we've seen a lull in that advertiser base, right? I think the whole world's trying to adjust. But, as we slowly get ramped back up, these advertisers and these companies and these brands, you know, they want to rebound.They want to come back. And, advertising to this large captive audience is definitely something that they want to do.

MATT:

Interesting. So is now in an ideal time for brands to maybe consider advertising to this audience?

JOBIE:

Definitely, right. It's the best time to do that. I mean, the audience is captive. They've got that time. They've got that time online.If they're not going to the stores, they're ordering things online. It's a great time to be monetizing through the app.

You know, there has been a debate, with the publishers and partners I’m working with, with displaying competition in their games. So other gaming ads versus a lot of the brand ads that we show. So, I mean, that's still being debated between all of these partners. Should we show other gaming app install ads, or should we show brand ads?

I mean, a lot of the partners we work with a use both, right, and they just balance the two, to ensure that they're keeping their user base and they're also providing a multitude of other ads that the end user will see.

So, yeah, no, it's a great space right now. There is definitely that inventory. And I think our partners and these publishers are in a good spot because they can pick and choose who they could sell their inventory to.

MATT:

Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And I would imagine for a brand too, it's a tricky environment out there.Obviously people are reading up on Coronavirus and COVID-19. I know I'm checking the news every day, and as an advertiser you always have to be careful about advertising next to that kind of content. But you don't have that in mobile games though.

JOBIE:

100% correct man. 100% correct.

MATT:

So, in terms of the future, obviously we don't know how long the situation is going to last and what its lasting impact is going to be.But nevertheless, despite that, are there any things that mobile games can do to really position themselves for the future, for success?

JOBIE:

Yeah, Matt. I think, you know, with all the partners that we’ve worked with in the past, what I've talked about and what I've recommended is to focus on user retention, right?That user is so valuable, right? And that's a challenge that all publishers are trying to solve. How do you keep your audience? How do you keep them from playing something else? How do you keep them captivated? That's huge.

You see user acquisition and monetization teams start working together as one.There used to be two separate teams, and now they're aiming for the same goal. They're trying to maximize the audience and maximize the inventory that they have because it's costly, right? There are a lot of app install ads out there, and the cost per install for those are going through the roof.It's really crazy.

So you're paying for that user. You want to keep them as long as possible. That's why differentiating the ads shown and minimize - not minimize, but limiting other gaming ads shown with a variety of brand ads sprinkled in there, I think, is definitely key. It's huge and something our partners and publishers definitely have to look out for.

And also, they can't forget about the rest of the world, right?True, the U.S. is a huge, huge market with the highest eCPM rates that you could get, but the rest of the world's out there too, and especially a lot of the mobile first countries.

I can point out Southeast Asia being that territory where there are so many mobile first countries out there, where people only have a mobile phone and consume tons of data and consume tons a time on a mobile phone. They've got a massive user base and that's definitely something that you want to reach out to and take advantage of and, in the end, monetize.So maximizing that inventory is key.

MATT:

Perfect. Yeah. And the whole world is really been impacted by the virus. And so, you know, we here in the United States aren’t the only ones that are stuck at home. It's really had a global impact. So that global scale and scope is important for all of us to keep in mind.

JOBIE:

Definitely.

MATT:

Well, Jobie it's been really fantastic chatting with you. If I’m a gaming publisher and I want to learn more, how can I reach out?

JOBIE:

Well, you could email me at jobie.tan@inmobi.com. I'm on LinkedIn. I'm on Facebook. And you can reach me any which way that you like.

MATT:

Fantastic. Well, Jobie thanks for joining us today.Everyone, thank you for tuning in. We hope you found this conversation useful. If you have any comments, please reach out to InMobi on social media: LinkedIn, Twitter, or Facebook. Thanks again for tuning in. We'll be in touch soon. Bye everyone.

JOBIE:

Cheers Matt for putting this together. Bye everyone.

InMobi · Mobile Insights with InMobi: Q&A on Mobile Gaming with Jobie Tan

About the Author

Matthew Kaplan has over a decade of digital marketing experience, working to support the content goals of the world’s biggest B2B and B2C brands. He is a passionate app user and evangelist, working to support diverse marketing campaigns across devices.

To what extent has COVID-19 influenced consumer behavior in the region? To find out, we turned to the data. By analyzing mobile in-app ad requests in February and March, we can see how COVID-19 and government responses to it has impacted people and their behaviors throughout this region.

COVID-19's Impact on Mobile Usage in Gulf Region

From March 15 onwards, every Gulf nation saw a notable increase in mobile app usage. During the second half of March, the highest mobile usage was recorded in Saudi Arabia, the most populous of the six countries, followed by the UAE and Kuwait.

Between the week of March 2 and March 11, mobile usage increased 2% in Saudi Arabia. But, between the week of March 12 and March 18, usage increased by 42%. The most dramatic increases during these periods were in Kuwait, Oman and Qatar. For example, in Qatar alone, mobile usage increased 76% during the week of March 12 and March 18 compared to the previous week.

Why was mobile usage spiking during this period? This is when the number of cases kept on increasing - and when lockdown measures either were first implemented or beginning to really sink in across the region. With more people stuck indoors, naturally many turned to their mobile devices to communicate, stay alert, entertain themselves and more.

What Kinds of Apps Are People Using Most?

People are turning to their smartphones to stay connected and to adapt to the pandemic. As a result, mobile engagement has surged across various categories.While mobile usage is up across the board in these nations, certain app categories are seeing more use than others.

In particular, we observed an 833% increase in mobile engagement among apps in the social and communication category in terms of ad requests during the second half of March.It makes sense that this category saw more growth than any other, with people turning to their mobile devices to replicate connections that otherwise would happen in person.

Saudi Arabia recorded the highest surge in the usage of social and communication apps among all six countries. The nation’s migrant community, which is the biggest among all of these countries, is now connecting more frequently with friends and family back home, which is likely contributing to this massive increase.

Kuwait and Qatar also saw a massive increase, while Oman and Bahrain had upswings at relatively smaller scale. There was growth in the UAE as well, but not as much as might be expected considering the country’s population as a fair amount of social media usage and communication still happens through laptops and desktops as opposed to mobile.

Fig: Mobile usage in Social and Communication category

After social and communication apps, the second biggest spike occurred with news apps. In March, usage of news apps rose by 20%, with people in Gulf countries more frequently keeping tabs on the ever-evolving situation.

In UAE, the biggest spike happened when there were 50 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the country. This can be attributed to people checking news more often as the pandemic spread. In Qatar, news usage surged as the nation’s lockdown of schools and educational institutions was first announced.

Fig: Mobile usage in News category

Gaming is another area that has seen a spike, with usage of apps like Wordscapes up 18% in the region. Both total gaming app usage and usage growth were highest in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, the two most populous Gulf countries. In these two nations, word games, puzzle apps and arcade games lead in the gaming category.

Oman and Kuwait also saw a material upswing in gaming usage around the same time. Puzzle games are especially popular in Oman, while arcade and action games lead the way in Kuwait. Bahrain saw a spike around March 12 and continues to stay at the same level of engagement post that date, while Qatar hasn’t seen much of a change in usage.

Fig: Mobile gaming apps usage

Many other app categories were up in the region in March as well. Usage of hobby and lifestyle apps was up 14%, while use of technology and education apps was up 9%. Usage of entertainment apps like streaming video services was up 11%.

How will these trends shift over time? It’s hard to say, although people in the region will likely continue to turn to apps during the pandemic – and beyond.

Interested in learning more about the data and how it can be applied to help you? Reach out today to get in touch with one of our mobile experts.

1. The awareness levels of people about the pandemic
2. The challenges faced by Indonesians during the crisis
3. The consumer footfall trends in the general places of interest
4. Change in consumption of mobile apps across different categories

How Indonesians are Responding to the Crisis

Lack of Awareness on COVID-19 in Indonesia

As people remain inundated with misinformation, awareness levels on COVID-19 are critically low in Indonesia. While 80% of the respondents are unaware of the origins of the Coronavirus, 40% think that it is a bio-medical experiment gone wrong between the US and China. 4 out of 10 respondents think wet markets of Wuhan or bat soup consumption is responsible for the source of the virus. Amidst the pandemic, it is pivotal to follow social distancing to contain the further spread of the virus, but only 60% of the citizens are taking social distancing seriously in Indonesia.

Only 14% can exactly identify two key symptoms of the disease. 80% of the respondents cannot identify the four preventive measures laid down by WHO, which are Social distancing, handwashing, sanitizing and covering the mouth while coughing and sneezing.

Challenges faced by Indonesians during COVID-19

Amidst the crisis, due to the sudden changes that are surfacing, respondents are facing difficulties in procuring everyday essentials and managing work. With schools being shut down, 23% of respondents are finding a balance between taking care of kids and going to office. 35% of respondents are facing challenges in purchasing handwashes and sanitizers at these crucial times when personal and societal hygiene is of utmost significance. 12% are facing difficulties in sourcing food supplies.

Changes in Lifestyle and Shopping Preferences in Indonesia

Amidst restrictions on physical movements, Indonesians are quickly adapting to the new reality with more focus on online activities. 24% of the respondents are hoarding up on daily essentials like groceries for a month or more. 77% of respondents chose personal care products where germ-killing ability takes the preference over the price. 32% of respondents have completely stopped or limited the consumption of eating out or ordering in and preferred home-cooked meals. Despite the challenges faced in sourcing food supplies, only 6% of respondents are using online apps to order food. As 60% of respondents practice social distancing, the shopping malls see a 20% downfall where the cinema theatres experience a 15% dip in the footfalls.

Shift in Consumer Behavior Across Southeast Asia

Footfalls Surge in Healthcare Centres and Essentials’ Stores

While the entertainment centres such as malls and cinema theatres take a back seat, places of emergency such as Hospitals and grocery stores experience a surge in footfalls. Hospitals witness 410%, 105% and 80% growth in Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines respectively.

Supermarkets saw a 30% surge in Singapore, 10% in the Philippines and 148% surge in Malaysia where people seemingly look to hoard the essential kitchen and personal care supplies.

People Turn to Mobile Apps to Alleviate Stress

As people shelter at home, they turn to mobiles as a source of entertainment and to de-stress. Image and Video editing apps, Books, Social Media and Gaming apps are the top stress relievers for consumers across SEA. Travel app usage (flight tracking, ticket rescheduling and cancellation) grows by 586% with people trying to track or reschedule their travel plans amidst the lockdown in Indonesia. Communication apps witness a 900% surge while books and comic apps experience a 200% surge in Malaysia.

As we adapt to deal with this growing crisis, the spending habits of consumers and their media consumption are witnessing substantial shifts. To help marketers and publishers better navigate this evolving situation, we are doing our bit by providing updated data and insights on the rapidly evolving trends in the digital media landscape.

Check out the complete report on consumer behavior amidst COVID-19 in Southeast Asia. Or, visit the InMobi COVID-19 Global page to explore our audience intelligence on Consumer behavior during COVID-19 in India, Australia and across the globe.

Survey Methodology: The survey was conducted on the InMobi Pulse Platform. 60% of survey respondents are male and 40% are female. 62% of the survey respondents belong to Gen Z (below the age of 24 years, 17% are Millennials aging between 25 to 34 years old and 21% are Baby boomers (above the age of 35 years). Out of the survey respondents, 71% are single while 29% are married, which shows the diversity of the audience InMobi covered to get a wide spectrum of responses.

Do Consumers Want Brands to Stop Advertising?

When Kantar recently surveyed more than 35,000 consumers, immediately after the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 as a pandemic, their expectations were clear:

• 75% of respondents believed that brands should inform consumers what they were doing
• And, only 8% thought brands should stop advertising

In fact, data after the 2008 financial crisis shows that brands that continued advertising came out stronger - up to nine times faster in stock value than others. With consumers making their expectations clear, what should brands keep in mind during these unprecedented times?

Embracing Purpose-Led Brand Communication

Brands, legacy or new, are important during a crisis and should stay true to their purpose. They must remember the following tenets of purpose-led communication:

• Long-Term Approach: Brands must take a long-term approach by being respectful and sensitive to the times they are in, where an immediate push for sales takes a back seat for prioritizing consumers’ needs.
• Mental Brand Equity: Marketers must leverage owned, earned and paid media channels to provide consumers with information that can help navigate these times – be it with educational ‘how-to’ guides or product updates, in a periodic and time-sensitive manner.
• CSR/PSA Initiatives: By engaging in initiatives such as public service announcements, brands can not only spread awareness on COVID-19 but also on related causes. These initiatives alleviate stress for those most affected by the crisis.

Leveraging Digital Responsibly During Crises

As the situation is ever-evolving and ambiguous, digital platforms - especially mobile - can help brands reach consumers in a fast, time-sensitive manner. Though governments and global organizations such as WHO have shared guidelines, how can brands navigate this pandemic effectively?

Understand Your Consumer

In order to maintain sensitivity, it is critical to understand that consumer behavior is rapidly changing, and in some cases will lead to a new normal. Brands can build these insights from a variety of sources including public information shared by government agencies, reports by leading think tanks or running their own mobile surveys. Complement these insights by leveraging intelligence to understand shifting patterns from appographic data to offline visitation patterns.

Identify Emerging Audiences and Make the Shift

Ultimately, brands must curate information for these new behaviors and emerging personas, such as recipes for the techie who is learning to cook for the very first time or educational games for working parents trying to teach their children at home. Brands should be prepared to face a new consumer and an accelerated shift in their behaviour on the other side of the crisis.

Amidst all this, what we must not forget, is to be “human” and that we are in this together. By going above and beyond, brands can inspire and instil optimism in the global community. Brands can alleviate a core concern through valuable information for the most affected, provide a transient yet significant moment of relief through humor, unite near and dear ones through the power of technology or cater to the needs of frontline workers in the best possible manner. Whatever be the means, brands must lead the resurgence and solve for the challenges that their customers are facing in an empathetic manner. By leveraging digital, brands can provide useful information to consumers in near real-time and drive a lasting impact.

Interested in understanding the changing consumer behavior better? Check out our global COVID-19 insights page or reach out to us at mobilemarketing@inmobi.com.

What does this mean for advertisers?

This means that all advertisers, agencies and Agency Trading Desks (ATDs), who work with DV360 as their choice of DSP can now access 100% of InMobi’s SDK supply and audiences directly via the platform. Media buyers can leverage both Open Exchange and Private Marketplace deals on the InMobi Exchange directly via DV360.

The direct connection brings efficient pricing benefits to media buyers by eliminating third-party integration platforms, providing access to InMobi supply at scale (without any third-party platform throttling logics in play), and ensuring a much tighter integration.

How can advertisers activate InMobi on DV360?

DV360 users now don’t need to access it through other exchange partners. Media buyers must activate InMobi directly on DV360 for managing their mobile marketing programs at scale on the InMobi Exchange. To get started, InMobi will need to be selected as an approved exchange that the buyer wants to see inventory from on their targeting portal.

DV360 users can enable InMobi using the following steps:

• Sign in to your DV360 account
• Select Settings> Basic Details from the Menu
• Locate the Exchanges Section
• Check the box next to InMobi in “Targeting and Inventory Sources”
• Click Save

InMobi is a TAG-verified mobile app exchange with a reach of over 1.3 billion unique users globally.InMobi has been an early supporter of app-ads.txt and sellers.json. App-ads.txt helps buyers identify the legitimate sellers of the ad inventory they desire, while sellers.json provides advertisers with clarity and transparency on everyone involved in every single programmatic transaction.

With this integration, advertisers, agencies and ATDs can take full advantage of InMobi’s offerings directly on DV360 without the hassle of any third-party involvement.

Interested in learning more? Reach out to us at efficientbuying@inmobi.com or speak to your client success manager.

1. The customer footfalls in various places of interest
2. Changes in the app usage across different categories

Safety Becomes a Priority Leading to Decline in Footfall

With people practicing social distancing, there is a drastic decline in footfall across places of interest. Recreation areas like shopping centers, beauty salons, hotels and motels have experienced a significant reduction in visits.

Shopping Centers

Shopping centers saw a steady decline with the first few coronavirus cases coming to light in January. The curve flattens a bit in February while people resort to social distancing and with newer cases surfacing in the beginning of March, footfall hits rock bottom, constituting an overall decline of 48% in shopping center visits.

Supermarkets

While Shopping Centers witnessed decline in footfall, the supermarket visits stabilized with everyone trying to stock up kitchen supplies due to fear of a possible lockdown.

Beauty Salons

Beauty Salons saw a steady decline of 47% from the first outbreak of reported cases of the pandemic from the last week in January. And there were two instances that experiences a sharp rise in visits to beauty salons, the first one during the last week of January and the second around Valentine’s Day.

Hotels and Motels

When new cases were reported on February 20, the hotel industry experienced a significant decrease in footfall by 41% across major cities in Australia.

Health and Fitness Moves Outside Amidst the Pandemic

Fitness centers project the same pattern of decline as in the case of shopping centers with a steady decline when COVID-19 cases were first reported in January, then stabilized with social distancing in February, only to see a sharp fall in the beginning of March. As people complied with social distancing and reduced/ limited community gatherings & highly crowded places gyms and fitness centers then experienced 40% decrease in footfalls.

Consumption of In-App Content Experiences Rapid Growth Amid New Habit Formation

With people sheltering at home during the isolation period, they turned to their mobile phone for entertainment and engagement. This led to a steep increase in the usage of mobile apps across the country.

Collaboration apps saw a whopping 300% growth in usage since the initial news broke out towards the end of January. Arcade, strategy and Trivia Gaming apps experienced a 73% growth. Travel apps growth shoots up to 88% with people trying to get information on their flight status and rescheduling their travel plans. Towards March, the traffic on travel apps then decreased as many stayed at home.

News apps, by contrast, were reporting live on the status of the pandemic and saw a 250% growth in usage as people tried to stay current on live and relevant information about the virus and spread of the disease. As social distancing became the new norm, video and image editor apps witnessed a 53% growth, as people utilized high dwell time to engage with the apps. Social apps accounted for a 100% growth, with community and dating apps contributing to the surge with a sense of shared unity in the face of the same problem.

At InMobi, we’re focused on driving invaluable insights from near real-time data signals that can inform on the significant impact taking place on consumer behavior that could yet become the new norm for Advertisers and Agencies to adapt to as habits potentially become ingrained #InThisTogether.

Follow this link to read the full report on reactions of consumers to the pandemic in Australia. Read on to know how the connected consumer reacts to the pandemic in India. For more insights, check out our InMobi Global COVID-19 page

In this spirit, we are proud to partner with Amobee and other leaders in the industry to run public service announcements. These PSAs will reach global audiences, and they lead readers to the World Health Organization’s website.

What’s the goal of the initiative? We are committed to keeping the public around the world informed regarding the measures they can take to help prevent the spread of the virus.

To learn more about this global effort or get involved, head to this website.

LEARN MORE

For data and insights from InMobi’s intelligence solutions on how COVID-19 is impacting people across the globe, head to inmobi.com/covid-19.

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Understanding Gen Z Consumers: Report Highlights

What do members of Gen Z from the United States care about? How does this generation of consumers shop for products, services and solutions? What percent of Gen Z consumers consider a brand’s values before making a final purchase?

Ultimately, how do these younger consumers, which are both the most diverse generation in U.S. history and soon to enter the workforce en masse, compare to previous generations like Millennials and Baby Boomers?

Here’s what our latest research report highlights:

• What Gen Z shoppers actually care about, and how Gen Zers compare to other generations in their shopping habits.
• How consumers aged 18-25 think about brand values, and how those attitudes compare to other generations.
• The brands that have already found ways to connect with Gen Z.

Of course, this is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg as far the insights revealed in the report. For all the data, be sure to download your complimentary copy of our latest research report, titled Gen Z Consumer Habits: What You Should Know, today!

DOWNLOAD NOW

Sneak Peek of the Report’s First Chapter

Move over millennials. There’s a new kid in town: Generation Z. This generation is roughly defined as everyone born between the mid 1990s and today, meaning Gen Z currently spans in age from those still in school all the way up to their 20s. That means that the crucial 18-25 age set long coveted by brands are part of Gen Z.

What defines this generation and its values? Not only is this the first digitally native generation in U.S. history, but it’s also been a generation quick to align itself around causes ranging from radical inclusivity and the environment to gender and sexual rights, among others. According to McKinsey, “Gen Zers value individual expression and avoid labels” and “they mobilize themselves for a variety of causes.”

But does Gen Z support these values through their shopping habits? How do their values impact their purchasing decisions? To find out for certain, we surveyed over 1,800 men and women in the U.S. across all age ranges, to see how individuals in different generations choose which brands to support and which ones to spur. The survey was conducted in January 2020, and each respondent was asked 15 questions.

Here’s what our data reveals on generational shopping habits and purchasing decisions.

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Interested in Additional Insights?

Want even more mobile-led research? Be sure to download these reports as well, to compliment our Gen Z consumer insights:

• Mobile's Influence on the Restaurant Industry
• Apps vs Mobile Websites: Understanding Their Users
• InMobi Connected Consumer Report 2020

Have thoughts to share on our research? Want to get in touch with us? Leave a comment below, or send us a note at inmobi.com/company/contact.

We’d love to hear from you on social media too! You can find us on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.

And, be sure to sign up to InMobi Connect to get all our latest content, including unique research, get delivered straight to your inbox every month. For a sneak peek, check out our March 2020 version here.

Our Commitment to Data Privacy: What You Need to Know About This Data

InMobi takes user privacy extremely seriously. We meet the most rigorous governance, compliance, and security standards. We have collaborated with consumer advocacy groups and incorporate guidelines from multiple federal government agencies to define industry-leading practices for data governance in the U.S.

Users retain complete control over the data they provide, have a choice in whether they participate and have transparency as to how their data is utilized. Subscribers have constant access to their privacy elections through multiple telco touchpoints. The patented anonymization platform ensures data sets are 100% secure and are refreshed to ensure all data are anonymized.

1. Awareness levels on the pandemic in India

2. Changes in consumer lifestyle, shopping habits and preferences

3. The top stress busters for people at home

The Need of the Hour is to be Aware

Survey results state that most Indians are not aware of the cause, symptoms and the preventive measures that can be taken to avoid COVID-19. It is alarming to see that 60% of the respondents to our survey in India are unsure of the origins of the virus and only 10% can identify the exact two symptoms of the disease. Around half (46%) of the respondents are still not practicing social distancing. The need of the hour is to create proper awareness of the epidemiology of the disease.

The Pandemic’s Impact on the Economy

Consumers feel that the pandemic could cause major hurdles to employment and business growth in India. 43% of respondents believe that COVID-19 will affect the emerging economies including India. 30% of the respondents believe that the world is heading towards a global recession. 50% of Indians expect losses in the industry they work in. 15% of respondents are expecting layoffs.

The Changing Behavior of the Indian Consumer

The current crisis is affecting the brand and category preferences, shopping behavior and spends. In the chaos created by the pandemic, 40% of consumers are stocking up on kitchen supplies, hence the supermarkets and grocery stores are experiencing 80% spike in store visits. With 70% of the consumers preferring home-cooked meals, restaurants have seen a 90% drop in visits.

16% of respondents found difficulties in sourcing the food and grocery essentials. 39% of consumers are experiencing issues obtaining hand sanitizers and handwashing supplies.

The survey also has seen a shift in the behavior of the price conscious customer now relying on promising brands and high-quality products in the personal care category over the price.

Stress Relievers During the Pandemic

Staying at home due to the lockdown has consumers spending more time on digital platforms. Strategy gaming apps experienced a 110% surge in usage. News apps and video editor apps have witnessed 30% and 60% growth, respectively. 39% of smartphone users are spending time on social apps to stay connected with family and friends. 46% of respondents are spending time on OTT apps and TV as they are spending more time at home.

Meme sharing has increased, with 37% of people exchanging memes throughout the day. There has been 200% growth in the number of people reading Indian books and comics.

With uncertainty around, the daily lives of consumers witness some highly unique and unheard-of changes. At InMobi, we plan to keep a track of them by continuously engaging with consumers through surveys and diving deep into our platform intelligence, to provide the latest COVID-19 trends and insights. To know more insights on the consumer behavior in India amidst COVID-19, read the full report here.

For most Americans, the most dramatic and noticeable effect of COVID-19 has been social distancing. With people staying inside for weeks, many are turning to their screens for news, comfort, connection and more.

For a closer look at the role mobile apps are playing in helping people navigate this crisis, we turned to InMobi’s intelligence solutions, using our first-party telco data to review new app install trends from end of December 2019 through the first three weeks of March 2020. Here’s what we uncovered.

Delivery App Download Trends

In March, thousands of Americans rushed to supermarkets and big box chains to stock up on essentials like toilet paper and pasta in preparation for spending additional time at home. But instead of fighting the lines at grocery stores or trying to grab supplies off shelves before they ran out, many people opted to just order items for their house on their phone. In fact, compared to January 2020 figures, new installs of Instacart, Shipt and Drizly were, combined, up 166% in March.

In early March, the number of new Instacart app installs jumped to an all-time high for the year. More specifically, the number of new Instacart app installs increased 51% in February and 49% in the first three weeks of March. Instacart has long been one of the biggest brand names in this space, so it’s not surprising to see them with the greatest number of new users in this time of social distancing.

Shipt, a grocery delivery app owned by Target, also saw a boost in new users at this time. The number of new Shipt app installs increased 34% in February and 37% in the first three weeks of March, and the number of new app installs for the beverage delivery brand Drizly increased 52% in February and 39% in March.

Of course, Americans weren’t only getting their groceries delivered. With restaurants only allowed to open for to-go and delivery orders in many parts of the U.S., many people opted to have their meals delivered to them. Starting at the end of February and continuing into March, the number of new users rose for GrubHub, DoorDash, Uber Eats and Postmates. In early March, new installs of these four apps were up 60%.<

The number of new Doordash app installs increased 53% in February and 29% in the first three weeks of March, while new GrubHub app installs increased 54% in February and 29% in the first three weeks of March. Uber Eats saw 30% new installs in the first three weeks of March.

The growth in March was especially pronounced for Postmates, which may be because the Postmates apps can be used for deliveries beyond just already-made restaurant meals. Postmates has also continued some marketing efforts at this time, which may have helped them see a boost of new users as well. The number of new Postmates app installs increased 64% in February and 39% in the first three weeks of March.

Apps for Entertainment

In March, with huge chunks of the U.S. populace stuck indoors, many people are turning to apps to keep themselves entertained. For example, usage of music apps Musi, Groovepad, DrumPad and youngRadio was up 100% in March over January.

In the streaming music space, Pandora has seen a spike of new app installs throughout March so far. It will be interesting to see how audio app usage progresses over March. Apps like Spotify have made a number of investments of lare around podcasts, which are often associated with commutes. It remains to be seen if consumers will pivot to audio for entertainment, or if video will remain ascendant.

Social Media App Trends

Many people are turning to social media apps right now too. Across the bulk of March, combined installs of Snapchat, TikTok, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook was up 23% from January 2020.

TikTok saw 32% more new app installs in the first three weeks of March, while Snapchat had 49% more new app installs in the same period. The number of new Instagram app installs increased 48% in February and 25% in the first three weeks of March. Seemingly, social apps that are used more for entertainment saw more new users compared to social apps that feature a heavy dose of news as well.

Video App Trends

On the video side, YouTube has seen an increase in new mobile app installs in March, as has gaming-focused video platform Twitch. And, by mid-March, new installs of Netflix, Hulu, Tubi TV and Pluto TV were combined up 33% from the beginning of the year. This again shows an increased interest in pure entertainment content among consumers during this period.

Mobile Gaming App Trends

Gaming apps have seen an increase in new users as well. By the second week of March, new installs of Candy Crush, Coinmaster, Foxnext, Peakgames and Subway Surfers were up 95% from January 2020 totals. And, by the second half of March, usage of CoinMaster, Daily Themed Crossword Puzzle and Words with Friends was up 67% from the beginning of the year.

Using Apps for Exercise

What about exercise? Are Americans turning to apps to stay healthy? MyFitnessPal saw a notable jump in new installs in March, and Strava saw a small increase in the month as well. But, both MyFitnessPal and Peloton saw a larger increase in new app installs at the beginning of January — likely for New Year’s resolutions.

There are few trends at play here. It’s not surprising to see both Peloton and MyFitnessPal see a marked increase in users at the beginning of the year, as many people aim to start the year being healthier, only to see their resolutions fall off over time. Many fitness-related brands, like Peloton, also ran major marketing campaigns specifically in January to capitalize on New Year’s Resolutions.

So why isn’t Peloton seeing a spike in usage in March? Not only are they not marketing themselves as heavily as before, but it’s also definitely possible that people are less interested in exercising right now as they are ordering meals or watching video content. Of course, a new Peloton order usually requires an in-home technician to setup, which is not good for social distancing.

What about March trends in the space? Outdoor-focused apps like Strava tend to not see major increases in usage when it’s cold outside across much of the country, even though outdoor exercise is one of the only activities allowed out of the home in areas with shelter in place orders. Should the virus continue to dramatically impact American life into May and June, then it’s definitely possible for these outdoor-oriented apps to see a larger-than-normal spike in new users.

In comparison to some other apps like Strava, MyFitnessPal also includes a diet and nutrition component. This could be part of why they have more new users compared to other properties in this space.

Using Apps for Work While at Home

As a result of the novel coronavirus, many workplaces are having their employees work from home. This has led to a sharp spike in new app installs for Zoom during the middle of March, also with a notable uptick for Skype for Business, GoToMeeting and Join.me. In fact, between March 11 and March 22, total new installs of these four apps grew 2000% over January totals.

• The number of new Zoom app installs increased 57% in February and a whopping 266% in the first three weeks of March.
• The number of new Skype for Business app installs increased 51% in February and 66% in the first three weeks of March.
• The number of new GoToMeeting app installs increased 53% in February and 85% in March.
• The number of new JoinMe app installs increased 48% in February and 43% in March.

Why is Zoom in particular seeing so much lift? They have received a lot of news coverage recently as working from home becomes the norm in many industries. And, Zoom has been increasingly used for distance social events. Even brands like Chipotle are leveraging Zoom right now as part of an overall push around social distancing.

There has also been a spike in telemedicine app users of late, with medical offices looking to avoid in-person contact unless necessary and with patients preferring to stay away from sick people. Doctor On Demand, WebMD and MDLive have all seen a jump in new app installs in March, although it is worth noting that some medical professionals are using consumer-facing tools like Zoom and Apple’s FaceTime now as well. Still, total new installs of these three telemedicine-specific apps was up 70% in March compared to January 2020.

It remains to be seen just how the novel coronavirus will spread in the U.S. and what its impact will be in the end. But, for as long as people are social distancing themselves, mobile phones will play a critical role in how people shop, entertain themselves, work and communicate.

Our Commitment To Data Privacy: What You Need To Know About This Data

InMobi takes user privacy extremely seriously. We meet the most rigorous governance, compliance, and security standards. We have collaborated with consumer advocacy groups and incorporate guidelines from multiple federal government agencies to define industry-leading practices for data governance in the U.S.

Users retain complete control over the data they provide, have a choice in whether they participate and have transparency as to how their data is utilized. Subscribers have constant access to their privacy elections through multiple telco touchpoints. The patented anonymization platform ensures data sets are 100% secure, and are refreshed to ensure all data are anonymized.

This is a problem even in benign times, as advertisers find it difficult to find fully brand safe opportunities to reach their audiences (at least at scale anyway) without hitting some sensitive content that may put off a small but vocal set of consumers. Think an advertisement for room fresheners next to a breaking news story on a drive-by shooting or a story around a tragedy involving a controversial topic.

Naturally, this has become even more pertinent in today’s pandemic-induced, anxiety-filled times, where the content being consumed in various corners of the internet is leaning strongly downbeat. Brands, therefore, need to be very cautious and should accordingly ask for accountability from their supply-side partners on how and where their ads appear in a brand safe environment.

Seen from the other side too, recent research from Integral Ad Science found that consumers have very strong and particular preferences about which brands they are comfortable seeing ads for when consuming coronavirus-related content.

So, what can digital advertisers do to avoid brand safety pitfalls, especially when using programmatic advertising to reach mobile audiences? In the in-app world, the most obvious answer is to target their consumers within casual mobile games as much as possible.

Here are four reasons why we believe including mobile games in brand safety strategies is a smart move:

1) Casual Mobile Gaming Apps Have No Inappropriate Content

One of the problems with some types of content, like a news story or a social media feed, is that, as an advertiser, you don’t always know precisely what’s one very page. This is true especially as publishers are increasingly deploying dynamic page recommendation engines.

Technology to identify these kinds of nuances is still lacking precision and scale. As a result, real-time decision making is next to impossible. This is particularly scary for advertisers, as they could inadvertently end up having their ads appear next to offensive content, fake news, an objectionable/controversial news story, a violent post, etc.

But this is not a concern with casual and hyper casual mobile games. Here, all ads are within a gaming session. Plus, developers don’t allow user-generated or third-party content.

2) Allows for Better and Surer Scale than via Blacklists and Whitelists

Brands and agencies rely heavily or exclusively on blacklists and whitelists in an attempt to use premium publishers as a proxy for safe (or at least safer) content. Under this strategy, advertisers ask that their ads only appear under very select circumstances (i.e., whitelists). Further, brands can ask that their ads cannot appear next to certain words or phrases or, by extension, in apps likely to contain them (i.e., blacklists).

This approach, however, is overly restrictive. After all, not all web pages that contain the word “shooter” are talking about guns — they could just as easily be talking about popular games or, worse, about basketball (!) — which is why they’re an unrealistic digital marketing tactic.

Luckily, this is not a concern with casual mobile games. Not only are they often inherently brand safe, but they also have wide reach. Some food for thought:

• Close to a third of the world’s population plays mobile games, including 60% of the U.S. population.
• Among all mobile gamers worldwide, over half play 10 times a week or more.
• Who are these mobile gamers? They’re likely your target audience. According to InMobi’s own mobile data, people across all ages, genders, locations, income levels, etc. play hyper casual mobile games – we’re not just talking about young men here!

3) Meets Industry Benchmarks and Safeguards for Brand Safe Content

We agree fully with our clients that they, above anyone else, should define what is or is not brand safe content for their ads. This can be subjective though, even as some categories like pornography and hate speech remain obviously off-limits.

An in-app environment has another gating mechanism which helps remove all such objectionable space from being exposed to the brands: This mechanism is the app review process by Apple, Google and even other third-party ecosystems like of Samsung.

The review and approval process is strict, standardized and not open for negotiations after the app is live. As such, they are not open to dynamic feeds that websites allow to increase user engagement.

In addition, companies like us operate another level of checks in our app onboarding process, where manual reviews added to app store ratings and feedback from the industry is constantly incorporated.

Measures like these ensure that the benchmarks for brand safety strategies are well defined, executed at various journey touchpoints and not open for interpretation.

4) Device-Native Ad Formats Add Additional Layer of Brand Safety

For further protection, brands should seek ad formats that inherently provide an additional layer of security by virtue of their share of the screen. In particular, fullscreen static and video ads ensure that nothing else appears alongside the ad.

On top of that, most casual games have natural pauses in the gaming experience that further enhance the engagement of the user while removing any possibility of mixing the messaging of the advertisement with that of the underlying game.

Interested in learning more about InMobi’s commitment to proactively resolving brand safety issues? Want to scale with InMobi Exchange today? Reach out today for more information.

The survey ran from March 19-22 and reached more than 2,500 people across the country. Over a confirmed third of all survey respondents were from the states that had the 10 most confirmed cases of COVID-19 as of March 24.

Top 3 Takeaways

1. 73% of consumers said they are spending more time using their mobile phone. Among this group, 41% said they’re playing more mobile games, 26% said they’re using news apps more frequently and 29% reported using social apps more often now. Among people between the ages of 18 and 25, 56% said they’re playing more mobile games, 43% said they’re using entertainment apps more frequently and 55% reported using social apps more often now.
2. Just over half (53%) of consumers have increased spending in some way — even more so among younger generations (over 60% for those 18-35). Consumers are spending more on groceries (37%) and household care items (18%), followed by pet supplies (8%). Households with kids are shopping significantly more across almost all categories compared to households without kids.
3. Over a third (35%) of consumers expect their shopping, entertainment or personal behaviors to be impacted by COVID-19 for the next two to three months.

Here’s what the data revealed:

Social Distancing Overview

As a result of the novel coronavirus, the vast majority of Americans report staying away from others right now. Overall, 61% of survey respondents said they are very strictly avoiding contact with other people, while an additional 27% said they have somewhat avoided contact with others at the moment.

Attitudes vary by age and gender though. While 54% of men said they have very strictly reduced contact with others, 67% of women said the same thing. And, while only 46% of survey respondents between 18 and 25 said they have very strictly reduced contact with others, 73% of those who are 66 years old and older said they are taking this precaution right now.

COVID-19's Impact on Work

Between social distancing and the virus’s still-developing impact on the economy, COVID-19 has dramatically upended work so far. According to our research, 17% of total survey respondents (and 21% of survey respondents between the ages of 18 and 25) have already been furloughed or laid off as a result of the novel coronavirus– and this figure is likely to rise in the weeks ahead.

Further, over a quarter of those polled said they are working from home as a result of COVID-19. Those now working from home (whether mandatory or optional) are largely using conferencing/voice call (35%) and/or Zoom (31%) to stay in touch with colleagues and keep working.

COVID-19's Impact on Consumer Behavior

Over half of consumers have increased spending in some way — even more so among younger generations (over 60% for those 18-35). Consumers are spending more on groceries (37%) and household care items (18%), followed by pet supplies (8%).

Households with kids are shopping significantly more across almost all categories compared to households without kids. For those with children, a larger share increased spending (63%), particularly on groceries (44%), household care items (19%), beauty and personal care products (7%) and pet supplies (8%).

Consumers age 18-25 are generally more likely to have increased spending compared to other age groups, especially on Wi-Fi/mobile data plans. Those between the ages of 26-35 are spending more on pet supplies than other age groups.

Around three-fourths of consumers have decreased spending in some way. Consumers are spending less money on entertainment (36%), travel (37%), clothing (30%) and transportation (27%). Compared to men, women have decreased spending significantly more in purchases of beauty and personal care, clothing, shoes and jewelry.

Approximately a third of consumers are shopping online more frequently, buying groceries (13%), household care items (10%) and pet supplies (6%) this way. Based on our survey data, consumers age 36-45 have increased online shopping more than other age groups, especially for groceries, household care items and pet supplies. Compared to women, men are shopping online significantly more for baby products, bank loans, electronics and entertainment. Females are shopping online significantly more than males for beauty/personal and household care items.

COVID-19's Impact on Food Buying Behavior

According to the survey, 68% of consumers have changed their grocery buying behavior since the pandemic began. In particular, 46% said they bought enough groceries for a few days, with 18% saying they had stocked up enough for a month. Significantly more women than men stocked up on groceries for a month, while men overall were significantly less likely to change their grocery shopping behavior.

Impact on Food Delivery:

In terms of eating habits, 37% of consumers polled said they stopped eating at restaurants, while 27% said they started cooking at home. Overall, only 7% of consumers increased delivery/takeout orders.

Food delivery behavior is different by age and gender. According to the survey, men have increased delivery/takeout orders significantly more than women have at the moment. In comparison, women have started cooking from home significantly more frequently than men and have reduced or stopped ordering takeout or delivery. Among consumers age 18-35, over one in 10 have increased delivery/takeout orders, a percentage that is significantly more than other age groups.

COVID-19's Impact on Digital Behavior

According to the survey, 69% of consumers have changed their media consumption patterns as a result of the virus. Overall, 38% of survey respondents said they are watching more news, although younger people are watching news significantly less than other age groups.

Impact on Television:

Further, 20% said they are watching more live TV (cable/satellite), while 25% are streaming more TV. According to the survey, 29% of those age 66 and older said they are watching more live TV now.

Significantly more women than men report changing their media consumption as a result of COVID-19. Among female survey respondents, 41% said they’re watching more news, 21% said they were watching more live TV and 21% said they’re reading more books.

Impact on Mobile Usage:

But when it comes to media consumption today, mobile takes the cake. Overall, 73% of consumers said they are spending more time using their mobile phone. Among this group, 41% said they’re playing more mobile games and 26% said they’re using news apps more frequently and 29% reported using social apps more often now.

Some of the biggest gains in reported mobile app usage are coming from people between the ages of 18 and 25. Among this group, 56% said they’re playing more mobile games and 43% said they’re using entertainment apps more frequently and 55% reported using social apps more often now.

To stay connected, there has been an increase in messaging, followed by calling. This has been driven more by women than men.

Outlook on COVID-19 and The Future

Over a third (35%) of consumers expect their shopping, entertainment or personal behaviors to be impacted by COVID-19 for the next two to three months. Consumers largely (54%) expect all leading economies will be affected.

There are over 100+ companies that have been recertified by TAG in this round. It’s indeed a big win for the industry as a whole and is reflective of the important collective efforts being taken by ad tech vendors to combat fraud.

“This year’s seal recertifications demonstrate that long-term commitment by TAG members to the fight against criminal activity in digital advertising. With a record number of leading companies participating in TAG programs, we are creating a consistent, unified, and secure framework for digital advertising round the world,” said TAG CEO Mike Zaneis.

Fraud remains a significant concern among both advertisers and publishers in the mobile programmatic ecosystem. For example, in a recent discussion with Digiday, leading voices in the ad agency world cited ad fraud as among their top concerns right now.

But, as this year’s TAG certification round shows, the ecosystem as a whole is taking fraud extremely seriously – and this is leading to major changes throughout the value chain. According to numbers cited by eMarketer, not only did the amount of digital display advertising budget lost to fraud drop significantly between 2015 and 2019, but ad fraud is no longer a top cited concern among marketers and media buyers.

Material Benefits of TAG Certification

TAG CAF-compliant companies like InMobi have helped to stem the tide of fraud in the programmatic ecosystem. According to one analysis undertaken by the 614 Group in 2019, TAG-certified ad inventory sources had 88% less fraud and less invalid traffic than non-certified channels. And, a separate study released in March found that in major markets in Western and Central Europe, TAG-certified channels had 94% less fraud than non-certified inventory sources.

“Every recertification is another link in our proven cross-industry barrier against fraud, piracy, malware, and lack of transparency,” said Todd Miller, Director of Compliance at TAG. “These recertifications demonstrate that the leading companies in digital advertising will continue to work together to safeguard our ecosystem.”

Interested in learning more about all the ways in which InMobi is committed to improving trust and transparency in in-app programmatic advertising? Reach out today to get the inside scoop.

“Ads.txt is a simple yet effective step to drive transparency in the programmatic world. Considering that publishers and buyers have no direct contact with one another, both become susceptible to unauthorized reselling, counterfeit inventory and domain spoofing. First released in May 2017 - the ads.txt solution for website and mobile web publishers has seen tremendous success,” said Abhay Singhal, CEO of InMobi Marketing Cloud and co-founder of InMobi.

Let’s take a look at its effect on the mobile ad tech space over the past 12 months.

Calculating the Impact of App-Ads.txt on In-App Programmatic Advertising

If nothing else, app-ads.txt has proven to be enormously popular among the app developers and app publishers that make money by offering up ad inventory. Already, close to 80% of the apps that InMobi works with have this text file available in their app store listings. This is impressive considering that at first, app-ads.txt could only be implemented in Google Play store listing and only later became available within all of the major app stores.

Note: Need a quick reminder on how app-ads.txt works and why it’s beneficial? Check out this video featuring InMobi’s Sergio Serra to learn more:

Part of this push is coming from the demand side. Demand-side platform Centro set a strict deadline of July 2019 for enforcement, after which they would not buy an app’s inventory on behalf of their clients unless the publisher’s app-ads.txt was available. Others on the demand side, including The Trade Desk and Google, drew similar lines in the sand throughout the summer of 2019.

This helps to explain why supply-side platforms like PubMatic were strict about enforcement as well. In short, if apps wanted to (and indeed still want to) monetize through programmatic advertising, then an app-ads.txt file with a singular publisher ID had to be in place.

“As long as the industry continues to work together and bring everyone in the supply chain to the table, I’m confident that we’ll be able to implement Ads.txt for the in-app environment and more effectively combat mobile ad fraud. All of us – publishers, advertisers, app stores, etc. – need to continue making noise here, as it’s in all of our best interests to resolve these issues,” Anne Frisbie, the former senior vice president of global programmatic and North America at InMobi, wrote in AdExchanger in October 2018.

But has it been effective at fighting mobile ad fraud and overall making the ecosystem more trustworthy and transparent? So far, the signs certainly look promising. According to White Ops, between March and September last year, apps that did not have an app-ads.txt file in place have 2.6x more invalid traffic compared to apps where it was implemented.

This aligns with what Pixalate discovered in its 2019 App-ads.txt and Ads.txt Trends Report. Throughout 2019, they found that apps that lack an app-ads.txt file have 13% more invalid traffic versus apps that have one in place.

Of course, app-ads.txt is not a panacea - nor was it ever supposed to be one. It was never intended to solve all of the industry’s problems. After all, bad actors seem to always find loopholes.

Nevertheless, by serving as a whitelist that highlights all of an app’s authorized digital sellers to everyone, it does help to dramatically increase transparency in the mobile advertising supply chain. Just by listing who specifically is authorized to sell and resell, apps can make sure that nefarious actors are not misrepresenting themselves in the ecosystem.

“Those who understand why app-ads.txt is necessary and what it does (and doesn’t) address, should help properly educate everyone else. And, by reviewing app-ads.txt files on a regular basis and immediately flagging problematic players, the ecosystem can ensure that the sell side continues to see ad revenue and that problems are addressed quickly,” Sergio Serra, senior product manager of supply and programmatic at InMobi, wrote in The Drum in June 2019. “App-ads.txt is not a cure for all that ails the mobile in-app advertising space, nor was it ever intended to be a magic bullet. However, it is a critical step forward in the fight against fraud, and its adoption should be heartily championed by everyone in the ecosystem.”

About the Author

Matthew Kaplan has over a decade of digital marketing experience, working to support the content goals of the world’s biggest B2B and B2C brands. He is a passionate app user and evangelist, working to support diverse marketing campaigns across devices.

Note: Need some reminders to level set? Check out this blog post for all of the ad tech definitions you’ll need to follow along, and this blog post for how programmatic media buying works.

How Ad Networks and Ad Exchanges Stack Up

As MarTech Advisor has noted, “An ad network is an aggregator that collects ad inventory from publishers and sells it to advertisers. It acts as an intermediary.” Basically, ad networks act as resellers or direct sellers, representing specific ad inventory to buyers on behalf of particular sellers.

How does this stack up to an exchange? In comparison, “An ad exchange is a digital marketplace that enables advertisers and publishers to buy and sell advertising space, often through real-time auctions,” Digiday has noted.

To help understand the difference, consider this useful analogy from MarTech Advisor: if an ad network is akin to a stockbroker, then an exchange is like a stock exchange. By serving as an open online marketplace, ad exchanges can do the work of multiple ad networks while also ensuring that everyone has a fair shot at bidding on and winning any ad inventory made available.

Curious to see which brands can be classified as ad networks vs. ad exchanges? Check out this blog post from PubNative. In particular, InMobi Exchange is an example of a leading in-app ad exchange.

So what are the advantages and disadvantages? Ad networks specifically represent publishers and can more personally ensure that inventory goes to the highest bidder. But, ad networks are generally "resellers" and do not work with the publishers directly.

This is why networks are losing traction nowadays, especially with initiatives like app-ads.txt and supply path optimization that prioritize players that have more direct connections.

Ad exchanges can help democratize online advertising, but some (on both the demand side and supply side) don’t always like exchanges since it forces them to give up some amount of control and insight.

Within in-app advertising, many advertisers have been embracing the ease and reach of ad exchanges. According to InMobi’s 2019 Mobile Programmatic Ad Trends report, open exchange spending grew 148% between 2017 and 2018, and this type of spending was up 58% in the second quarter of 2019 compared to the same period in 2018.

Understanding InMobi Exchange

To see how InMobi Exchange works and provides key benefits, consider Appreciate. The company, which is a performance-driven DSP specializing in mobile in-app advertising for app marketers and brands, has been working with the InMobi Exchange since 2017, delivering campaigns from their premium advertisers to InMobi's world-class apps. InMobi has been able to quickly address tech issues while also identifying growth opportunities such as opening new markets facilitating private marketplace deals and optimizing traffic supply to Appreciate's demand.

Interested in learning more? Head to inmobi.com/exchange for more information and to reach out.

About the Author

Matthew Kaplan has over a decade of digital marketing experience, working to support the content goals of the world’s biggest B2B and B2C brands. He is a passionate app user and evangelist, working to support diverse marketing campaigns across devices.

We at InMobi take this opportunity as a part of International Women’s Day to recognize the extensive contributions made everyday by the incredible women at work. Despite efforts taking place across the globe to improve equality in the workplace, there is still much that needs to be done. We have always been dedicated to providing equality in the workplace and exploring new ways of empowering women who make up such an important part of the InMobi Group. As such, we chatted with some of these women one-on-one to understand the initiatives they take to succeed in their respective careers and the gaps that they think companies need to bridge to encourage gender equality .  .

Driving Technology Leadership

Among the most successful initiatives, perhaps, are those that seek to instruct employees on their unconscious biases and how to recognize them. Women who experience microaggressions are three times more likely to regularly think about leaving their job than women who have not experienced this form of discrimination.

Q. Over the last decade, have there been any major changes in representation in technology and technology leadership?

Supriya Goswami
Over the last ten years, there has been a distinct acknowledgment by the system that the gender gap exists. This acknowledgment is the first step out of many that will help bring real change. There has been a remarkable attitudinal shift at multiple levels from an organizational, ecosystem and industry lens. In large parts, I believe that this shift can be attributed to a tipping point, with personal and organizational initiatives meeting at a common point bolstered further by an increased awareness made possible by access to information, especially on social media. Access to role models and support systems have tremendously changed as well, with women-led initiatives focused on entrepreneurship and technology such as Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing and SoGal Ventures finding a massive audience who lead the change in mitigating gender bias.
Supriya Goswami is the VP and Global Head of Marketing at InMobi Marketing Cloud. Having spent over seven years at InMobi in various roles, she is currently responsible for Marketing Strategy, Brand Marketing, Demand Generation, Product Marketing, Digital and Field Marketing at InMobi, working with a team across the globe. With over 17 years of experience, her expertise goes beyond marketing, having worked across HR and Consulting. Supriya holds a Master’s degree from INSEAD and the Tata Institute of Social Science.

Ekta Grover
Leading a team diligently in a women-skeptic world is a challenge in itself. With evolving cultures in companies that are women-friendly and support gender equality like InMobi, we feel welcomed and encouraged. The real question to ask is not about representation (or cardinality) but about the impact of that representation that women are creating. The real problem I see is that when women take high visibility roles, there is little thoughtfulness on the impact they are creating. This, coupled with the access to low proactive mentorship, makes our career journeys incremental rather than multiplicative. Women need to have the insatiable drive to learn across teams and perform beyond job descriptions. While there is a bit of bias in the industry, on wanting to see women leading with more aggression, one should not want to change one’s natural assertive leadership style. It’s an implicit way of making our workplaces more aware of diverse leadership styles. Not men, not women - just distinctively us. So, back to your question on gender representation, we should reflect accountability in our actions and the impact will follow.Ekta Grover is the Chief of Staff for InMobi Marketing Cloud. She has over 12 years of experience in creating software applications for enterprises and consumer internet segments. By taking part in national and international conferences, she has strong latent skills to take up pro-bono consulting and successfully create value-driven outcomes out of it.

Encouraging Workplace Diversity

Despite efforts to encourage unbiased performance measures in workplaces, one in four women think that their gender has played a role in missing out on a raise, promotion or chance to get ahead—and slightly more women think their gender will make it harder going forward. For every 100 men promoted and hired as a manager, only 72 women are promoted and hired. This broken rung results in more women getting stuck at the entry level and fewer women becoming managers. Not surprisingly, men end up holding 62% of manager-level positions.

Q. Increasing diversity takes more than recruiting – it’s also creating the right environment for that diversity to thrive. How can companies overcome this early inequality?

Aakanxa Pandey
Over the past four to five years, women are increasingly taking the call around family and career. Flexibility and accommodations in the workplace have been much more accepted, especially with work-life balance. There’s room for improvement, but women have more choices about their career trajectory.

It’s also important to see beyond gender to hire the right candidate. Talent is irrespective of gender and companies need to advocate this to move in the right direction. Further, companies need to recognize that women can take up managerial roles and contribute equally. At InMobi, we swear to be an equal opportunity provider to have the right set of talent pools and encourage women to take up leadership roles.Aakanxa Pandey is Director of HR at InMobi, working across geographies at the organization for the last three years and currently heading HR for IMC North America. Aakanxa has over 15 years of experience in human resources, with most of her experience focused on partnering with senior leadership on strategic people initiatives. She also carries considerable consulting experience, having worked with Mercer Consulting in the Total Rewards Consulting space.

Mansi Jain
Creating diversity starts with creating a more welcoming and nurturing work environment. Especially in roles like Strategy, which requires working across teams and functions, if the culture promotes women at the managerial level having a point of view and gives them the space to voice it openly, it will go a long way in developing women leaders. It’s equally important for companies to encourage freshers to take up leadership roles to fix the broken rung and have women and men at all roles in the workplace.Mansi is the Vice President, Content and Revenue for Glance, leading revenue and P&L for the B2C business of InMobi Group. She works with leading content partners across news, entertainment, commerce and gaming, and marketers to drive their content discovery on 100 Million DAUs on Glance. She manages a team of 150 across India and Southeast Asia. Mansi has more than 10 years of experience across Strategy and driving new businesses globally. Mansi graduated from IIT-Delhi and prior to InMobi, Mansi was a consultant with Bain & Company.

Shefali Rai
The first big step to creating the right environment is to not talk about “gender equality” as a separate paradigm. A talented professional, whether male or female, should start off on an equal footing basis, on their own merit with no perceived bias towards their gender, be it for recruiting the right candidate or giving them the deserving raise and promotion. This in itself will create diversity and also enable many more leaders who happen to be women to feel empowered to chart out their own path. At InMobi, one of the most important aspects that managers and leaders are encouraged to strengthen is to speak up, and have a point of view that they can share openly. This holds true for not just women but men too. We stand for the concept #EachforEqual at InMobi.Shefali has a broad-based HR experience straddling across areas of Talent Acquisition, Learning and Development, Talent management, Organizational Development and HR strategy. Work experience at InMobi Group includes Head of HR for Glance, along with HR leadership roles managing Technology, Product and Business teams at InMobi, prior to that, she worked at Yahoo and Symphony Services as a specialist managing Talent acquisition for different functions across the organization.

Building an Inclusive Culture

The McKinsey Report claims that employees may be apprehensive about speaking up because it feels like a high-risk endeavor: 37 percent say it could hurt their career. Or they might not think it will make a difference: Half of the employees who’ve spoken up say nothing happened as a result.

Q. Especially in global companies that deal with various cultural and regional nuances, how do you ensure your voice is heard? What is your advice to women?

Vasuta Agarwal
I would tell young female professionals to always strive to achieve things beyond the ‘Job Description,’ and give everything to every role that you take up. One should not ignore opportunities just because they are outside of the current scope of work or because no one asked you to do it. The other advice I have to offer is to ensure you make your presence felt and speak up. Often we hesitate to do that, especially at the start of our career, but it’s important to speak up if you have a point of view.Vasuta is the Managing Director for the Asia Pacific at InMobi. She is responsible for the P&L, revenue, strategic partnerships and business for India, Southeast Asia, Japan, Korea and ANZ markets. Prior to this, she was the VP and GM for India business at InMobi, driving consistent scale and growth over the last 3+ years. She was chosen among the "Top 50 Influential women in media and marketing in India" for 2019 and in the "Economic Times Women Ahead List" for 2018. She has been with InMobi, one of the first start-ups and unicorns to go global from India, for over seven years and has worn many hats in her time there from Founders’ strategy to product to business roles. Before InMobi, she was at McKinsey as a management consultant and with Intel as a chip design engineer. She is a graduate from BITS, Pilani and the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore.

Veena Sethuraman
You cannot achieve anything only by yourself. All of us are who we are because of meeting some right people at the right time. So, continue to build yourself by seeking help – your leadership, your team, your peers, your family, your friends; Learn to lean on others without feeling embarrassed about it. Similarly, do allow others to lean on you. Build up others by helping them believe in themselves. Without this healthy giving and receiving, we may end up in an imbalanced vicious circle. So, do receive and give with healthy boundaries. In the process, respect your needs and other’s needs. It takes a lot of courage to be vulnerable in front of others and seek help. But, once you do that, it just makes life so much easier. The key is to ask!Veena Sethuraman is a Senior Leadership and Organizational Development Consultant by profession and a Psychotherapist by passion. She is currently employed as the "Global Head of Learning and Organizational Development" at InMobi. She is a proponent of diversity and inclusiveness, along with mental health awareness. In this capacity, she works closely with LGBTIQ community members to amplify their voices. She has also spoken at TEDxBangalorewomen. Apart from these, she enjoys writing and has published articles on platforms like The Newsminute and Infinumgrowth. She loves travelling and exploring cultures, cuisines and people.

Varsha Udayabhanu
My advice is that you will be most effective when you know your audience. Don’t give up your integrity but understand that you’re not a square peg in a round hole. It’s easy for others to make assumptions about you, so don’t let those preconceived notions dictate communication. This is key both on the regional level and on the individual level. Certain cultures and geographies have certain communication, work and management styles, and you’ll be most effective when you fully understand these regional nuances and proceed accordingly. Similarly, different individuals have different work preferences, communication styles, etc. The key is to always know your audience and to ensure you’re communicating with your audience in a way that best suits them and you.As VP of Corporate Development and Investor Relations, Varsha manages the global team responsible for all mergers, acquisitions, investments and capital raising at InMobi. Varsha has been a key leader at InMobi for close to seven years and has over 10 years of global experience in the financial services space.

Chartering New Functional Legacies

A majority of employees believe they personally have equal opportunity to grow and advance, but they are less convinced the system is fair for everyone. Fewer than half of women and men think the best opportunities go to the most deserving employees, and fewer than a quarter say that only the most qualified candidates are promoted to manager. On both fronts, women are less optimistic than men.

Q. You are leading functions which currently continue to have a limited representation of women across industries and countries. What is a significant barrier that can help overcome bias and drive inclusion?  

Pujarini Maulik
Assessment and growth wholly and solely are based on merits devoid of presumptions. For example, it is often presumed that a working mother would be indisposed due to her parental duties, and hence cannot be trusted with high-pressure jobs or jobs requiring long hours. This is hardly ever true. A professional individual knows how to maintain work-life balance. Organizations need to step away from stereotypical presumptions. From my experience, InMobi truly walks the talk in this regard and one’s status is never a stumbling block for one’s growth here.With about 15 years of experience as an in-house counsel for large MNCs, Pujarini has worked across healthcare, outsourcing, Ad-tech and digital media industries with expertise in deal structuring, privacy, M&A and employment matters. Alumni of Symbiosis Law College, Pune, is currently heading a team of 10 at InMobi Group as V.P. Legal and also presides over the privacy committee of the organization. She has been honored to be a part of the General Counsel Power list (India) as per Legal 500 in 2016 and 2018, respectively, alongside distinguished members of the fraternity. She has also been featured in Top 100 women in law within the country on many occasions and specifically honored by the Legal Era Women in Law Awards in 2019.

Varsha Udayabhanu
Women (and really people more generally) don’t always want to enter the fields where they know they will be underrepresented and where work-life balance may not be supportive. This is particularly true with women working in finance. But, in my experience, once you’ve established yourself, you can develop schedules and workflows that work for you. It is important to stand your ground and achieve all that you have to so that companies have the right reasons to choose you for the role, irrespective of the gender bias.

Shaping an #EachForEqual World

“A truly gender-inclusive work culture ensures that all employees, regardless of gender and other differences, are equally treated, respected and valued. At InMobi Group, all employees are equal and this Women’s Day we celebrate all that our women leaders and the women at InMobi have accomplished.”

- Sahil Mathur, Vice President - Global HR and Culture

#EachforEqual #WomensDay2020 #WomensDay

References

https://wiw-report.s3.amazonaws.com/Women_in_the_Workplace_2019.pdf

But who specifically is turning to apps and mobile websites like Google Translate, Airbnb, Expedia and Zipcar? To find out, we turned to the data - specifically, InMobi intelligence solutions, which builds a holistic understanding of consumers across data sources including InMobi Exchange, which reaches 1.6 billion users globally, and our own permissively-sourced deterministic first-party telco data.

We reviewed the insights across the following categories: airlines, travel booking sites hotel/lodging and car rentals. Our analysis covered the top apps and mobile websites in each of the categories, encompassing over two dozen brands in total.

Here’s what the data reveals.

Top Insights on Mobile Airline Customers

To better understand how mobile factors into flying, we reviewed insights on app owners (i.e. people with the app on their mobile device) and mobile website visitors for the biggest airlines in the U.S. We specifically reviewed these brands: United, Spirit, American, Southwest, Delta, Frontier, Alaska and JetBlue.

Here are our top five insights among airlines:

1. Most app owners are male. But, more women than men visit the mobile websites of Southwest, Frontier, Delta and JetBlue. In fact, two-thirds of all Southwest mobile web visitors are female.
2. All airlines over-index among people aged 46 to 65. The major exception is the mobile website for Frontier, as over 28% of all visitors are between 26 and 35 years old.
3. The mobile websites for Frontier and Spirit over-index among those making under $50,000 a year (a group that includes retirees and students). In comparison, JetBlue, United and Alaska over-index among those making over $100,000 annually.
4. Top audience segments in this space include empty nesters, entertainment enthusiasts, mobile moms and news junkies.
5. In terms of location, there is often a heavy regional focus in terms of where the audience is located. For example, the top geos for Alaska app owners are Seattle and Portland, Oregon. The top geo for Delta mobile website traffic is in Atlanta, where the company is based, and its top cities among app owners are Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, as the airline uses the Minneapolis airport as a major hub. Similarly, the top city with Frontier app owners is Denver.

Top Insights on Travel Booking Apps and Mobile Websites

Thanks to the internet, the travel agent is slowly disappearing. The number of travel agents in the U.S. dropped by over 50% between 2000 and 2014, and it’s expected to fall by an additional 6% between 2018 and 2028. In fact, one in five adults has now never been inside a travel agency.

So who are the main users of digital travel booking alternatives? To find out more, we analyzed the following apps and mobile websites: Google Flights, Priceline, Travelocity, trivago, Booking.com, Hopper, Expedia, hotels.com and KAYAK.

Here are our top five insights among travel booking and comparison properties:

1. This is again a majority male audience, but there are a few exceptions. Most people visiting the mobile websites of Travelocity, trivago, Booking.com and Expedia are female. And, close to 62% of those with the Hopper app on their mobile device are female.
2. 18% of those visiting Expedia’s mobile website are between 18 and 25 years old, while close to 42% of those going to hotels.com on their mobile web browser are between 26 and 35 years old.
3. KAYAK over-indexes with individuals making over $100,000 a year, while Priceline slightly over-indexes with people making under $75,000 annually.
4. This audience is likely to have multiple travel booking apps on their mobile devices, with apps for both flights, hotel rooms and car rentals.
5. In this space, people will often spend 30 minutes or more per session reviewing travel listings. For example, Travelocity app owners will spend over an hour per session on average using the service.

Top Insights on Apps and Mobile Website Users for Lodging and Hotel Rooms

We also wanted to know more about the audiences that go directly to the source for lodging. We reviewed the apps and mobile websites of major brands like Hilton and Marriott, alongside newcomers like Airbnb and VRBO.

Here are our top 10 insights in the lodging category:

1. This is actually a majority female audience. Only the Hilton Honors and Airbnb apps are not mostly female or close to half female.
2. As a relatively newer entry to the space, Airbnb does better than its peers with younger people.
3. Close to 43% of people who visited the Airbnb mobile website are between 18 and 35 years old.
4. Close to half of all Hilton Honors app owners are between 36 and 55.
5. Over 56% of VRBO app owners are between 46 and 75 years old.
6. Marriott’s mobile website over-indexes among those making more than $100,000 a year, while the mobile websites for Hilton and Courtyard by Marriott over-indexes among those making under $75,000 annually.
7. Airbnb app owners spend over an hour per session on average on the mobile website for This American Life. Hilton Honors app owners spend over 90 minutes per session using web conferencing solution Webex.
8. VRBO app owners spend over 90 minutes per session on the mobile website for AllTrails.
9. Many VRBO app owners also have the OpenTable app and the wine app Vivino on their mobile devices.
10. A significant number of people who have visited the Courtyard by Marriott mobile website are also new parents and users who have exhibited wedding planning behavior.

Understanding the Users of Top Car Rental Apps and Mobile Websites

Going on a road trip once you land? The days of just going to the nearest stall at their airport and relying on their maps to find the roadside attractions you seek are long gone. Thanks to mobile websites and apps like Google Maps, getting around has never been easier. All you need is Wi-Fi and a credit card and you’re all set.

To better understand the car rental space, we reviewed the audience insights on the following mobile websites and apps: National Car Rental, Thrifty, Avis, Hertz, Dollar, Alamo, Enterprise, Turo, Getaround and Zipcar.

Here are our top 10 car rental insights:

1. This is a male-dominated space. No mobile website or app has a majority female audience.
2. 39% of Getaround app owners and 42% of Hertz mobile website visitors are between the ages of 18 and 35. Overall though, most of the major, established brands over-index with people between the ages of 46 and 55.
3. Over 44% of Hertz mobile website visitors make under $50,000 a year. Getaround, Turo and Zipcar app owners also over-index with this cohort, as do Alamo app owners. Unlike traditional car rental companies, the newer app-based car rental services allow people under 25 to get a car. Over 37% of Hertz app owners and over 53% of National app owners have annual incomes greater than $100,000.
4. Close to half of all of Hertz’s mobile website visitors are Black/African-American. The majority of Zipcar, Turo and Getaround app owners are Non-White, as are the majority of Avis mobile website visitors.
5. Zipcar and Getaround app owners also often have the GrubHub and DoorDash apps on their mobile devices.
6. Avis, Budget, Hertz, Enterprise and National app owners often have airline and hotel apps on their mobile devices.
7. Many Turo app owners spend over 120 minutes per session using the dating app Bumble. Budget app owners often spend over an hour per session browsing ESPN or listening to ESPN Radio.
8. Over half of all Alamo and Thrifty app owners and Avis mobile website visitors can be classified as audio buffs, online shoppers and/or social media enthusiasts.
9. More than 31% of Zipcar app owners are in New York, with more than 15% of app owners located just in the boroughs of Brooklyn and the Bronx.
10. Close to 56% of Zipcar app owners are single. Over 47% of Getaround app owners and more than 49% of Hertz mobile website visitors are single as well.

How To Use This Data To Inform Your Mobile Strategy

These insights are interesting, but how can all of this information be used intelligently to further your business aims? For starters, it’s critical to understand why people travel. In particular, there’s a major difference between the business traveler and the leisure traveler. Who they are and the kinds of apps they use do differ - sometimes quite dramatically.

It’s also important to understand the unique audiences that each brand has established for itself. For example, in the airline space, hub location makes a big difference, as does branding around deals and pricing. And in the lodging and car rental space, sharing economy entrants have a very different audience than their more established competitors do, for the most part.

Looking to reach travelers? Consider leveraging these InMobi Audiences segments:

• Frequent Flyers
• Airport Visitors
• Gas Station Visitors
• Taxi and Car Service Visitors
• Car Rental Visitors
• Hotel, Motel and/or Hostel Visitors
• Domestic and International Travelers
• Household Decision-Makers
• Regular Travel Bookers
• Travel Intenders
• Natural Parks Visitors
• Travel Agent and Tour Operator Visitors
• Museum Visitors
• Monument and Memorial Visitors
• Vacation Rental Store Visitors
• Travel and Local App Users
• Hotels and Lodging Regulars
• Traveling Moms

Curious to see more insights? Reach out today to learn more.

Our Commitment To Data Privacy: What You Need To Know About This Data

InMobi takes user privacy extremely seriously. We meet the most rigorous governance, compliance, and security standards. We have collaborated with consumer advocacy groups and incorporate guidelines from multiple federal government agencies to define industry-leading practices for data governance in the U.S.

Users retain complete control over the data they provide, have a choice in whether they participate and have transparency as to how their data is utilized. Subscribers have constant access to their privacy elections through multiple telco touchpoints. The patented anonymization platform ensures data sets are 100% secure, and are refreshed to ensure all data are anonymized.

1. The 2020 Presidential Election
2. The 2020 Summer Olympics
3. Ongoing Concerns Around Privacy, Trust and Transparency

But, just because these are issues that just about every marketer faces in 2020 doesn’t mean they need to derail all of your brand marketing plans. Here’s how these issues will impact your marketing campaigns, and how you need to overcome potential challenges with your marketing strategy in 2020.

How to Talk to Potential Customers During the 2020 Presidential Election

At this point in the year, it’s hard to miss all of the news around the 2020 elections - and the final vote is still many months away. In particular, the election presents marketers with three key issues.

For starters, the election is likely to drive up advertising costs across the board. Considering that some major social media outlets like Twitter have already largely banned political advertising, the remaining digital marketing channels that still allow it will become more competitive, with brands, candidates and political groups all spending millions of dollars to get their message across to people through these channels.

It also presents brand suitability concerns. Do you want your messaging to appear alongside a political story? Considering the state of the election and U.S. politics these days, the answer for most marketers is a definitive no. The customer experience becomes especially paramount in these politically divisive times.

And there’s one more point you might know be aware of: there are only 24 days between election day and Black Friday. That means brands have less than a month between when the divisiveness of the election ends and when the critical holiday shopping period begins.

So what can marketers do to suitably reach their target consumers this year in light of the election? For starters, it can be helpful to leverage inherently non-political channels. Casual games, weather apps, etc. are inherently brand safe and often have wide reach, making them ideal channels to reach consumers who may be inundated with political messaging elsewhere. Similarly, some ad formats like fullscreen interstitials and videos are often inherently brand safe since they never appear directly alongside divisive or controversial blog posts or other content.

How Sporting Events in 2020 Will Impact Your Marketing Plans

The summer Olympics are back, taking place in Japan from July 24 to August 9. Over more than two weeks, the top talent in global athletics will compete in various events watched by billions of people around the world.

For some brands, the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 will be a boon as they are creating content marketing and running advertising campaigns both connected to and in conjunction with the Olympics.

But this won’t work for all brands. After all, there’s a reason B2B software companies are not among the biggest advertisers for the Olympics. Similar to the election, it behooves these brands to consider where their ads run and how they will appear before and during this big event.

It’s also important to think about how much placements will cost both in the lead up to and during the event. NBC, who once again owns the U.S. broadcasting rights for the Summer Olympics in 2020, expects to bring in more than $1 billion in advertising directly in conjunction to the events. This includes not just broadcast television coverage but also digital streaming channels such as connected TV and mobile apps.

And, many advertisers will also likely use their Olympics-themed creatives and messaging on other channels like social media. This means that even if brands have nothing to do with the Olympics, they may still find it to be prohibitively expensive to run their advertising and marketing campaigns during this period.

How Privacy Initiatives Should Impact Your Marketing Strategy

Of the three main brand marketing challenges we’ve identified, privacy is the one with the most long term concern. While the election and the Olympics will come and go, issues around privacy, transparency and consumer trust are likely to stick around for a while. This has come to a head twice now in 2020 - and all this may be the tip of the proverbial iceberg.

It all started at the beginning of the year, with the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) officially becoming law in the Golden State. Even though the law is only on the books in California, the state’s size and economic importance in the U.S. means that it will have an outsized impact on marketing and privacy.

What does the law entail? While some of the specifics are still being hammered out, it essentially requires anyone that collects consumer data to provide consumers with information on how collected information is being used and to enable them to opt out of data collection and transfer. This is a highly simplified overview of the law, of course, and does not encompass all of its nuances.

Before CCPA, the last major privacy-focused law that was passed on similar scale was the General Data Protection Regulation ( GDPR) in the European Union. There are major differences between the two laws, but their emergence shows that lawmakers are taking consumer privacy very seriously. Many other states and the federal government are considering similar legislation.

The other major news around privacy came out in January, when Google announced that it would be depreciating support for third-party cookies in Chrome within the next two years. Not only is Chrome the most popular Web browser, but third-party cookies have underpinned data collection on the web for years.

While both Safari and Firefox had made similar announcements before Chrome, such a major player deciding to phase out third-party cookies has sent proverbial shockwaves throughout the digital marketing ecosystem. After all, there are hundreds of marketing roles throughout the world that are somewhat or wholly dependent on this data - and it all may be going away soon.

Of course, issues around privacy, trust and transparency are not new. While the 2016 Cambridge Analytica scandal really brought it to light, these issues have been simmering for a while now. But, between Google’s announcement and the start of CCPA, 2020 is shaping up to be the year where it really comes to a head for marketers.

So what can brand marketers do to run successful digital marketing campaigns and fully respect user privacy? There are a few key points to keep in mind:

• When it comes to data collection and privacy, make sure you don’t have a skills gap. Train your team or bring in outside help to ensure compliance and transparency in everything you do.
• Be upfront and transparent with your audience about how you are collecting data and what you are doing with it. Of course, it helps when you have the ability to collect and utilize your own data. If that’s not feasible, then be sure to work with partners that can provide you with their own high quality first-party data.
• Don’t be dependent on just one or a few channels to reach your consumers. For example, if you used to be heavily dependent on browsers, then consider branching out into apps.
• Always think about your consumers, and make sure they are front and center with everything you’re doing. By having this mindset, you’re far less likely to go down a road where you’re not respecting their privacy and losing their trust.

There are numerous brand marketing challenges on the horizon in 2020, that is for sure. But, by understanding what the issues are, you can make sure you are taking proactive and thoughtful steps with your marketing plan now so that your campaigns later on can be successful.

About the Author

Matthew Kaplan has over a decade of digital marketing experience, working to support the content goals of the world’s biggest B2B and B2C brands. He is a passionate app user and evangelist, working to support diverse marketing campaigns across devices.

At the event, which took place on Tuesday, February 10 at Five Palm Jumeirah Dubai, InMobi captured the following awards:

• Gold - Promotion - RAK Foodie App (RAKBank)
• Gold - Location Based Services or Targeting - RAK Foodie App (RAKBank)
• Silver - Location Based Services or Targeting - Etisalat Waselgo (Etisalat)
• Silver - Lead Generation/Direct Response/Conversions - Etisalat Waselgo (Etisalat)
• Silver - Product/Services launch - Etisalat Waselgo (Etisalat)
• Industry Award - Technology Enabler of the Year

“These awards are testament to the hard work and expertise of our teams to bring these amazing campaigns to life,” says Andy Powell, Commercial Director, EMEA for InMobi. “A huge thank you to our partners who made this possible: UM Worldwide MENA, RAKBANK, Initiative and Etisalat.”

“This is yet another fantastic example of stellar collaboration, spanning across multiple geographies and timezones - one of the many things I love about InMobi!” says Manoshi Bhattacharjee, InMobi’s Head of Telco, Travel and BFSI - META. “Also excited to note that these were our first-ever awards for Telco and Banking clients in the region. These verticals have traditionally been very performance/outcome-driven.”

Interested in learning more about these winning campaigns? Be sure to watch these videos to learn more about our efforts with Etisalat Waselgo and the RAK Foodie App. And, if you’re interested in learning more about capabilities, please reach out to us today!

To fill in this gap, many turn to mobile apps. Over the past few years, a number of apps have come out that enable users to learn dozens of new languages.

Who specifically uses these language apps? To find out, we turned to InMobi’s intelligence solutions, which build a holistic understanding of consumers across data sources ranging from InMobi Exchange, which reaches 1.6 billion users globally, to permissively-sourced deterministic first-party carrier data to stated feedback directly from the customers.

In particular, we looked at the following language learning apps:

• Duolingo
• Babbel
• Memrise
• Rosetta Stone

So what does the data reveal?

Insights on Top Language App Users

Demographics:

• Most of the people with these mobile apps are male.
• Close to 42% of those with the Memrise app are between the ages of 18 and 35.
• Over 43% of people who have the Babbel app are between the ages of 26 and 65.
• Close to 46% of Duolingo app owners and around 44% of Rosetta Stone app owners are 26 to 45 years old.
• Babbel is the only app of the four where more than 50% of those with the app are White.
• Over 28% of Duolingo app owners and over 26% of Rosetta Stone app owners are Hispanic/Latinx.
• Among those with the Memrise app, over 21% are Black/African-American and around 9% are Asian/Asian-American/Pacific Islander.

Income:

• Over 57% of Rosetta Stone app owners make under $75,000 a year. This can include people not currently making a salary, like retirees.
• Around 32% of those with the Babbel app and those with the Duolingo app have annual incomes greater than $100,000.

Interests and Motivators:

• All four apps are popular with college students and Millennial Users who have shown an interest in Parties, Dating, Social Media, Networking and Entertainment.
• Within this space, many individuals have more than one language app on their mobile device. This does show an interest in learning languages, but it does mean that one app may not be meeting all of a user’s language acquisition needs.
• People with these apps are also likely to have travel apps, like United Airlines, Priceline and Airbnb, or to visit travel-related mobile websites like delta.com. It’s possible that individuals download these apps after an international trip has been planned or booked.
• Based on app download behavior and mobile website traffic, this audience is also interested in personal finance. If our theory on international travel is right, then it’s possible that this audience is interested in saving up for upcoming or future vacations and trips.

Location:

• The top five ZIP codes where Duolingo app users are found are all suburban areas on the East Coast.
• Users of Memrise, Rosetta Stone and Babbel are often located in the four largest U.S. cities: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Houston.

How To Use This Data To Inform Your Mobile Strategy

These insights are interesting, but how can all of this information be used intelligently to further your business aims? For starters, it’s important to note the motivation people have for using these apps. Many people are probably downloading and using these apps as soon as a trip is booked or during the planning phase.

It’s also critical to understand app users demographics and where these app users often live. From a monetization perspective, it can be helpful to stress to advertisers that many app users in this space are young Non-White men living in major cities with an interest in their personal finance.

Curious to see more insights? Reach out today to learn more.

Our Commitment to Data Privacy: What You Need to Know About This Data

InMobi takes user privacy extremely seriously. We meet the most rigorous governance, compliance, and security standards. We have collaborated with consumer advocacy groups and incorporate guidelines from multiple federal government agencies to define industry-leading practices for data governance in the U.S.

Users retain complete control over the data they provide, have a choice in whether they participate and have transparency as to how their data is utilized. Subscribers have constant access to their privacy elections through multiple telco touchpoints. The patented anonymization platform ensures data sets are 100% secure, and are refreshed to ensure all data are anonymized.

Last year, InMobi Exchange grew on the back of our strong efforts around transparency, our unparalleled audiences and brand demand. We scaled our exchange multi-fold using cloud native technologies alongside smart trafficking systems to optimize supply and demand matching.

What about 2020? Here are our major areas of focus for InMobi Exchange this year, as part of our goal of doubling our Exchange business in 2020:

• Continuing to prioritize mobile app monetization
• Strong focus on scaling in-app header bidding with a goal to move towards a clean first-price marketplace
• Improving identity and measurement to convince more marquee brands to embrace mobile
• Helping brands and publishers scale in the CTV world
• More effectively connecting demand/DSPs with the right supply

In particular, here are the five core areas we will be focusing on based on the feedback and inputs we received:

1) Working to Solve Identity and Measurement Challenges

During this CAB session, we as a group identified a number of core issues around measurement and identity today:

• Many brands and DSPs are heavily dependent on the walled gardens and are continually giving them their first-party data, as they don’t feel like they have safe, secure and scaled advertising options.
• Outside of the walled gardens, advertisers sometimes lack even basic data like age and gender. However, it can be exceedingly difficult for app publishers to collect these kinds of insights.
• New laws and privacy initiatives like GDPR and CCPA are making everyone think twice both about their own data collection methods and how they’re sharing data, if at all. These laws will likely end up strengthening the position that current leaders have in the market.
• The likely demise of browser cookies makes in-app environments more appealing, but how long until Apple and Google depreciate standard mobile device identifiers?
• There is no standard, universally accepted and accurate identifier for new and emerging channels like connected TV.

There is no easy fix to these issues. But, we think that we can be key contributors to industry-wide initiatives to help resolve these issues. In the coming months, we will be working closely both with all of our partners to steer the industry towards sustainable and effective identity, measurement and audience solutions that work for end users, publishers and advertisers alike.

2) Making Emerging Channels Available through InMobi Exchange

CTV is an emerging channel for just about everyone, but it is one that we are keenly interested in. We have our alpha product out in the market, and the initial results are quite astonishing to say the least. Over the next few months, we will be convening separate focus groups to better understand the space and its nuances from both the demand and supply sides.

CTV is a product focus area for us, as it will help InMobi Exchange to acquire quality supply and offer the same to our buyers. Within the realm of CTV, we will be focusing on programmatic CTV, VAST video support, direct publisher integrations and partnering with top content apps as well as SSPs to get access to supply in various forms (tags, SDKs, header bidding and more).

3) Standardizing Header Bidding for DSPs

On the publisher side, in-app header bidding is slowly becoming the norm. In fact, many publishers are now using header bidding to A/B test partners to see which ones will bring them more money for their supply.

But, on the demand side, there is a lack of understanding on such inventory and toolsets to bid into such inventory. This is especially the case for performance-first DSPs that are looking at pricing at scale as an important aspect in their bidding algorithms. In the immediate future, we will be convening a meeting with different DSPs and even some publishers to better understand their thoughts and opinions on in-app header bidding, and to determine how to best incorporate related information into InMobi Exchange.

4) Strengthening Mobile Video Advertising

InMobi video solutions will continue to help brands achieve their goals. We will keep working on doing mobile video right, especially for brands.

We are closely looking at bringing video pods further into the in-app advertising space. In a video pod, multiple mobile video ads run during a 30-second or 60-second ad slot. This type of bunching is common in television advertising, but it isn’t very common in the programmatic in-app ad world.

We plan on holding further discussions with various partners to see if issues around ideal ad length, price, monetization, brand safety and more can be adequately addressed in order to make this more appealing across the programmatic ecosystem.

5) Improving Advertising Monetization for App Publishers

In our first InMobi Exchange CAB, we learned a great deal from the publishers themselves about what they value in both in-app header bidding and full-stack mediation, and why they see both as beneficial. And, open exchange buying has proven to be lucrative for many publishers, especially in comparison to deals the direct sales team is bringing to the table.

But, outside of major app publishers or those with well-established brands, many app publishers are not seeing private marketplace or programmatic direct dollars being directed their way. In the future, we will be working with app publishers to figure out how their premium demand can be further exposed to brand advertisers who prefer more direct buying.

Publishers are looking at tools to make programmatic direct and PMP deals more usable. Currently there is too much work that needs to be done to do this, and hence they look at open exchange buying. InMobi will be working with pubs to bring in the best-in-class direct buying tools for both pubs and advertisers, so the operational headache can be solved.

A big thanks to everyone who attended! We’re looking forward to the next CAB meetings already, and to all of the forthcoming improvements to InMobi Exchange.

Hyper casual titles typically feature very simple game mechanics, making them easy for just about anyone with a mobile device to figure out and play. In this space, game development is usually streamlined too, making it relatively easy to make and market these kinds of apps, which is why hyper casual games now dominate the app store charts.

In 2019, not only was the mobile gaming market worth over $80 billion, but close to half of all game downloads came from these kinds of app, according to App Annie’s report on The State of Mobile 2020. Mobile games overall made more than $3 billion in 2019, with a significant chunk of that coming from ad revenue and not just in-app purchases, according to eMarketer. There’s a reason even the likes of Goldman Sachs have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in hyper casual markets.

Uncovering the Typical Hyper Casual Mobile Gamer

But who are these hyper casual mobile gamers? To find out, we turned to InMobi Pulse. InMobi Pulse builds a holistic understanding of consumers across data sources ranging from InMobi Exchange, which reaches 1.6 billion users globally, to permissively-sourced deterministic first-party telco data to stated feedback directly from the customers.

In particular, we looked at the following hyper casual games:

• Wordscapes
• Piano Magic Tiles
• Impossible Bottle Flip
• Temple Run

So what does the data reveal?

Who Plays Top Hyper Casual Mobile Games?

Demographics:

• A significant number of app owners here are female, even though app ownership overall across categories tends to skew male. Over 58% of those with the Wordscapes app and close to 55% of those with the Piano Magic Tiles app are female.
• Temple Run has the same percentage of male and female app owners, while just over 49% of Impossible Bottle Flip app owners are female.
• Close to 27% of those with the Piano Magic Tiles are between 26 and 35 years old, while another 25% are between 56 and 65. Around a third of Temple Run app owners are between 18 and 35.
• Over 53% of Impossible Bottle Flip app owners are between 26 and 45 years old, while more than 55% of those with the Wordscapes app are between 46 and 75 years old.
• Over half or more of those with the Impossible Bottle Flip, Piano Magic Tiles and Temple Run apps are Non-White (Hispanic/Latinx, Black/African-American and/or Asian/Pacific Islander). Wordscape is the only app of the four where over 50% of app owners are White.
• For all four apps, around three-fourths of app owners have one or two children at home.

Income and Employment:

• Temple Run overindexes with individuals making under $50,000 a year.
• Piano Magic Tiles overindexes with people making between $50,000 and $100,000 a year, and people making more than $250,000 annually.
• Over 31% of Wordscapes app owners and more than 28% of Piano Magic Tiles app owners make $100,000 or more a year.

Interests and Motivators:

• People with these apps generally love playing other games, with most app owners also having many other hyper casual games on their phones.
• Top audience segments here include entertainment enthusiasts, business executives, family shoppers, high-end fashionistas and socialites.
• Temple Run app owners often visit the PBS Kids mobile website, and overindex on GoNoodle app ownership. Similarly, a significant number of Impossible Bottle Flip app owners also have the YouTube Kids app on their mobile devices.
• Wordscapes app owners are particularly interested in word games, often having other word apps and logic games apps on their mobile device.

Location:

• Across all four apps reviewed, a significant number of app owners like in either California or Texas.
• For both Impossible Bottle Flip and Temple Run, many app owners live in major cities like Houston, Chicago and New York City. A significant percentage of Wordscapes app owners also live in New York City, while two of their top ZIP codes are in Chicago.

How To Use This Data To Inform Your Mobile Marketing Strategy

These insights are interesting, but how can all of this high quality information from InMobi Pulse be used intelligently to further your mobile marketing and business aims? How can this data be used to inform both user acquisition and ad monetization?

For starters, it’s no surprise that cross promotion has become a hallmark of this space, as people often have multiple hyper casual games on their mobile devices. But, that doesn’t mean that hyper casual gamers are only receptive to rewarded video ads. As the data illustrates, many of those with hyper casual games are also wealthy urban parents, which is an appealing category that many brands want to reach through advertising.

From a monetization perspective, it can be helpful to stress to advertisers that these kinds of apps can be a great way to reach populations and/or audiences that might be difficult to reach through other media. After all, compared to other app categories, those with hyper casual games on their mobile devices are more likely to be female and not White.

Curious to see more insights? Reach out today to learn more about InMobi Pulse.

Our Commitment to Data Privacy: What You Need to Know About This Data

InMobi takes user privacy extremely seriously. We meet the most rigorous governance, compliance, and security standards. We have collaborated with consumer advocacy groups and incorporate guidelines from multiple federal government agencies to define industry-leading practices for data governance in the U.S.

Users retain complete control over the data they provide, have a choice in whether they participate and have transparency as to how their data is utilized. Subscribers have constant access to their privacy elections through multiple telco touchpoints. The patented anonymization platform ensures data sets are 100% secure, and are refreshed to ensure all data are anonymized.

Whether you're an indie developer or an established publisher, mobilegame marketing deserves your attention. You can create the best mobile game ever, but if you don’t promote it, it will get lost among thousands of other games in the app store.

As you know, the mobile game market is very crowded and competitive. That’s why it’s essential that you create an effective marketing strategy that will put your game on the map.

We have put together useful mobile game marketing tips that will help you get started and win in 2020.

1. Do Thorough Market Research and Analyze Your Competitors

Before you even make your mobile game, you should conduct exhaustive market research. After you analyze the current trends in the gaming industry, you’ll have a much better idea of which direction to go in.

That’s not to say you should follow trends blindly, but it helps to know what people are interested in and what type of mobile games do well.

If you already made your mobile game, you should research your competitors. Analyze what makes their games so good as well as their weak points. Also, compare your mobile game to your competitors’. See how it stacks up. Just make sure to be objective and honest with yourself. All that information will help you define which aspects of your game you’ll focus on when developing a marketing campaign.

2. Create a Landing Page for Your Mobile Game

You might think that adding your game to the app store is enough. However, you would be wrong. In order to successfully market your mobile game, you need to create a landing page.

Having a website, along with your app store page, increases the visibility of your mobile game and helps your overall marketing efforts.

Think of it as the place that contains the most important information about your mobile game, all in one place. That includes game trailer, link to the app store, screenshots, news, updates, tutorials, etc.

3. Master App Store Optimization

One of the key parts of mobile game marketing is app store optimization. Think of it as SEO, but for apps. The reason why publishers spend a lot of time on ASO is the fact it boosts the visibility of a game. It can even help you get on featured lists like Google Play editor’s choice or top games. That, in turn, results in more installs because the app store is the main place where gamers browse mobile games.

How to Do App Store Optimization?

Granted, app store optimization is not a simple process, but it’s worth the effort. Here are a couple of main things you should pay attention to when optimizing your app store page.

The first is keyword optimization. If you published your game in the App Store, you’ll notice there’s a 100-character keyword field. Write down the keywords that best describe your game and use up all the characters. If a user’s search query is relevant to the keywords you have added, your game will rank in the search results.

Google Play doesn’t have a keyword field but uses the keywords you put in the title, short description, and long description. That’s why you should incorporate relevant keywords in the description on top of making it interesting and exciting.

Another key factor is the name of your mobile game. When developers choose their game title, they oftentimes think in terms of branding. Although that’s an important part of it, the name of your mobile game is also important for ASO. That’s why you should include keywords in the title, not just the description. The title in the app store can be up to 255 characters long. So, use that to your advantage.

4. Partner Up with Gaming Influencers

Influencer marketing has been one of the fastest-growing trends in the past few years. It’s safe to say that it will stick around in 2020 as well.

Mobile game publishers can benefit a lot from collaborating with influencers. It is one of the most effective ways to get more visibility for your game. The best platforms for finding gaming influencers are Twitch and YouTube.

Conclusion

Don’t let that hard work you have put into creating your game go to waste and promote your game. These tips will get you started and point you in the right direction. We at Udonis have elevated many mobile games to reach the top charts through smart user acquisition techniques. We know from experience that a good mobile game marketing strategy can do wonders. So don’t let your game get lost in this crowded market.

About Udonis:

In 2018 & 2019, Udonis Inc. served over 14.1 billion ads & acquired over 50 million users for mobile apps & games. We’re recognized as a leading mobile marketing agency by 5 major marketing review firms. We helped over 20 mobile apps & games reach the top charts. Want to know how we make it look so effortless? Meet us to find out.

But how has the consumer to consumer (C2C) ecosystem evolved in the mobile era? How have smartphones and tablets disrupted peer-to-peer buying and selling? As with most content consumption, the C2C marketplaces have found strong growth in apps, where they can control the variables associated with privacy, user registration and efficient transaction technology.

To find out, we turned to InMobi Pulse. InMobi Pulse builds a holistic understanding of consumers across data sources ranging from InMobi Exchange, which reaches 1.6 billion users globally, to permissively-sourced deterministic first-party carrier data to stated feedback directly from the customers.

In particular, we looked at the following C2C marketplaces:

• Letgo app
• Letgo mobile website
• Nextdoor app
• Nextdoor mobile website
• eBay app
• eBay mobile website
• OfferUp app
• OfferUp mobile website
• Mercari app
• Craigslist mobile website
• CPlus app
• VarageSale app
• VarageSale mobile website

So what does the data reveal?

Top Mobile C2C Insights:

Demographics:

• Dedicated C2C apps do particularly well with Hispanic audiences, while those that offer a buying and selling marketplace among other features tend to have a majority White audience.
• Around 25% of everyone who has the letgo app and over 43% of those visiting the offerup website are Hispanic. In comparison, 61% of those who use the app CPlus (a popular Craigslist app) and close to 64% of those who visit the Nextdoor mobile website are White.
• Over half of those with the VarageSale, Mercari and Nextdoor apps on their mobile devices are female. On the flip side, close to three-fourths of CPlus app owners are male.

Income:

• Dedicated C2C apps have a notable portion of their audiences making under $75,000 a year.
• Over half of everyone with the VarageSale app on their mobile device fall in this category, as does over half of those who own the Mercari app.
• Close to 58% of Nextdoor app owners and over 61% of Nextdoor mobile website visitors make over $75,000 annually, making them an outlier in this space.

Interests and Motivators:

• People with these kinds of apps on their mobile devices are more likely to be motivated by money, and are not necessarily just cleaning out junk or decluttering.
• Individuals who own top C2C apps are also likely to own other similar C2C apps.
• People with these kinds of apps on their mobile devices are also likely to have apps on their mobile devices related to buying and selling used cars.
• Common overlapping audience segments for C2C app owners include entertainment enthusiasts, family shoppers and financially savvy individuals.
• C2C app owners often spend around 100 minutes per session using apps like letgo, OfferApp and VarageSale.

Location:

• C2C app owners are often found in rural or suburban areas. For example, seven of the top 10 ZIP codes for letgo app owners fall in these kinds of geographies. The top five ZIP codes most likely to contain OfferUp app owners are suburban. The VarageSale app is particularly popular in rural coastal Texas, while 70% of the top ZIP codes for the eBay app are in rural or suburban areas of the Midwest.

How To Use This Data To Inform Your Mobile Strategy

These insights are interesting, but how can all of this information from InMobi Pulse be used intelligently to further your business aims? For starters, it’s important to note the motivation people have for using these apps. People who have these C2C apps on their mobile devices are looking to monetize their assets or get good deals.

It’s also critical to understand app users demographics and where these app users often live. From a monetization perspective, it can be helpful to stress to advertisers that C2C apps can be a great way to reach rural or suburban populations and/or Hispanic audiences that might be difficult to reach through other app categories.

Curious to see more insights? Reach out today to learn more about InMobi Pulse.

Our Commitment to Data Privacy: What You Need to Know About This Data

InMobi takes user privacy extremely seriously. We meet the most rigorous governance, compliance, and security standards. We have collaborated with consumer advocacy groups and incorporate guidelines from multiple federal government agencies to define industry-leading practices for data governance in the U.S.

Users retain complete control over the data they provide, have a choice in whether they participate and have transparency as to how their data is utilized. Subscribers have constant access to their privacy elections through multiple telco touchpoints. The patented anonymization platform ensures data sets are 100% secure, and are refreshed to ensure all data are anonymized.

How The Key Players Fared In Survey Results

In the U.S. in particular, why do people buy chocolate? What do they look for, and how do they determine which brand to buy? To answer these and other questions, we turned to InMobi Pulse.

Through InMobi Pulse, we directly surveyed 500 people (250 men and 250 women across all age groups) in the 10 largest cities by population in the U.S. in October and November 2019. People who had bought chocolate in the last six months were asked a dozen questions about their brand preferences, why they buy chocolate, who they buy chocolate for, where they buy chocolate and how they’re convinced to choose one brand over another.

The survey focused on the primary North American offerings from The Hershey’s Company, M&M Mars and Nestle, which are the largest chocolate companies in the world. In particular, individuals were asked about these specific brands: Reese’s, M&M's, Snickers, Kit Kat, Cadbury, Toblerone and Aero.

Chocolate Brand Awareness and Brand Recall

• Snickers and Kit-Kat had the highest levels of awareness, closely followed by M&M's. In fact, M&M's and Kit-Kat are both recalled more by women, whereas Snickers was recalled by both genders equally; on average, women recall a higher number of brands than men.
• Consumers reported a higher awareness of Reese’s, Cadbury and Toblerone in Phoenix compared to other cities, while Kit-Kat is especially well-known in San Diego and Toblerone is especially well known in Los Angeles. San Jose has lower average brand awareness in the city as compared to other cities.
• Reese’s is not only the brand purchased the most, but consumers are more likely to purchase Reese’s than any other brand as well. Cadbury and Toblerone are less likely to be purchased by women in the future.
• Compared to other cities, there is higher future consideration of Reese’s in Chicago, of M&M's and Kit-Kat in Philadelphia, and for Cadbury and Toblerone in San Jose.

Chocolate Brand Purchasing Patterns

• In the last three months, more people said they had purchased M&M's over any other brand.
• Reese’s and M&M’s are the most often purchased brands of chocolate. According to survey results, Reese’s and M&M's are purchased significantly more by women than men.
• M&M's are purchased significantly more in Phoenix, while Reese’s is especially popular in San Antonio and Toblerone is purchased more frequently in San Diego, compared to other major cities.
• Even though Reese’s and M&M’s are leaders in the space overall, there are fewer purchases of Reese’s and M&M's in San Jose compared to other metros.
• The most often purchased brands are not significantly different among men and women.
• Survey respondents said they spent more money on Reese’s than any other chocolate brand included in the survey.
• Compared to men, women spend less money on Cadbury.

Is Chocolate Bought at Convenience Stores or Somewhere Else?

• Supermarkets are the most popular place to buy chocolate, followed by convenience stores, gas stations and corner stores. Very few people polled said they buy chocolate online.
• Reese’s, M&M’s, Snickers and Toblerone are bought frequently more from convenience stores, whereas Snickers is bought more from gas stations and corner stores. Cadbury and Toblerone are bought more often from pharmacies.
• Compared to other cities, consumers buy their chocolates more from convenience stores in Houston and San Antonio. Pharmacies are a more popular place to buy chocolate in Philadelphia compared to other places in the U.S. There is a significantly lower share of chocolate purchasing from gas stations and corner stores in San Diego.

Influencing the Chocolate Purchase

• People surveyed said they most often bought chocolate to fulfill a craving. Chocolate is frequently an impulse purchase, although the same percentage of people said they bought chocolate for children or a family member.
• M&M's are bought more than other brands to fulfill a craving, whereas Reese’s is bought more than other brands on multiple occasions (namely impulse buying, to fulfill a craving and for a holiday).
• Toblerone is bought significantly more than other brands for gifting and for holidays.
• Around 80% of chocolate consumers in Phoenix buy chocolate to fulfill a craving.

Chocolate Brands and Advertising

• More people recall seeing ads for M&M's and Reese’s than for any other brand.
• A significantly higher proportion of women recall watching an ad for Reese’s and M&M's.
• Ad recall for M&M’s is significantly higher in Phoenix as compared to other cities. Consumers from Phoenix and San Diego also recall ads for Reese’s more frequently as compared to people in other cities.
• According to the survey, there is lower recall for ads for M&M's and Reeve’s in San Jose as compared to other cities.
• More people recall seeing ads on television for chocolate brands than from any other ad source.
• In Phoenix, around 90% of consumers polled recalled watching an ad for major chocolate brands on TV.
• What about ads on mobile apps? While ad recall in this category is comparatively low, those that have seen chocolate ads on mobile have viewed these ads primarily on social media and entertainment apps.

Understanding The Survey Results

In some ways, the results of this survey are hardly surprising. The largest brands in the chocolate space continue to hold sway, and people often purchase chocolate just because they want a special treat.

How can all of this information from InMobi Pulse be used to more intelligently allocate advertising budget? Here are a few options to consider.

For one, mobile is underutilized by chocolate brands. While TV ads are definitely working to some extent, mobile apps represent a huge untapped market — and opportunity.

Not only is mobile overtaking television as the most-viewed screen in people’s lives, but the immediacy of mobile makes it ideal for driving last-minute purchases. For example, brands can deliver in-app ads to people when they’re in or near grocery stores or convenience stores, in order to help convince them to make a brand purchase.

Further, marketing strategies need to be highly differentiated by region. In cities like Phoenix, San Antonio and San Diego, the population is predisposed to buying chocolate. It’s the opposite in other markets, like San Jose and New York City.

Understanding the Global Chocolate Market

Let’s look at chocolate manufacturing and consumption overall. Retail sales around the world topped $98 billion in 2018. While Europe has an estimated 35% market share, chocolate consumption is strong throughout the world, from the U.S. to Brazil to the Asia-Pacific region.

And, the market size for chocolate confectionery is likely to grow significantly in the coming years. According to Mordor Intelligence, the global market for chocolate products is expected to reach almost $140 billion by 2024, driven by demand for premium products like fair trade dark chocolate, classic milk chocolate candy options and seasonal chocolate confections.

“The increasing demand and growing popularity of dark and organic chocolates are fuelling the market’s growth,” the report’s authors noted. “Furthermore, the seasonal demand plays an important role in the chocolates sales. Various companies are launching a wide range of chocolate varieties during occasions, like Easter. Factors, such as shape and packaging of chocolates are the key strategies adopted by companies to attain maximum sales during a festive season.”

Interested in learning more? Want to conduct your own mobile-first research campaign? Reach out today to learn more about InMobi Pulse and its many capabilities.

About the Author

Matthew Kaplan has over a decade of digital marketing experience, working to support the content goals of the world’s biggest B2B and B2C brands. He is a passionate app user and evangelist, working to support diverse marketing campaigns across devices. He is also, unsurprisingly, an avid chocolate fan.

In the past, mobile used to be thought of as the second screen. That’s no longer the case. Mobile devices have become the most personal screens in our lives, traveling with us everywhere For many people, especially younger folks, mobile is the primary screen, as it is the first thing they see in the morning and the very last thing they look at before going to sleep at night.

In fact, the myriad products and services available on mobile devices have become so central that consulting firm Deloitte refers to it as a “smartphone addiction.” No wonder people look at their smartphones and other mobile technology more than 50 times a day on average now.

“Today, why bother specifying between a consumer and a mobile consumer? Considering the current state of mobile technology, saying global mobile consumer is like saying tiny shrimp or ATM machine - it’s just redundant at this stage,” Richard Thomas, Head of Brand Marketing, North America at InMobi, noted in August 2019. “Every brand today, no matter what space it’s in, must keep the mobile nature of its consumers in mind in everything that happens.”

Mobility: How Marketers Reach a Greater Percent of Consumers

All this is nothing new. But, too many marketers are only beginning to really grapple with this reality. In 2020, expect far more brands to really understand the mobile nature of today’s consumers and take material advantage of mobile’s many benefits.

“It all goes back to having a mobile strategy that’s based on addressing consumer challenges,” Yory Wurmser, Principal Mobile Analyst with eMarketer, noted.

As Abhay Singhal, CEO of InMobi Marketing Cloud and Co-Founder of InMobi Group noted, this has largely already happened in other global markets like India. It’s especially the case in China, where brands like WeChat and Alibaba address consumer needs and allow their customers to seamlessly consume content, make mobile payments, complete purchases, communicate with others and do just about anything else all through mobile.

“They still want their life to become easier. They still want things to become more automatic, things to become more simpler. They should be able to enjoy time and not worry about how to get from point A to point B, how to shop stuff and so on. So I think those are the things that we believe are going to be critical for marketers in 2020,” Abhay said.

How to Capture the Global Mobile Consumer and Provide the Best Mobile Experience

What are the ways in which marketers can take advantage of today’s mobile-first world. One good option is to understand how consumers are already using mobile, and then taking steps to integrate with these habits in mind.

“For example, if you’re a retailer, you want to figure out how your site or app can make shopping easier, how to make payments seamless, and how to notify loyal customers of new deals,” Yory said. “You’ll also continue to see more seamless mobile payment integrations to make the mobile buying experience better.”

In addition to mobile wallets, content can be a great way to get in front of mobile consumers as well. People often turn to their phones for entertainment, and that presents a major opportunity for mobile marketers of all stripes.

“I think historically publishers have avoided creating content because it's very costly. I think that the ways in which you can monetize content today, especially in the mobile ecosystem, have made such strides that even if you tried it in the past, the creation of content may actually be a good business for you today where it wasn't three years ago,” Mike Brooks, SVP of Revenue at WeatherBug, said.

Nevertheless, no matter how marketers decide to incorporate mobile into their marketing and advertising plans, it’s critical to keep the user front and center of everything. What do they really want, and how can mobile help you deliver what they want to them? In 2020, successful brands will take this creed to heart while also respecting personal information.

“Brands of late sometimes trip over themselves in trying to come across as authentic or ethical for their audience. They should be asking themselves what their users want, how are they fulfilling their wants and needs? Once marketers have tailored their messaging, they have the flexibility of marketing through all the modes mentioned above and observing how users respond across them,” Jason Hicks, EVP of Growth at Kochava, said.

What to Expect in 2020

No one knows for sure what will happen in the future, but all signs point to plenty of opportunities in the realm of mobile technology for marketers and advertisers in 2020. As our group of experts pointed out, savvy businesses will use all of the screens and data available to them to better understand, identify, engage and acquire the right consumers in the new year, in order to drive real connections with them.

“Apps, which somehow managed to create this close bond between a user and a brand that websites never quite could, emerged as the winner in mobile over the past few years and will be a big focus to drive engagement in 2020. The numbers prove it: App users spend 20x more time with content than mobile web visitors, apps engage and convert 3x better than mobile websites, and apps get 16x more usage minutes per month than their mobile web counterparts,” noted Mada Seghete, Branch’s Co-Founder and Head of Strategy.

But 2020 won’t be without its challenges. Privacy, transparency, trust and fraud will continue to be key talking points and areas in need of sustainable solutions throughout the year.

2020 is shaping up to be a watershed year. By understanding what is likely on the horizon, marketers can steer a steady course and see quality returns from their efforts.

“Enterprises will need to reshape their business models to stay relevant,” Mitel said of mobile devices.

Charting 2020’s Top Mobile Advertising and Marketing Trends

How will brands more effectively understand, identify, engage and acquire mobile-first users? What steps will they take to drive real connections with consumers over mobile? Download InMobi’s 2020 trends report today for key insights on the future from the world’s top mobile experts.

DOWNLOAD NOW

Note: This is the fifth in a five-part series on the top mobile marketing and advertising trends of 2020. The first post covers how mobile in-app advertising overall is likely to evolve and mature in 2020, and the second post covers the top mobile advertising data usage trends of 2020. The third post covered ad fraud and ongoing efforts to boost trust and transparency, and the fourth post discussed OTT and CTV advertising trends. Be sure to stay tuned to the InMobi blog for more predictions, and to see if these trends actually come to fruition in 2020!.

“We’re seeing a continued increase in spending for video across platforms, but the growth has been primarily focused on mobile and Connected TV,” says Vanja B. Brzin, VP of Product Marketing at Celtra.

Defining DOOH, OTT and CTV

Before we get into it, let’s make sure we’re on the same page. For starters, digital out of home (DOOH) refers to screens and devices found outside of the home or the office. DOOH encompasses everything from elevator displays to gas station pumps and everything else in between. These outdoor screens are powered by apps, and marketers are beginning to be able to run digital advertisements in these environments programmatically.

OTT refers to video that is coming over the top of a traditional TV set. Instead of delivering video content through linear TV or traditional cable, OTT video is delivered through an internet connection. OTT devices can include a smartphone, a tablet or even gaming consoles. Apple TV and Roku are big names in the OTT hardware space, while Netflix is the top player in the OTT streaming space.

CTV simply refers to a television set that is connected to the internet. This is why it’s often also called smart TV. With connected TVs or smart TVs, viewers access content over the internet, but the end device is a standard TV screen. Many television sets now come imbued with this connectivity, but it can also be added to a television through a device like a Chromecast, or through a separate layer like a gaming console or set-top box.

Charting the Rise of Addressable TV

As these kinds of viewing experiences become more commonplace, expect mobile marketers and advertisers to be right behind them. Abhay noted that OTT/CTV experiences can be especially ideal for direct-to-consumer brands, while Mike Brooks, SVP of Revenue for WeatherBug, said that he sees a lot of potential from OTT and CTV ads for user acquisition.

In his talk with Anne Frisbie during Advertising Week New York 2019, Vinny Rinaldi, Head of Addressable Media and Technology at The Hershey’s Company, said Hershey’s would be investing more in OTT, especially as an extension of their present mobile marketing efforts. This makes sense, as a lot of OTT video viewing happens on mobile devices now.

“Mobile consumers expect inspiring, personal and relevant experiences across an ever-growing variety of channels and ad formats. The explosion of ecosystem complexity has created a new kind of challenge for marketers,” Vanja said.

But this growth won’t come without its fair share of hiccups. For starters, getting measurement and viewability right within these environments will be key. If this is not solved, then it’s possible that marketers won’t flock en masse to these screens in 2020. Marketers need baseline metrics like completion rates from OTT and CTV in order to be able to fully measure their results and track progress.

“We've formed a number of partnerships combining expertise to offer solutions in the OTT, CTV, SVOD and OOH spaces. For example, colliding advanced data analysis with location technologies to provide marketers with effective intelligence on OOH. There is a great deal of interest in these exploding areas as we head into 2020,” said Jason Hicks, EVP of Growth at Kochava.

There’s also the issue of fraud. As OTT/CTV marketing budgets rise, fraudsters are right on their heels.

Fraud is increasingly found “also in emerging environments where there might not be the comprehensive safeguards in place that there are in the more developed environments. And so we're seeing fraudsters trying to take advantage of the CTV space. I think that's going to continue into 2020 but you're going to see companies like us fight harder and harder,” Steven Woolway, SVP of Business Development at DoubleVerify, said in October 2019.

Charting 2020’s Top Mobile Advertising and Marketing Trends

How will brands more effectively understand, identify, engage and acquire mobile-first users? What steps will they take to drive real connections with consumers over mobile? Download InMobi’s 2020 trends report today for key insights on the future from the world’s top mobile experts.

DOWNLOAD NOW

Note: This is the fourth in a five-part series on the top mobile marketing and advertising trends of 2020. The first post covers how mobile in-app advertising overall is likely to evolve and mature in 2020, and the second post covers the top mobile advertising data usage trends of 2020. The third post covered ad fraud and ongoing efforts to boost trust and transparency. Be sure to stay tuned to the InMobi blog for more predictions in the fifth and final blog post in the series.

There are so many options out there that it can be hard to determine what foods to eat to start your day. Is peanut butter on gluten-free 12-grain bread okay, or is a nut butter like almond butter a better choice? How about chia seeds or cottage cheese or boiled eggs?

Complicating matters further is the fact that not everyone agrees on what healthy breakfast foods look like. Some people are mostly concerned about lowering their blood pressure or weight loss while others may be more concerned about heart health - or maybe they just want to feel full in the morning.

What this all goes to show is that there are a lot of differing opinions out there when it comes to healthy breakfast option. So to get a better sense of what the majority of Americans consider healthy, we asked them directly! Through InMobi Pulse, we surveyed over 550 adults of different genders and ages from across the U.S. to learn more about how they feel about breakfast and healthy eating in the morning.

Healthy Breakfast Eating Survey Results Revealed

First, before going too far, we wanted to find out whether people actually cared about eating healthy in the morning. All told, 71% of survey respondents said they prefer a healthy breakfast over a normal one. And, 73% of females and 76% of those 35 and older have this preference.

What about when price is factored into the equation? Overall, 61% said they were somewhat or very likely to choose a healthy breakfast over a normal breakfast if the price of both is roughly the same. Two-thirds of women stated a preference for healthy breakfast in this scenario, as did 68% of those 55 and older.

But, healthy breakfast options are not always the same price as more standard breakfast options. Would people choose a healthy breakfast if it meant paying more? The answer, mostly, is yes.

Two-thirds of all survey respondents said they were very or somewhat likely to choose a healthy breakfast option even if it meant paying more money. This preference existed across all age groups too (70% of those between 18 and 54, 63% of those 55 and older).

Food Preferences in the Morning

As our survey shows, Americans across all age groups prefer and claim to seek out healthy breakfast food options. So what specific foods are they selecting?

Often, the answer is nothing. Among survey respondents nationwide, 14% said they had nothing for breakfast. Over a third said they consume just coffee or tea in the morning, making these caffeinated beverages the most popular morning option overall.

What about those that actually eat solid food in the morning on a regular basis? Eggs was the most popular food choice, at 28%, followed by cereal at 20%. Other common choices included bacon and toast, with both at 15%. It’s possible that both eggs and bacon are top choices because they are both classic options that have many grams of protein.

But, interestingly enough, less than one in four survey respondents said they considered cereal a healthy food option in the morning. And, only 18% said they thought toast was healthy. Bacon is even further down, with just 10% of survey respondents saying they thought it was a healthy breakfast food choice.

This shows a bit of a disconnect between what people say and what their actions show. A vast majority claim to prefer and select healthy breakfast options, but the survey data shows that the most popular breakfast foods are not ones that most Americans consider to be healthy.

The one option that is both well liked and considered healthy is the egg. Not only was it the most popular breakfast food, but 43% of those polled said they thought eggs were a healthy morning food choice.

Compared to eggs, only one food item was more widely thought of as healthy: oatmeal. Over half (56% to be exact) of survey respondents said they thought oatmeal was a healthy breakfast choice. This may stem from the fact that much has been published recently on the health benefits of oats, including that they are a good source of beta glucans and contain many grams of fiber per serving.

What other food do Americans consider to be healthy? According to our research, 40% said yogurt was healthy, while 27% thought granola bars and breakfast bars were a healthy food choice. Further, just 13% said bagels were a healthy breakfast choice while only 20% considered coffee and tea to be healthy breakfast options.

Healthy Breakfast Brand Preferences

When it comes to healthy breakfast eating, what specific brands do American consumers seek out? Not surprising, Quaker Oats was the top choice. In fact, 35% of those polled said they turned to the brand for a healthy start to their day. It was considered a healthy breakfast choice by 39% of those 55 and older and 41% of women.

Following Quaker Oats were three cereal brands: Raisin Bran (considered healthy by 26% of survey respondents), Cheerios (24%) and Special K (23%). Among women polled, 28% said each brand was healthy.

Only one brand was deemed healthier by men compared to women: Corn Flakes. While 12% of females considered it to be a healthy breakfast choice, 17% of men thought it was a healthy breakfast option.

Less than one in 10 survey respondents thought Chex (9%), Wheaties (8%) and Weight Watchers Smart Ones (6%) were healthy. But, younger people were more likely than their older peers to say that these brands were healthy. While 11% of those between 18 and 34 said Chex and Wheaties were healthy breakfast selections, only 7% of those between 35 and 54 said the same thing. And, while 9% of those between 18 and 34 said food items from Weight Watchers Smart Ones were healthy breakfast choices, only 3% of those 55 and older said the same thing.

What’s healthy to eat for breakfast? According to our research, Americans are very divided on this question. There’s no one answer that everyone from coast to coast will agree with universally.

How To Use This Data To Inform Your Mobile Ad Campaigns

These insights are interesting, but how can all of this information from InMobi Pulse be used to more intelligently allocate in-app and mobile ad spend? For brands with healthy breakfast options, it is critical to ensure that they understand, identify, engage and acquire healthy breakfast consumers near and during the very beginning of the year, when many people make wellness-related New Year’s resolutions.

Identifying the Healthy Breakfast Food Consumer

As always, audience segmenting and targeting through InMobi Audiences is key. For health- and fitness-focused brands, it’s a good idea to go after people who are likely to be a top user of your products.

Here’s a small sampling of what ideal audience segments in this space can look like:

• Gym Visitors
• Health and Fitness Enthusiasts
• Health and Wellness (Users who consume app usage and mobile web content associated with fitness, diet and exercise)
• Sports Club Visitors (Users who have visited a sports club at least once in the last 90 days).

With InMobi Audiences, audience composition and definition are clearly communicated, so marketers can be confident about every aspect of their campaign targeting. Using InMobi's unique, accurate and always-on audiences, you will be able to tailor your targeting to reach the highest value consumers perfect for your business goals.

Engaging and Acquiring Healthy Breakfast Enthusiasts

How else can this data be leveraged? For brands with healthy breakfast options available in the market, it’s critical to strike while the iron is hot and capitalize on the opportunity presented by New Year’s resolutions.

Make sure consumers are well aware of what is available - ideally before or right after New Year’s Day. Offering coupons, discounts or other special promotions can also help potentially drive sales.

From a creative standpoint, it can be helpful to personalize ads as much as possible. As much as possible, highlight real-world use cases that will actually resonate with the viewer. For example, it could be beneficial to showcase a product’s taste or convenience over the mere fact that it’s healthy.

Curious to see more insights on the healthy eating space or any other industry segment? Reach out today to learn more about InMobi Pulse.

LEARN MORE

InMobi Pulse builds a holistic understanding of the customers from across data sources ranging from the InMobi ad exchange which reaches 1.6 billion users globally to permissively-sourced deterministic first-party telco data to stated feedback directly from the customers.

Our Commitment to Data Privacy: What You Need to Know About This Data

We take user privacy extremely seriously. We meet the most rigorous governance, compliance, and security standards. We have collaborated with consumer advocacy groups and incorporates guidelines from multiple federal government agencies to define industry-leading practices for data governance in the U.S.

Users retain complete control over the data they provide, and have a choice in whether they participate and transparency as to how their data is utilized. Subscribers have constant access to their privacy elections through multiple telco touch points. The patented anonymization platform ensures data sets are 100% secure, and are refreshed to ensure all data are anonymized.

About the Author

Matthew Kaplan has over a decade of digital marketing experience, working to support the content goals of the world’s biggest B2B and B2C brands. Matt has previous experience editing a digital-only healthy eating and cooking publication. He is a passionate app user and evangelist, working to support diverse marketing campaigns across devices.

Highlighting the Current State of Fraud in Mobile Advertising

As Steven Woolway from DoubleVerify noted in conversation with InMobi’s David Di Angelo in 2019, mobile in-app ad fraud remains exorbitantly high – and will remain in the millions of dollars in the foreseeable future. Click spam, click injection, SDK spoofing, faked installs, click flooding (a form of click fraud) and invalid traffic (IVT) are just some of the types of mobile ad fraud that will continue to plague digital advertising in 2020.

Mobile app install fraud is an especially pressing concern, and is likely to remain a major issue for mobile marketing professionals looking for new users for their mobile apps. In 2019, marketers lost an estimated $13 billion to app install fraud. Considering that fraud costs in this space almost doubled from 2018 to 2019, marketers need to be worried about this rising trend.

How to More Effectively Fight All Forms of Fraud

What can brands do to more efficiently protect their in-app ad spend from fraud in 2020? For starters, machine learning (ML) can go a long way towards fighting just about any type of fraud. By analyzing how fraud has appeared in the past, ML algorithms can help predict when new issues are likely to arise in real time.

Towards the end of 2019, a number of businesses, including InMobi, released their sellers.json file, which serves a similar role as the IAB’s app-ads.txt initiative but for sell-side platforms. Vinny Rinaldi, Head of Addressable Media and Technology at The Hershey’s Company, Abhay Singhal, CEO of InMobi Marketing Cloud and Co-Founder of InMobi Group, and others predicted that sellers.json adoption will likely grow significantly in 2020, especially as advertisers and their partners push the industry in this direction. And, Joe Ranzenbach, Director of Product Management, Mobile Products at IAS, noted that increased use of the Open Measurement SDK will help boost transparency and trust as well.

“When I joined IAS in 2016, third party measurement for brand safety, fraud, and viewability had a limited footprint in mobile in-app. Many advertisers were hesitant to spend on mobile in-app inventory without the mechanism of trust that independent verification provided. IAS lead the Open Measurement initiative, which launched via the IAB’s Tech Lab in 2018 and achieved industry scale in 2019. In 2020, we’re looking towards removing any remaining friction and advancing towards realizing the full value of the initiative, enabling advertisers to verify at scale and focus more on reaching their intended audiences with confidence,” Ranzenbach said.

In addition, in 2020, expect marketers to take a closer look at where they’re buying and to cull supply sources that are likely to be introducing them to fraud. Mike Brooks recommended that others follow WeatherBug’s lead in taking a closer look at how publishers are being incentivized, to make sure that mobile user acquisition campaigns are not being subject to fraud on that end. Sean Muzzy, President of North America at Cadreon, further noted that they are taking a closer look at partners that provide paid installs, since this style of user acquisition can be particularly susceptible to fraud.

Ad networks, exchanges, agencies and everyone else in the programmatic advertising ecosystem has fraud in its sights. Kochava, which provides advanced fraud solutions, has seen an increased focus from its customers on reducing fraud.

“In 2020 we anticipate the continued trend of advertisers harnessing their row-level data to avoid fraud, protect ad spend and buy more intelligently across platforms,” said Jason Hicks, EVP of Growth at Kochava.

This is an area of particular interest to Muzzy. Not only will Cadreon be taking a deeper dive into fraud in the space, but they will also be selecting partners who are proactive about fraud protection and who are willing to pass back device IDs, as probabilistic fingerprinting could be inaccurate. And, they will be monitoring retention rates by channel to understand which partners are driving healthy subs.

While Woolway noted that it likely can’t be completely eliminated, there are fraud prevention steps that marketers can take to clamp down on it and overall boost trust and transparency in the ecosystem. In 2020, expect all programmatic players to prioritize efforts that boost transparency and help clamp down on fraud.

Charting 2020’s Top Mobile Advertising and Marketing Trends

How will brands more effectively understand, identify, engage and acquire mobile-first users? What steps will they take to drive real connections with consumers over mobile? Download InMobi’s 2020 trends report today for key insights on the future from the world’s top mobile experts.

DOWNLOAD NOW

Note: This is the third in a five-part series on the top mobile marketing and advertising trends of 2020. The first post covers how mobile in-app advertising overall is likely to evolve and mature in 2020, and the second post covers the top mobile advertising data usage trends of 2020. Be sure to stay tuned to the InMobi blog for more predictions.

How is data collected for mobile app ad campaigns, and what specifically is being gathered? How is that data being used, and is it being utilized properly? What do data-driven advertising campaigns on mobile devices actually look like? Throughout 2020, marketers will be taking pains to answer these questions.

Sourcing Data for Mobile App Advertising in 2020

"I think in mobile for the past couple of years, people have just been taking desktop analogous numbers. I have this on the desktop and I'll apply that into mobile or these are my desktop travel segments and I'm going to take that from the desktop side and find those users in mobile. I think we are getting to a point where people are starting to ask, ‘Where is that data coming from and is it coming from a mobile specific source?’ So when I think about one of the biggest challenges holistically of even my trust with analytics packages, it's where is the backend data coming from?” Mike Brooks, SVP of Revenue at WeatherBug, noted.

He added, “By taking a stronger look at the source of mobile data, I think it's going to open up some holes for people who have been taking desktop data into mobile at face value for the past few years. Where is your data coming from and to what extent does it actually apply and capture mobile insights correctly?”

One of the biggest trends in 2020 will be the increased use of first-party data. Marketers will increasingly leverage data either that they directly own and control, and/or work with partners capable of providing them with their own first-party data to supplement what’s already available in house.

“Having access to an audience insights report based on first-party data from an independent marketplace enables marketers to discover new, high-quality audiences,” Jason Hicks, EVP of Growth at Kochava, said. "Through such a data set, marketers gain increased visibility into demographics (gender and age), device information, and interests and behaviors. They can apply those learnings to launch more personalized campaigns or use those audience attributes to create lookalike audiences.”

What can marketers do when they have this high-quality data in place? Vanja B. Brzin, Celtra’s VP of Product Marketing, noted the value of “data-driven mobile creative,” especially for “data-driven, forward-thinking marketers.”

Another great application for this data is for predicting performance. By combining high-quality data sources with machine learning algorithms, advertisers can more effectively determine how well certain creatives, messages, channels, etc. are likely to perform for them before media budgets are ever spent.

“We see the limitless potential for machine learning in digital advertising. Current advancements are blurring the lines between human and machine as evident in applications like sentiment analysis – machines are increasingly able to identify and categorize the opinions expressed in a piece of text, in order to determine whether the writer’s attitude towards a particular topic or product is positive, negative, or neutral,” says Harmon Lyons, Senior Vice President of Global Business Development at IAS. “Nuance here is always evolving as language expands and includes things like sarcasm and emoticons to express meaning. Rapid advances in deep learning are allowing computers to process images and video in a more human-like way. These advancements will enable a more robust generation of brand safety and fraud solutions that will help to protect digital advertising investments.”

How to Use Data to More Effectively Reach Consumers Across Touchpoints in 2020

Jason from Kochava noted that better data can help marketers better understand their consumers across environments, so they can develop a holistic understanding of consumers no matter where they are or what device they’re using. The end goal is being able to granularly target mobile-first users and provide them with unique value as a result of this intelligence.

This kind of location-targeted intelligence will be top of mind for Hershey’s in 2020, according to Vinny Rinaldi, their Head of Addressable Media and Technology. During Advertising Week New York 2019, he told InMobi’s Anne Frisbie that Hershey’s is interested in using location data in combination with digital ads and other emerging marketing channels to more effective reach and impact their target audience segments.

The Role of Privacy Initiatives in the Mobile Advertising Industry in 2020

But according to Yory Wurmser, Principal Mobile Analyst with eMarketer, location-based data signals are a double-edged sword. While location data can be incredibly powerful (especially if collected in real time), brands need to be careful about respecting end user privacy. Mobile users are increasingly pushing back against improper data collection, and the law is right on their heels.

And this leads us to perhaps one of the biggest points that will dominate the mobile marketing news in 2020: privacy and legal frameworks around data collection and use. The California Consumer Privacy Act will finally go into effect in 2020, and other states (most notably Florida at the moment) are likely to follow suit.

“GDPR, and now CCPA, are living beasts, if you will, and we’ll need to continue to watch how they evolve and adapt accordingly,” said Dennis Buchheim, EVP and general manager of the IAB Tech Lab, according to AdExchanger.

Brands need to be really careful that they’re collecting and using data in a way that is compliant with all upcoming laws and privacy initiatives. “It can potentially be an existential crisis for the industry,” Abhay Singhal, CEO of InMobi Marketing Cloud and Co-Founder of InMobi Group, said.

“In addition to guaranteeing the rights of individuals to control their personal information, we believe privacy laws should be further strengthened by placing more robust accountability requirements on companies. This includes making companies minimize the data they collect about people, specify the purposes for which they are collecting and using people’s data, and making them more responsible for analyzing and improving data systems to ensure that they use personal data appropriately. Indeed, we are calling upon policymakers in other states and in Congress to build upon the progress made by California and go further by incorporating robust requirements that will make companies more responsible for the data they collect and use, and other key rights from GDPR. More requirements for companies, together with the rights and tools for people to control their data, will prevent placing the privacy burden solely on the individual, and will provide layers of data protection that are appropriate for the digital age,” Julie Brill, Corporate Vice President for Global Privacy and Regulatory Affairs and Chief Privacy Officer for Microsoft, wrote in a November 2019 blog post.

Charting 2020’s Top Mobile Advertising and Marketing Trends

How will brands more effectively understand, identify, engage and acquire mobile-first users? What steps will they take to drive real connections with consumers over mobile? Download InMobi’s 2020 trends report today for key insights on the future from the world’s top mobile experts.

DOWNLOAD NOW

Note: This is the second in a five-part series on the top mobile marketing and advertising trends of 2020. The first post covers how mobile in-app advertising overall is likely to evolve and mature in 2020. Be sure to stay tuned to the InMobi blog for more predictions.

How do you think mobile advertising data usage will evolve in 2020? We’d love to hear from you on social media! Send us your thoughts on Twitter or LinkedIn.

InMobi Pulse builds a holistic understanding of consumers across data sources ranging from the InMobi ad exchange, which reaches 1.6 billion users globally to opt-in sourced deterministic first-party carrier telco data. Using our high-quality, data sources, we can see what makes their customers tick.

For the soccer space, we looked at three categories of apps that soccer/football fans use:

1. Apps that cover news, live scores and updates. Specifically, we looked at the soccer/football apps 365Scores, LiveScore, Football Live Scores, Telemundo Deportes, Univision Deportes, Fox Deportes and Forza Football. We also looked at theScore and the Bleacher Report, which cover a variety of sports-related topics including (but not limited to) soccer matches and soccer scores. And, to round things out here, we looked at the ESPN Soccer mobile website as well.
2. The official apps from the major soccer leagues and associations like UEFA Champions League, La Liga, the English Premier League, Bundesliga, Major League Soccer and FIFA.
3. Apps from the top soccer teams themselves. Here, we focused on apps from top favorite teams, as determined by Google Play and iOS App Store download figures. Instead of focusing on national teams, we analyzed the apps of popular European league teams such as Real Madrid, FC Barcelona, Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea FC, the LA Galaxy and Juventus.

Overview of Our Findings:

• Compared to app owners from other categories, a significant percentage of this audience is Hispanic/Latinx. This is also an overwhelmingly male audience.
• This audience is primarily found in California and Texas, in addition to Florida and New York.
• Most app owners are married homeowners with at least one child at home.
• The age of app owners in this space can vary dramatically, with the vast majority in the 25 to 55 age range. Millennials are far more interested in soccer in the U.S. than Gen Z is — at least based on app ownership data.
• Soccer fans are also big shoppers, frequently using e-commerce apps and mobile shopping websites.
• While soccer fans are also often general sports fans, soccer app owners generally are quite different from those that have more general U.S.-focused sports apps on their mobile devices.

Who Has Soccer Scores and Updates Apps on their Mobile Devices?

Gender

For starters, this audience is overwhelmingly male. Within this space in particular, no app has an audience that’s less than three-fourths male.

Age

Ages can vary wildly though. For many apps, between 20% and 25% of app owners are between 26 and 35 years old, but it skews as high as around 30% or more for the Spanish-language sports apps (Univision Deportes, FOX Deportes and Telemundo Deportes).

Football Live Scores is an outlier here, with half of its app owners aged 56 and older. No app in this space has more than 7% of its app owners in the critical 18 to 25 age range though.

Income

In terms of income, Fox Deportes, Univision Deportes, LiveScore and 365Score have a slightly greater than average share of its audience making under $50,000 a year. On the opposite end of the spectrum here is theScore, ESPN Soccer and Forza Football.

Ethnicity

A number of apps in this category have a significant following among Hispanic audiences; in fact, the only dedicated soccer news app reviewed that doesn’t have a majority Latino audience is LiveScore. The majority of those with the Bleacher Report or theScore apps on their mobile devices are White, while a quarter of those who visit the ESPN Soccer mobile site are Asian or Pacific Islander by origin.

Audience Characteristics

Some of the top audience segments in this app category include family shoppers, entertainment enthusiasts, socialites, fashionistas, techies, mobile gamers, small business owners and news junkies, to name a few. Most app owners are also married homeowners with at least one child at home.

Location

More often than not, app owners are found in the most populous states in the country like California, Texas, Florida, New York and Illinois. Univision Deportes has a higher than average share of its audience in Arizona though. Top cities include Chicago, Houston and New York City.

Who Has The Official Apps of the Major Soccer Leagues on their Mobile Devices?

It’s one thing to have a general sports news app on a mobile device. What about people who are so passionate about the sport that they have a league’s app on their mobile device? How is this audience similar to and different from other kinds of football fans?

Gender

Yet again, this audience heavily skews male. Only the FIFA app has over a quarter of its app owner audience being female. For the others, well over 80% of those who have their app are male.

Age

Across the board, around 25% of app owners are between 46 and 55 years old. A major outlier is La Liga, the main soccer league in Spain; perhaps thanks to the star power on teams like FC Barcelona and Real Madrid, over 34% of those with the La Liga app on their mobile device are between 26 and 35. Bundesliga does comparatively well with the 36 to 45 set, while close to 20% of those with the FIFA app are between 56 and 65. The Premier League, the major league in the United Kingdom, is the only app that has over 10% of its U.S. app owners between 18 and 25.

Income

Interestingly enough, Bundesliga has, among the league apps studied, both the greatest share of app owners making under $75,000 a year (a group that does include retirees) and those making more than $250,000 a year. The Premier League app has a greater share of its audience in the $100,000 to $150,000 annual income range than any other league app. Well over 40% of those with the MLS app on their mobile device make between $50,000 and $100,000 a year.

Ethnicity

In the realm of league apps, the ethnic makeup of each consumer base differs. On one hand, both the UEFA Champions League app and the La Liga app have a majority Hispanic audience. Over half of those that have the apps for the Premier League, MLS and Bundesliga are White, while the FIFA app has a more mixed audience (43% White, 40% Hispanic).

Audience Characteristics and Interests

It’s hardly surprising to see this audience as sports fans. Most of the people with league apps on their mobile devices also have other sports apps like ESPN and NBC Sports.

But, people with these kinds of apps on their mobile devices can also be often classified as audio buffs, social media enthusiasts and online shoppers. This audience is also likely to download messaging apps like WhatsApp, social media apps like Twitter and music apps like Spotify.

Most of this audience is married, but La Liga app owners have the lowest rate of marriage at 55%. La Liga is also the only app whose owners are more likely to be renters as opposed to homeowners.

La Liga has a high percentage of app owners with at least one child in the home and with less than a high school diploma as well. In comparison, close to 37% of Bundesliga app owners in the U.S. have at least two children, and over 37% have a Bachelor’s degree or graduate degree.

Location

As with the sports news apps, those with the sports league apps on their mobile devices are often concentrated in California, Texas, New York and Florida. La Liga has a notable percentage of its audience in Maryland though, and MLS has a higher than average presence in Washington state. Mid-Atlantic states like New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Virginia also have a higher-than-average share of app owners in this category.

Who Has The Official Apps of the Major Soccer/Football Teams on their Mobile Devices?

Gender

Yet again, it’s a male-heavy field. However, a third of those with the Juventus app and/or the Chelsea app on their mobile devices are female, as are 30% of those with the LA Galaxy app.

Age

While every app has at least 20% of its audience in the 26-35 age range, over 35% of those with the Real Madrid app on their mobile device fall in this group. Over 30% of those with the Juventus app are between 46 and 55, while over 29% of those with the LA Galaxy app are between 36 and 45 years old.

Income

Close to half of all Real Madrid app owners make less than $75,000 a year, while LA Galaxy has a higher share than average of app owners making more than $200,000 annually. Around a third of all Manchester United app owners make between $75,000 and $125,000 a year.

Ethnicity

Manchester United and Arsenal are the only team apps observed where over half of all app owners are White; they’re also the only Premier League teams included. Over 50% of those with the apps of Real Madrid, FC Barcelona, LA Galaxy and Juventus on their mobile devices are Hispanic. Over 25% of those with the Arsenal app, along with one in five Chelsea app owners, are Black/African-American.

Audience Characteristics and Interests

Messaging apps like Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp are really popular with this cohort, as are social media and e-commerce apps. In fact, people with these team apps on their mobile devices are more likely to spend time on social media, using search engines or looking up the weather than they are checking sports scores or news. Common audience segments include audio buffs, social media enthusiasts, online shoppers and video buffs, to name a few.

For all apps, over half of app owners are married and homeowners with at least one child in the home. Over a third of those with the Manchester United and/or Chelsea app have at least some college, while a similar percentage of Real Madrid and FC Barcelona app owners have less than a high school diploma.

Location

Across these teams, California and Texas are by far the biggest states. Close to 25% of those with the Chelsea app live in these two places; app ownership for Juventus, Manchester United, FC Barcelona and Real Madrid has a similar breakdown. Arsenal app ownership is slightly more geographically distributed, while over 84% of those with the LA Galaxy app live in California, unsurprisingly.

How To Use This Data To Inform Your Mobile Ad Campaigns

These insights are interesting, but how can all of this information from InMobi Pulse be used to more intelligently allocate in-app and mobile ad spend? For starters, it’s important to note that there’s no such thing as one type of soccer fan. Fan bases and app ownership trends can vary greatly depending on the news source, team and/or league.

From a user acquisition perspective, it can be helpful to understand the extent to which the current user base aligns with an existing soccer-loving audience. For example, an existing sports all looking to launch a soccer property may want to focus on married Hispanic men over the age of 24 who live in California or Texas.

These insights can be enormously helpful from a monetization perspective. Considering that app owners in many other categories are mostly White, soccer app publishers may find value in highlighting how their audiences differ from who advertisers can reach elsewhere.

This kind of data can also help inform creatives as well. Advertisers may want to make sure that their ads feature people who look like their target audience and are featuring individuals doing activities that their users engage in too.

Curious to see more insights on soccer or any other industry segment? Reach out today to learn more about InMobi Pulse.

Our Commitment to Data Privacy: What You Need to Know About This Data

InMobi takes user privacy extremely seriously. We meet the most rigorous governance, compliance, and security standards. We have collaborated with consumer advocacy groups and incorporate guidelines from multiple federal government agencies to define industry-leading practices for data governance in the U.S.

Users retain complete control over the data they provide, have a choice in whether they participate and have transparency as to how their data is utilized. Subscribers have constant access to their privacy elections through multiple telco touchpoints. The patented anonymization platform ensures data sets are 100% secure, and are refreshed to ensure all data are anonymized.

Note: This blog post is just for informational purposes only, and is not designed to serve as a full legal guide. This must not be read or treated as legal advice. For more specifics, including your position and compliance requirements under the law, please be sure to obtain the services of a licensed law firm and/or consult lawyers fully knowledgeable on the law. The full InMobi guide on CCPA can be found here: https://www.inmobi.com/california-consumer-privacy-act.

What is the CCPA?

The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) is a comprehensive data privacy regulation applicable to the users based in the State of California in the United States. CCPA becomes effective from January 2020 and at a high level imposes transparency with regard to the collection, processing and use of consumer’s personal information and provides consumers with certain rights regarding such usage. Under the law, consumers can ask for control of how their data is used: elaborated as Right to Access/Right to Forget/Right to Opt of Sale, etc .

According to the IAB, the law is designed to provide users with more control over how personal data about them is used and collected. Once the law is in effect, users in California will be able to opt out of the sale of their personal data.

Note that the law has a very specific definition of sale. “Sell,” “selling,” “sale,” or “sold,” means selling, renting, releasing, disclosing, disseminating, making available, transferring, or otherwise communicating orally, in writing, or by electronic or other means, a consumer’s personal information by the business to another business or a third party for monetary or other valuable consideration.

“In many ways, the CCPA is a first of its kind law in the United States: an omnibus statute that seeks to create broad privacy and data protection rules that apply to all industries doing business in one jurisdiction, California, rather than focusing on a single sector or specific data collection and use practices. The CCPA was created in response to changing public perceptions. Users, rightfully, want to understand and have the option to exercise control over their own data,” IAB noted.

In the context of CCPA, personal data or personal information includes without limitation online identifiers such as device identifiers, IP address, ad-ids, gpid etc. and any inferences drawn from the same used to create audience profile. De-identified/anonymized, aggregated consumer information is not deemed to be personal information under CCPA.

“The CCPA framework creates a new service provider relationship between publishers and tech companies that contractually establishes how consumer data can or cannot be used by the vendor. However, it applies primarily to publishers that sell data (data onboarding and identity-matching companies, for instance, that buy publisher audience data) or that use publishers’ first-party data in programmatic, like some ad tech vendors,” AdExchanger’s James Hercher wrote in December 2019.

The law doesn’t just cover consumer data collected in 2020 and beyond. Specifically, users in California can request information from the prior 12 months from relevant/affected technology companies.

“While the California Consumer Privacy Act takes effect on January 1, 2020, the 12-month look back in the law will require companies to have the ability to respond to individual California resident requests for specific information about what personal data has been collected about consumers and the various categories of third party vendors with which the company has shared consumer data,” the law firm Perkins Coie has noted.

Intentional violation of the CCPA can bring civil penalties of up to $7,500 for each violation in a lawsuit brought by the California Attorney General on behalf of the people of the State of California. The maximum fine for other violations is $2,500 per violation. Other impacts comprise of claims, action for damages, termination of the engagement, loss of reputation, business and revenue.

CCPA vs. GDPR

In many key ways, CCPA and GDPR cover similar territory. The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) also covers data collection and usage, but it’s specifically an opt-in law, i.e. consumers have to specifically allow publishers and their partners to collect and use their data. CCPA, in contrast, is an opt-out law.

Further, both laws have different definitions of personal data and children’s data, and levy different fines. And, unlike CCPA, GDPR specifies a Data Protection Officer and data breach notifications.

CCPA Compliance and Ad Tech Companies

Who must comply with CCPA? Ultimately, in the programmatic space, all partners in the ad transaction will have certain liability in account of CCPA, so long as they have customers in California. This is true even if someone is defined as a Service Provider, Business or some other distinction under the law.

For starters, businesses that are impacted by the law will likely need to make it easy for consumers to specifically state that they want to opt out, with a button or similar call to action that allows users to say, “Do Not Sell My Personal Information,” AdExchanger has noted.

“The language implies that publishers and advertisers will have to show the opt-out button to California residents who haven’t yet opted out every time they visit a site and on nearly every page – because what web pages don’t include some form of data collection, from widgets to ads and third-party trackers?” AdExchanger’s Allison Schiff wrote. This holds true for mobile app publishers as well.

What does CCPA mean for the programmatic advertising landscape? Many predict that it will probably make first-party data more valuable, since it’s more likely to be in compliance with the law. And, it may force publishers and their partners to more clearly explain to consumers the business purposes of their data collection and what users can expect to get in return.

To help with compliance, the IAB Tech Lab has established V1.0 of its CCPA Compliance Framework. More information can be found at https://iabtechlab.com/standards/ccpa/.

If you have any additional questions or concerns, please contact us via email at ccpa@inmobi.com.

Who are you and what do you do at Apptopia?

My name is Damian Gray, Director of Customer Success at Apptopia. At a high-level, my team works with our customers to provide them with the app market insights they need to be successful. That could mean helping sales teams determine which app developers could be the best partners for their product, or it could be helping developers understand how other developers are executing, so they can benchmark and/or innovate. My team also helps investors make educated decisions leveraging mobile signals. I work with hundreds of different mobile-only and mobile-focused brands as well as public and private investors. Every day offers a new challenge for Apptopia customer success managers!

Most companies understand what their performance is and how it's trending. What can they unlock through understanding their competitors and their market?

Speaking specifically to apps, there are a ton of different tracking and measurement platforms available to companies so they can track and monitor their own internal data and progress towards their mobile KPIs; but understanding how their app performance or technology stack compares to similar apps is extremely difficult without a platform like ours. Are your KPIs reasonable? Too aggressive? Not aggressive enough? What is your competitor’s landing page keyword strategy? What changes are they making? How are they positioned compared to you? Did a recently added feature prove successful for them? Without signals for when an app updated, what was included in that update and how their downloads, rank and engagement changed at the time of that update, it would be very hard to say.

Developers could wait for the next conference or event to hear the stories from others but smart developers know that having the signals today is critical to getting experiments scoped and into product pipelines. Marketers need to see new creatives being run by similar apps in order to get design requests in to their designers. If a competitor has launched a new UA campaign and a developer wants to compete, budget will need to be carved-out. Apptopia’s data and tools unlock real-time signals that help developers react to what’s happening in the market faster/in real-time.

Is too much tracking and measuring a bad thing? Can we get lost?

It could be... if the amount of information from tracking and measurement is so great it becomes un-actionable and leads companies down a purely academic path, I would argue it’s likely too much. Larger companies have a greater need to be very, very right due to the revenue risk of being wrong but they often have the staff and systems to manage a lot of data. Smaller companies need to move fast and don’t have the heads for endless hypothesis testing. So, what’s enough for some may not be enough for others.

Drawing the lines between not enough, just enough and too much is challenging. Regardless of size however, if a developer is looking only at internal data and KPIs, that developer does not have enough data in their life. In my eight years in mobile, change has been the only constant in our space, so even if a developer has a very talented team, knowledge and expertise will grow stale without keeping up with what’s going on in the ever-changing market around them.

What signals help to inform a publisher's product roadmap and/or monetization decisions

There are virtually endless signals to inform a product roadmap. Internal performance metrics like funnel efficiency, conversion rates, sessions/day, page views, impression caps (if advertising) and many, many others require constant work to optimize. Signals from the app stores can provide great clues into what is being tried by others in the market and what seems to be working for them. For example, if a similar app or competitor’s rank and user growth moves/reacts in a meaningful way on the back of a new release which includes a new feature, try it out!

Likewise, if a new monetization strategy results in significant top grossing rank movement, maybe that could work for you too! Don’t be fooled by download and rank movement alone though; make sure you look for advertising signals that could indicate the sudden movement was just due to a marketing burst. Marketing will often accompany a big release but if DAU and retention don’t hold up for at least a while beyond that update, it’s likely the volume jump was just from the advertising. High volume of and/or positive reviews are another strong signal of the success of a recent change. Take a look at what users are saying to see if the developer made the right call. “I hate the new update, it’s nothing but ads!” - you may not want to follow that strategy…

You work with mobile teams from large brands every day. What trends are you seeing unfold? What are they trying to do? Where are they trying to go?

Cross-device tracking and measurement, though not a new challenge, is still a very real one for brands. I have daily conversations with customers trying to understand how the pieces fit and how native fits in the bigger picture. Trying to connect all the dots between in-store, mobile web, desktop and native mobile has still not been solved by many and continues to be a big challenge and focus. Though some have made meaningful progress on this front, many are still trying to figure it out. From all I can see, only a shift in how teams work together and a re-alignment of KPIs can create a resolution. The good news is, cross-department collaboration is better than it used to be.

Things have changed a lot since I started in mobile but even as of very recently I have met with orgs who are still siloed between native mobile and other teams. The Native mobile team has under its roof, separate from the rest of digital, all of the functions like marketing, product and engineering. They are still fighting for resources and budget and even competing internally to hit KPIs.

More and more however, I am meeting with companies who bring several departments to the table who view native as just one of several customer interfaces that fit within the bigger picture and whose KPIs stretch across all devices and platforms. I am also seeing more and more fluency in native mobile vernacular from folks who either are not focused on native or for who native is only a small part of their day to day - which is exciting to see! So, though it is still a hill to climb, the organizational adjustments needed to find a cross-device tracking and measurement solution are definitely happening.

You help a lot of advertisers understand which creatives work and which don't. Do you have any best practices for creatives that you've noticed? How can advertisers optimize toward acquiring users that won't churn quickly after installing?

I would say, don’t be afraid to kill a creative quickly - experimentation and rotation are key. Apptopia has seen a lot of creatives on the platform and have worked closely with partners to share learnings of what works and what doesn’t:

What works

• Conveying a clear use case and show your app being used for the purpose.
• Having a clear call to action
• Making sure audio is not a necessary component (have subtitles if there is spoken word).
• Attract the eye - bright colors, fast paced visuals, calming visuals, etc.
• Staying up on advertising trends - New ideas are being tried all the time. Try them!

What you should stay away from

• Waiting too long to display your hook or core use case - attention spans are short.
• Confusing player action - when showing actual gameplay, make it clear what moves are being made by the player or finger(s) of the player.
• Humans and/or visuals not involving actual gameplay or showing the inside of your app
• Overproduced/expensive content. It doesn’t necessarily help your goal.

How should monetization teams be thinking of engagement?

When I speak to developers who are evaluating what their monetization strategy should be, I encourage them to consider what their app’s usage profile/engagement will be as that is critical for success. For example, a weather app often has a high DAU as a percentage of MAU but few sessions per day and a low average session length. This is because most users pop in once a day for <1 minute to see the weather, close the app and go about their day. It’s no wonder so many invest into content partners to try and increase the sessions and session lengths of their users so they can increase their total engagement and ad revenue.

For app’s with smaller user bases, which may be targeting more niche audiences, average revenue per user (ARPU) has to be higher in order for the app to have a chance at generating enough revenue to survive. In-app purchases (IAP), potentially subscriptions, are going to be the key. An IAP strategy requires a very different product mindset, UX mechanics and growth optimization strategy, but if you know this is your end goal post-launch, you can plan accordingly.

Obviously, a large user base with a high ARPU is the dream but doing that puts developers in a VERY select group at the top of the charts. For the rest of us, we have to optimize to make things work. That said, the app’s engagement will be your guide. If you aren’t sure HOW your app’s engagement will look post-launch, study its components and compare them to other apps in the store and/or category, that will help you get a good sense for what you may be able to expect.

Interested in learning more?

Check out these blog posts on mobile performance marketing and in-app ad creatives from Srinivas KC, the VP and GM of InMobi DSP, and watch our Q&A session with Apptopia's founder below!

With the rapid growth of mobile advertisers, fraud is increasingly draining the wallets of advertisers, publishers and everyone in between. Criminals are moving in and mimicking real performance, confusing real installs with fraudulent installs. Not only is fraud eating into an increasing share of marketer’s ad dollars, it also creates bad data, making it impossible to correctly optimize an ad campaign if you don’t take steps to protect yourself.

Let’s take a look at common types of fraud that may be painfully familiar. However, rather than being reactive, there are steps you can take to protect your advertiser, publisher and supply partners, to effectively stopping fraudsters in their tracks.

Common Fraud Type #1: Click Injection/Ad Injection

Click Injection/Ad Injection is where the affiliate injects their tracking link to fire off a tracking click right before the user completes their conversion. This lets fraudsters hijack the credit for delivering that conversion.

What can you do?

You can use reporting around the Click to Conversion Time (also known at MTTI or CTIT) to see the time in between the click and the install/conversion. If you see a large number of installs coming in either super quickly or super late, it could signal fraudulent traffic.

By regularly checking your reporting, you can catch the most common types of fraud; it is nearly impossible for a real user to click an ad, install the app and open it within 15 seconds from their initial click. Anytime you see Mean Time to Conversions under 15 seconds, it is almost always an indicator of Click Injection/Ad Injection fraud. By setting up an alert to notify you whenever there is any conversion under 15 seconds, you can stay on top of this type of activity.

Common Fraud Type #2: Click Spamming/Click Flooding

Click Spamming/Click Flooding is where the affiliate fires their click tracking link every time a user views their ad, even though the user didn’t actually click on the ad. This allows fraudsters to cover a massive group of users with their tracking link. Most mobile campaigns are set up with an attribution window for click-through conversions that give affiliates credit for driving the conversion up to seven days after the click. If they track enough users, they will start taking credit for the advertiser’s natural (organic) conversions of users that were already highly motivated and likely planning to sign up without advertising.

What can you do?

You should also scan your reports and check on any offers that are consistently seeing more than 30% of your conversions coming in less than 24 hours after the click. While this case doesn’t necessarily mean your publisher is doing or perpetuating fraud, it is still recommended that you work with your publisher to optimize those placements.

Keep in mind that while 7-Day Click Attribution is the standard, some advertisers have 30-Day click-through attribution. If the advertiser’s attribution window is longer, then you’ll see more conversions coming in after 24 hours from the initial click.

Being smart with your data

Ultimately, what it boils down to is having access to real data based on real conversions. You can use your data to set yourself (and your partners) up for success by using anti-fraud solutions that feed data into platforms that can automatically deactivate and notify regarding blocked sources. You should also implement targeting controls and proxy blocking to further guard yourself and ensure you are driving quality sources with post engagements. Any placement that doesn’t deliver a sufficient number of post engagement events can then be optimized accordingly.

Foiling the fraudster

Teamwork makes the dream work. While this is an overused platitude (don’t deny you did an eyeroll), it doesn’t change the fact that it’s true. The true value of user acquisition is the end goal. The best way to ferret out the real from the phony is easier when working hand-in-hand with your partners and attribution platform. Combining knowledge and resources to protect your digital data is a smarter practice. Work smart, together.

Why did mobile advertising spending grow in 2019? There are a few key reasons:

• Growth and evolution of smartphone users: In 2019, the number of smartphone users in the world finally tipped over 3 billion. By 2021, close to half of every person on Earth will likely have a smartphone. In the U.S., 2019 was the year that people spent more time looking at and using mobile devices than they did watching television. And, the vast majority of time spent using smartphones is devoted to a number of apps. So, by necessity, marketers looking to reach their target audiences have to leverage mobile and incorporate apps into their marketing and advertising strategies.
• Increasing effectiveness of mobile-first ad creatives: As Srinivas KC, the VP and GM of InMobi DSP, has previously noted, in-app ads historically have looked an awful lot like desktop ads. This is a shame, as what can be done with mobile app ad creatives far outpaces what’s available in browser-based environments. Examples include native ads with rich media and video ads with interactive ad cards; there’s no way to have this kind of interactivity within browsers.
• Emergence of mobile as an effective down-funnel marketing channel: Thanks to the sheer number of people with phones on hand at any moment today, it is relatively easy to achieve reach and scale through mobile. But, when it goes to objectives that fall further down the marketing funnel, historically in-app advertising hasn’t had much to offer besides app installs. But this is changing, thanks to smarter creatives and CPA (cost per action) buying. As a result, advertisers have more options for achieving any marketing goal regardless of their business. This is also made possible through improved attribution that tracks actions and behavior across touchpoints and devices.
• Maturation of programmatic digital ad buying: As noted in the InMobi 2019 Mobile Programmatic Advertising Trends report, it has become easier, safer and more efficient than ever before to conduct in-app ad spends programmatically.
• Evolution of mobile app monetization: App developers and publishers have a number of monetization options available to them, but there’s a reason why advertising is such a common choice: in-app advertising a relatively easy way for apps to earn revenue. App publishers and developers, however, have become increasingly savvy at balancing ad opportunities with user experience concerns, to ensure they can keep users engaged without losing out on ad revenue.

“Mobile really needs to be front and center of all of our media buying because in the end, the quicker we get in front of you when you're on the go, the quicker you're probably going to think about us when you're about to check out, so a lot more to come in that in 2020,” Vinny Rinaldi told Anne Frisbie, SVP and GM of North America for InMobi, at Advertising Week New York 2019.

But is 2019 the tip of the iceberg? Does it all fall off a cliff in 2020?

Answer: likely not. There’s a reason Grand View Research predicts the in-app mobile ad market to grow by a compound annual rate of more than 19% between 2019 and 2025. The industry is expected to realize tremendous growth in this forecast period owing to changing consumer preferences and increased knowledge among all types of advertisers regarding the myriad benefits of mobile app advertising.

Continued Growth and Maturation of In-App Advertising

It’s hardly surprising to say that in-app advertising is likely to grow in 2020. After all, the space has been growing tremendously for almost a decade now, alongside overall growth in global app markets.

But how will mobile in-app advertising change and evolve in 2020? For starters, Abhay Singhal, Co-Founder of InMobi Group and CEO of InMobi Marketing Cloud, noted that how brands categorize their in-app advertising will likely change dramatically in the new year. The immediacy and evolution of mobile advertising will mean that the top-of-funnel ads of yore will likely fall by the wayside, with marketers expecting more immediate and lasting results from all of their in-app ads.

“The distinction between brand and performance is blurred completely in my view,” Singhal said. “Everything is performance. It all depends upon the right mechanisms to determine what the attribution is and the right mechanism to determine it. What is the ROI that you are looking for?”

Not only will brands think about in-app advertising differently, they will likely also use different creatives and targeting criteria in 2020, according to eMarketer’s Yory Wurmser. He predicts contextual targeting being more prevalent in the new year, and that cutting-edge formats like interactive creatives and ads with augmented reality will be more frequently used.

“For mobile media and gaming companies, you’ll continue to see more sophisticated app install campaigns based on interactive/playable ads and rewarded video,” Yory said. “For non-gaming/media companies, you’ll see a more layered approach, first trying to get people to get engaged on a website (mobile or desktop), email list or chat/messaging, then pushing the app.”

How else will mobile in-app advertising grow and evolve? Expect to see these trends emerge in 2020:

• Demise of the banner as the default creative option: In Q1 2019, only 45% of all mobile programmatic ad spending on InMobi Exchange went to banners in the U.S. This may not seem all that revelatory, but it’s a major shift away from past trends. Banners may have ruled the roost, but expect more mobile programmatic ad spending to go towards video, interstitials and native ad formats, rather than more standard banners, in the future.
• Continued growth of China: The U.S. remains the top market, especially, programmatically, but China is rising fast. China is now the second largest in-app programmatic ad market. Between 2017 and 2018, programmatic ad spending in China rose 102%. This one-two standing will very likely remain in place in 2020.
• More private marketplace deals: In looking at Q2 2019 compared to Q2 2018, global private marketplace spending grew 15%. Expect this growth to continue apace, with risk-averse advertisers further embracing this style of media buys in 2020.
• Increasing investment in mobile-first creative experiences: Almost all InMobi Creative Services work is focused on fullscreen interstitials and video versus banners. In the U.S., 60% of video private marketplace deals take advantage of video end cards, up from 10% a year or so ago. And, approximately 30% of banners and around 40% of all display ads leverage rich media creative experiences. It’s highly likely that these percentages will become even more pronounced throughout 2020.
• Video’s ascendance: Not only is the industry now focused on VAST and an improved end user experience, but advertisers are starting to see the light and understand just how powerful in-app video advertising can be for them. In Q1 2019, U.S. video click-through rates were 10x greater than CTRs for banners on average and 2x greater than the average CTR for native ads. In Q2 2019, InMobi saw, on average, video completion rate of ~80% and viewability of 91% (IAS, Moat, DoubleVerify) via private marketplace deals. This is impressive, but it’s not unfathomable to expect 2020 results to be even greater.
• Rise of specialized DSPs: Consolidation continues to happen among omnichannel demand-side platforms (DSPs). At the same time, the use of highly specialized DSPs is on the rise. For in-app mobile programmatic buying, the fastest growing specialized DSPs deliver on location or app performance (install and remarketing) use cases. And, these “niche” DSPs represent around 20% of the mobile ad programmatic market. In 2020, expect usage to rise.
• The death of the 30-second digital ad: 70% of served video ad impressions in the U.S. via InMobi Exchange are 20 seconds or less. Around 10% of video ads are 6 seconds or less, and that will significantly grow in 2020.
• In-housing is real but more nuanced: In Q2 2019, InMobi saw around 15% of PMP revenue coming from clients who have “in housed,” but those clients still often needed hands-on-keyboard assistance from a partner such as a managed DSP relationship.

Charting 2020’s Top Mobile Advertising and Marketing Trends

How will brands more effectively understand, identify, engage and acquire mobile-first users? What steps will they take to drive real connections with consumers over mobile? Download InMobi’s 2020 trends report today for key insights on the future from the world’s top mobile experts.

DOWNLOAD NOW

Note: This is the first in a five-part series on the top mobile marketing and advertising trends of 2020. Be sure to stay tuned to the InMobi blog for more predictions.

Throughout the Australia-New Zealand (ANZ) region, brands are devoting more dollars to both programmatic and mobile in-app advertising channels. In fact, a significant percentage of the $8.8 billion Australian digital ad market is now devoted to in-app channels and conducted programmatically.

But, as advertisers devote a greater share of their budgets to mobile channels, it’s crucial to make sure that they are not wasting their programmatic spends and are getting the greatest value from their campaigns. To this end, it’s critical that brands implement (and work with partners that implement) best-in-breed technology standards and benchmarks.

VAST over VPAID

For many marketers today looking to run video ads, there are two key video ad serving tags available: VAST and VPAID. Check out this blog post for more information on what these mean and what they entail.

As a leader in the in-app advertising ecosystem, InMobi has been committed to providing users a seamless video experience, which has consistently been a top concern for both publishers and advertisers. This is why InMobi adopted VAST over VPAID in 2017, as VAST ensured faster load times and buffer-free experiences.

While certain players preferred to stick to VPAID for its ability to deliver interactive experiences, many began leveraging VPAID for its measurement capabilities. InMobi chose to stick with VAST, as VPAID’s render and fill rates were unsatisfactory for publishers, while advertisers had concerns over viewability and completion rates. It is worthwhile to note, however, the IAB’s recent versions of VAST, VAST 4.1 and VAST 4.2, have made provisions for interactivity since 2018.

This is not an either/or choice, as we strongly recommend (and have for over two years now) that advertisers select VAST over VPAID. In the third quarter of 2019, video advertising grew 26%, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB). It’s critical for brands investing in video advertising to make sure that people actually see the most important part of the ad. VAST gives them the best opportunity to make this happen.

“Numerous issues persist with VPAID, most notably related to latency, endless creative failures and multiple redirects - resulting in the worst possible scenario of both negative user experiences and repeatedly poor fill rates. In addition to this, huge opportunities for digital advertising exist and will continue to grow on mobile and OTT platforms, which VPAID cannot support. The industry must now look to adopt the latest version of VAST so as to standardise, enable and plan for the future as an industry with seamless, measurable video advertising running within all environments,” says Jonas Jaanimagi, Technology Lead, IAB Australia.

Tech Standards to Promote Transparency and Viewability

Regardless of whether an advertiser is running a brand or performance campaign, it’s critical to make sure that the ad is actually seen by real humans.

InMobi partners with several leading viewability vendors including Moat to ensure that our viewability rates are accurately monitored. InMobi’s current viewability rate in Australia stands at a healthy 93.71% compared to Moat’s benchmark of 49.8%.

Beyond viewability, one of the biggest points we’ve heard from our advertiser partners revolve around measurement. Is programmatic transparent enough that all components of a transaction are fully measurable?

One of the main ways that InMobi addresses measurement concerns is by implementing OMSDK, having received the IAB Tech Lab certificate in 2018. Further, by combining VAST, and OMSDK, InMobi is able to deliver superior video experiences that are accurately measurable.

The Importance of Supporting and Championing Industry Best Practices

We have long been committed to working hand in hand with industry bodies like IAB Tech Lab and the Mobile Marketing Association to develop and to passionately advocate for standards and technology like VAST and OMSDK, in addition to app-ads.txt and sellers.json. Through these efforts, we are helping to make mobile programmatic ad buying more transparent, more measurable and more effective for all ANZ advertisers.

While the space is growing, it’s not without its challenges. Why bother going to a physical drug store location when you can get both basic necessities and life-altering pharmaceuticals delivered right to your front door?

To stay competitive, many pharmacies are increasingly leveraging automation and mobile app technology to provide a more engaging and personal experience for their customers. What kind of a difference do these apps make? And who specifically is using them?

To find out, we gathered insights from InMobi Pulse, which builds a holistic understanding of consumers across data sources ranging from the InMobi ad exchange, which reaches 1.6 billion users globally, to opt-in sourced deterministic first-party carrier telco data to stated feedback directly from the customers.

And if you wanted to go deeper on the data we use:

1. Through our first-party carrier data (via InMobi Pulse insights platform), we passively observed over 117,000 physical locations and 9.5 million consumer visits among leading pharmacy, convenience store and grocery brands in the U.S.
2. We reviewed our first-party carrier data to look into who has these pharmacy, convenience store and grocery apps and is visiting the mobile websites of major brands.
3. We surveyed 1,400 Americans across the country to get their direct feedback on how they felt about certain brands and their mobile apps. InMobi received responses from more than 1,400 consumers over 30 days during August - September 2019.

We focused on the biggest names in the pharmacy space in the U.S. today (Walgreens, CVS and Rite-Aid), along with major grocery store chains that offer pharmacy services (Walmart, Costco, Kroger and Albertson’s). We also looked at Amazon Go, which has disrupted the convenience store space with its app-first approach and looks to enter the drug store market in the near future.

So what does our data reveal? Here are three important things to know:

1. People with a pharmacy brand’s app on their mobile device are over 9% more likely to engage with that brand versus mobile website visitors.
2. People with a pharmacy brand’s app on their mobile device are close to 21% more likely to visit that brand’s physical locations versus non-app owners. The pharmacy app owner footfall rate is higher than it is across the entire retail and quick-service restaurant categories.
3. For the most part, people with a brand’s app on their phone are around twice as likely to shop with that brand more than once a week compared to non-app owners.

Who are these app owners? How they differ from the brands’ mobile web visitors? Here’s what our data reveals:

• In the pharmacy category, a much higher percentage of women have apps versus men.
• Around half of all pharmacy app owners make between $35,000 and $100,000 annually.
• Between 55% and 65% of all app owners in this category are between the ages of 45 and 74.

What makes someone become an app owner? Why do people bother getting a pharmacy brand’s app on their phone in the first place? Here’s what our survey data reveals:

• Across the category, most app owners say they have the app because it makes their life more convenient.
• The second most common reason cited for having an app on their mobile device is because it gives them special offers and discounts.

The entrance of Amazon into this market likely represents a major sea change. The app-first approach of Amazon Go may cause others in the pharmacy space to increase investments in their own app strategies.

What about those without the apps? The top reason for not owning any of the apps is due to a preference for buying things physically. This reason is followed by “I don’t trust having that information on my phone.”

It is critical to note that observed behaviors differ dramatically between standalone pharmacies and those connected to a larger grocery/brand. Standalone pharmacy brands have higher levels of awareness, engagement and app ownership compared to grocery-first brands.

What Marketers Should Know About Pharmacy Consumers

There is a similar frequency of purchase for most of the brands in the category, with the majority of the purchases from these brands happening monthly - potentially due to prescription refills. And, across the category, more often than not someone goes to a particular location because it’s close to where they live. As a result, it can be difficult for one brand to differentiate itself from the others.

Let’s say you’re a marketer or advertiser at a major pharmacy, convenience store or grocery brand. How can these insights be made actionable? What can they do to boost business and app usage? Here are our top tips to consider.

For one, awareness varies dramatically among the different brands. For some of the brands included in the survey, awareness nationwide is 30% or below — potentially as a result of the regional nature of some of the brands included. For these companies, it may be crucial to focus on the top of the marketing funnel and help build awareness of their app and of their pharmacy offerings more broadly. Outside of Amazon Go (where an app is required to use the store), the brands with the highest levels of awareness are also the ones with the highest levels of app ownership.

Since consumers say they visit a particular brand because it’s close to where they live, ads that feature custom maps which highlight where the nearest brand location is to the target consumer/ad viewer are likely to be especially powerful. These kinds of features can be ideal for driving footfall.

Rewards, special offers and discounts can be especially good to highlight in advertising, especially performance-focused campaigns. For more brands, around a quarter or more of customers say they go to a particular brand’s locations because of their rewards programs, and it’s a top reason why app owners say they have a particular pharmacy app on their mobile devices.

Users who’ve downloaded a brand’s app on their device are more loyal than those without. User’s with a brands app on their device spend more time engaging with the brand on their phone, visit the brand’s locations more frequently and state that they visit more often than those without.

This makes sense; after all, if someone is willing to take the time to download an app, then they’re likely predisposed to being a loyal customer. They’re also more likely to then use that app and make repeat visits. What this data shows is that brands should invest time and effort into their mobile apps, including in app user acquisition.

But, these performance-centric ads should be sure to address potential app ownership concerns. It can be good to highlight how the app can improve the in-store shopping experience, and how the app values privacy and ensures trust.

App performance marketing should be a greater concern across this space though. App ownership in the category is low, with only around 10% of respondents owning these apps on their mobile devices.

Clearly this study starts to open up important questions on how apps service your most valuable customers and what role they have in creating or increasing brand loyalty and driving lift in sales. It also starts to indicate benchmarks on what you should expect from your app investments.

From an attitudinal perspective, app owners are more trusting of the brand and willing to engage in mobile ordering, whereas those without the app are less trusting and seem to prefer more anonymous engagements with the brand. If a brand is more important to you, it seems that you are more likely to use their mobile app rather than just their website.

No matter the type of convenience store or pharmacy brand, having an app is critical for developing and encouraging a more loyal audience.

Interested in learning even more about the modern pharmacy consumer? Reach out today to get additional insights from InMobi Pulse.

Our Commitment to Data Privacy: What You Need to Know About This Data

InMobi takes user privacy extremely seriously. We meet the most rigorous governance, compliance, and security standards. We have collaborated with consumer advocacy groups and incorporate guidelines from multiple federal government agencies to define industry-leading practices for data governance in the U.S.

Users retain complete control over the data they provide, have a choice in whether they participate and have transparency as to how their data is utilized. Subscribers have constant access to their privacy elections through multiple telco touchpoints. The patented anonymization platform ensures data sets are 100% secure, and are refreshed to ensure all data are anonymized.

Who specifically uses these apps? To find out, we turned again to InMobi Pulse. Using our high-quality, first-party telco data, we can see what makes their customers tick.

Working Out Who Actually Uses Health and Fitness Apps

Here’s a brief snapshot of the average owner of seven of the top fitness apps from January 2019:

• The vast majority of app owners are female. Across these apps, between 59% and 85% of their app owners are female. For most apps in other categories, like pizza or streaming video, most app owners are male.
• More or less, app owners are likely to be between 26 and 45 years old; for most apps, 40% or more of their app owners fall into this age range. But, for fitness brands that have been around for longer, their average age range tends to skewer slightly older, with more of their audience being in the 56 to 75 age range. Between 14% and 25% of app owners are between 46 and 55, depending on the app.
• The bulk of app owners in this category have annual salaries between $50,000 and $100,000.
• The demographics for each app does vary significantly. While some of the apps have a majority White audience (as high as 74% for one), others are majority Non-White.
• For the most part, app owners are serious fitness enthusiasts. Most have multiple apps on their mobile devices relating to health and fitness, and don’t rely on just one to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Some app owners will often spend one to two hours a day on average using these kinds of properties.
• More often than not, these app owners are commonly found in Texas, Florida and California; not only are these highly-populous states, but they also have better weather than most other states in the U.S.! Dieting to lose weight and exercising to stay in shape were top New Year’s resolutions in these states in 2019.
• Around three-fourths of app owners are married homeowners. Well over half have at least one child in their home, and over a third have at least some college education.

How To Use This Data To Inform Your Mobile Ad Campaigns

These insights are interesting, but how can all of this information from InMobi Pulse be used to more intelligently allocate in-app and mobile ad spend?

Identifying and Engaging Fitness Enthusiasts

As always, audience segmenting and targeting through InMobi Audiences is key. For health- and fitness-focused brands, it’s a good idea to go after people who are likely to be a top user of your products or services.

Here’s a small sampling of what ideal audience segments in this space look like:

• Gym Visitors
• Health and Fitness Enthusiasts
• Health and Wellness (Users who consume app usage and mobile web content associated with fitness, diet and exercise)
• Sports and Recreation Store Visitors (Users who have visited a sports and recreation store at least once in the last 30 days)
• Tennis Court Visitors (Users who have visited a tennis court at least once in the last 30 days)
• Basketball Court Visitors (Users who have visited a basketball court at least once in the last 30 days)
• Sports Club Visitors (Users who have visited a sports club at least once in the last 90 days)
• Golf Fanatics

Use InMobi’s Location Trails to target users, such as Gym Visitors, that are highly likely to download health and fitness apps. And, consumer behavioral data can be leveraged to connect with individuals interested in sport and exercise, and increase footfall (should that be a goal).

With InMobi Audiences, audience composition and definition are clearly communicated, so marketers can be confident about every aspect of their campaign targeting. Using InMobi's unique, accurate and always-on audiences, you will be able to tailor your targeting to reach the highest value consumers perfect for your business goals.

Engaging and Acquiring Fitness Enthusiasts

How else can this data be leveraged? It’s also especially critical for app user acquisition. For health and fitness apps, it’s critical to strike while the iron is hot and capitalize on the opportunity presented by New Year’s resolutions.

From a creative standpoint, it can be helpful to personalize ads as much as possible. For example, for this audience, it’s likely better to include palm trees than it is to include snow, since many app owners in this category live in warmer states.

Curious to see more insights on the health and fitness space or any other industry segment? Reach out today to learn more about InMobi Pulse.

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InMobi Pulse builds a holistic understanding of the customers from across data sources ranging from the InMobi ad exchange which reaches 1.6 billion users globally to permissively-sourced deterministic first-party telco data to stated feedback directly from the customers.

Our Commitment to Data Privacy: What You Need to Know About This Data

We take user privacy extremely seriously. We meet the most rigorous governance, compliance, and security standards. We have collaborated with consumer advocacy groups and incorporates guidelines from multiple federal government agencies to define industry-leading practices for data governance in the U.S.

Users retain complete control over the data they provide, and have a choice in whether they participate and transparency as to how their data is utilized. Subscribers have constant access to their privacy elections through multiple telco touch points. The patented anonymization platform ensures data sets are 100% secure, and are refreshed to ensure all data are anonymized.

To find out, we surveyed more than 50 digital marketers with the responsibility of media buying across leading brands and agencies in the region. The goal was to hear directly from those on the front lines about what they think about in-app programmatic advertising, to see if it’s understood well and finding value.

Our latest report, The State of Mobile Programmatic Ad Buying in Southeast Asia in 2019, highlights - the current landscape, challenges undermining the in-app programmatic advertising industry and a glimpse into its future. This survey is the first of its kind research program for mobile marketers.

It is designed to help mobile marketers better understand the responsibilities, activities, challenges, and current/future trends of the mobile programmatic world. Get your complimentary copy today!

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What did our survey uncover? Here are the highlights of the report:

• Close to nine out of 10 brand marketers possess only a basic working knowledge of programmatic advertising. Despite that, 93% of these advertisers aim to conduct their programmatic media buying in-house.
• Around 90% of advertisers see efficiency gains with programmatic buying. Programmatic buying of inventory reduces the human involvement and the chances for errors and delays, thus improving the efficiency of a campaign instantaneously.
• When evaluating programmatic partners, performance along with control and transparency in reporting are the top two criteria for brands.
• Lack of education and awareness around programmatic processes is the single biggest barrier to programmatic adoption.

Want even more insights? Download the full copy of the report!

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Who Is Participating?

Ad Tech industry disruptors and thought-leaders including but not limited to executives from some of the industry’s most recognized DSPs, Agencies, Brands and Publishers.

Why Participate?

• Meet with the leading voices in the programmatic industry.
• Learn about how other companies are using technology to solve and scale their programmatic businesses.
• Have your ideas and voice heard, and have the ability to materially influence one of the world’s leading programmatic exchanges.

Why Are We Convening This Advisory Board?

Here at InMobi, we have built our success on customer compassion, scale and transparency. The Customer Advisory Board is a significant way for InMobi to understand our customers’ goals and key initiatives so we can align with your vision and better ensure our shared success.

Since InMobi's early days, we've sat side by side with customers to work on solutions to their key revenue challenges. As we’ve grown and continue to grow, building on those meaningful engagements with customers has been our top priority. We’re constantly looking for more and better ways to understand their business goals. Our Customer Advisory Board is a key channel, among many others, to keep those conversations going.

The new Customer Advisory Board represents the latest initiative to encourage customers and partners to steer the future of how InMobi provides value to our growing customer base worldwide as brands navigate the fast-changing landscape of programmatic technology.

By participating in our advisory board, you are in the driver’s seat and can push forward meaningful change that will directly impact both your bottom line and the industry at large. The goal of this board to gather together the top talent in the mobile programmatic space to discuss how we can move the InMobi Exchange and our industry forward in a beneficial way.

Interested in participating? Reach out to your InMobi contact to see if this event is right for now. Our first gathering of the InMobi Customer Advisory Board will occur in early 2020 in Northern California.

But, staying competitive in this market is not a foregone conclusion, especially for major U.S. beer brands. Overall beer sales in the U.S. dropped by almost 1% between 2017 and 2018, and both craft beer and import sales rose well over 3% in that same time period.

So what can major domestic brands do to stay competitive? The key may be better understanding their various audiences and knowing what makes them tick. Why do certain people drink certain beer brands? That’s what we wanted to find out.

To dig deeper on the modern American beer drinker, we turned to InMobi Pulse. InMobi Pulse builds a holistic understanding of consumers across data sources ranging from the InMobi ad exchange, which reaches 1.6 billion users globally, to permissively-sourced deterministic first-party carrier data to stated feedback directly from the customers.

Segmenting The Beer Drinking Audience

It’s important to note that when it comes to beer consumption, there is no one-size-fits-all audience. Different people drink different amounts and different types of beer at different locations for different reasons. For our reporting, we segmented out three main types:

1. The sport enthusiast
2. The artisan beer drinker
3. Out with friends

These segments were monitored throughout October and November on Mondays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays. Persona segments with beer-related apps and beer-related mobile browsing habits were targeted. The objective of these data calls is to uncover nuances that differ in beer drinkers.

In addition to reviewing their app ownership and mobile web behavior, InMobi geofenced four of the nation's top bars in diverse locations such as Dallas; Madison, Wisconsin; Portland, Oregon and Lexington, Kentucky. For these locations, a 300-meter outer parameter was established, and only customer segments who spent greater than an hour but less than five hours within the fenced area were identified.

What Does The Data Reveal About U.S. Beer Drinkers?

Sports Enthusiasts:

Let’s start off with the sports enthusiast segment. For starters, our data revealed that this is an aptly-named consumer segment. From MLB to NBA to NFL, this segment over-indexes by an average of 9.65% across properties from all major sports teams, with a high propensity for teams like the Green Bay Packers, Boston Red Sox and Denver Nuggets. This audience segment also uses specific sports properties such as Sportsline, NFL Network, Fantrax, GameChanger and NHL Network, along with sports betting properties.

What else does this audience like to do? InMobi Pulse data shows that they like to play mobile games (top titles include Final Fantasy XV, Pet Rescue Saga, Candy Crush Jelly Saga and Chess, among many others), listen to music on platforms like Pandora and Spotify and watch videos on YouTube.

They are foodies (or at least are interested in food for events) with an over-index in the mobile property thegoodcook.com. And, of course, they like beer: favored brands include Budweiser and Heineken.

And who specifically are these sports enthusiasts? It’s a majority male audience, although the female presence grew 2.26% from October to November, with the largest growth coming on Saturdays. But, we’ve found that male sports fans are more active on Thursdays compared to their female compatriots.

For the most part, this audience makes between $50,000 and $75,000 a year. But, there is a sizable contingent here that makes between $75,000 and $100,000 annually. More than four in five are currently homeowners. They’re typically found on the East Coast and Midwest, along with populous states like Texas, California and Florida.

Artisan Beer Drinkers:

The past few decades has seen the dramatic rise of craft beer. While sales of craft beer still lag behind both domestic and import sales, it is one of the fastest-growing segments in the U.S. beer space. So who, specifically, is opting for these craft beer options today?

This audience is overwhelmingly male — more so than other kinds of beer drinkers. On Thursdays in particular, over 70% of artisan beer drinkers are male.

Around 90% are homeowners, and the majority are married. Further, 65% are White and 16% are Hispanic/Latino.

What are they interested in? Artisan beer drinkers are also sports fans, but they are more interested in sports overall and less invested in specific franchises (unlike the Sports Enthusiasts). Many in this segment consume content on ESPN, CBS Sports, Yahoo Sports, Bleacher Report, TheScore, Deadspin and NBC Sports.

What else do they like to do? Many artisan beer drinkers also use fitness-related properties like MyFitnessPal and Runtastic, listen to music through Pandora and Spotify and watch streaming video content through YouTube, Hulu and Netflix. They’re typically found on the East Coast (including Virginia), Midwest and populous states like Texas, California and Florida.

What brands do they like? It’s no surprise that Goose Island is on the list; Anheuser-Busch (which owns Goose Island and other premium beer brands like Golden Road, Leffe and Hoegaarden) also made the cut. Artisan beer drinkers also generally like other artisan-minded brands like Avocados from Mexico, Organic Valley, Stonyfield Organics and Astor Wines.

Out With Friends

This group includes social drinkers. How does this group compare and contrast with sports enthusiasts and artisan beer drinkers?

For starters, they are more evenly split in terms of gender. In fact, on Saturdays, close to half of everyone in this segment is female.

They are mostly but not majority White (45% of those in this segment). Over a quarter are Hispanic/Latinx, and over 21% are Black/African-American.

They are also less likely to be married or own a home compared to the other audiences. Only around 57% of those in this segment are homeowners. It comes as no surprise, then, that they are younger on average than Sports Enthusiasts and Artisan Beer Drinkers.

What else are they interested in? This group shows a high propensity towards fitness-related properties like Fitbit, Weight Watchers, MyFitnessPal and Livestrong. They also often leverage payment services like Venmo, Mint and PayPal — perhaps to pay back friends for drinks?

This segment is filled with Cord Cutters and Cord Nevers, with significantly higher than average streaming sessions for YouTube Premium, Starz, Hulu, Netflix, HBO Go, Apple Movies and Amazon Prime. And, for this group, MTV is back — both as a music channel and as a content channel.

They love the new generation of food delivery properties, with a strong presence for Chow Now, Grubhub and Uber Eats. They’re also not quite as big as sports fan as the other segments are, but they do like the NFL and NCAA.

For this segment, affinity brands include Red Bull, General Mills, Apple, Nike, Ulta, Sephora, WayFair, Old Navy and REI. They’re also more likely to be located in the Pacific Northwest and Midwestern states like Wisconsin and Indiana, and less likely to be located along the East Coast.

How To Use This Data To Inform Your Mobile Ad Campaigns

These insights are interesting, but how can all of this information from InMobi Pulse be used to more intelligently allocate in-app and mobile ad spend? For starters, it’s important to note that there’s no such thing as one type of beer drinkers. As we’ve noted before, different people drink different amounts and different types of beer at different locations for different reasons.

These insights can be hugely beneficial for helping marketers determine when to run their ads. For sports enthusiasts, Saturdays and Sundays are the top days, while it’s more even for artisan beer drinkers.

It’s also critical to consider where these different audience segments are and what they care about. An ad that might resonate with the social drinker is unlikely to resonate with the sports enthusiast, for example.

This kind of data can also help inform creatives as well. Advertisers may want to make sure that their ads feature people that look like their target audience and are featuring individuals doing activities that their users engage in too.

Curious to see more insights on beer or any other industry segment? Reach out today to learn more about InMobi Pulse.

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Our Commitment to Data Privacy: What You Need to Know About This Data

InMobi takes user privacy extremely seriously. We meet the most rigorous governance, compliance, and security standards. We have collaborated with consumer advocacy groups and incorporate guidelines from multiple federal government agencies to define industry-leading practices for data governance in the U.S.

Users retain complete control over the data they provide, have a choice in whether they participate and have transparency as to how their data is utilized. Subscribers have constant access to their privacy elections through multiple telco touchpoints. The patented anonymization platform ensures data sets are 100% secure, and are refreshed to ensure all data are anonymized.

We first looked at the common traits of those in the U.S. who already are customers of the world’s biggest car brands. This data was uncovered by looking at those who have apps indicating ownership from these automakers on their mobile devices. We then compared those insights to the mobile audience data from major car buying and car research websites, to discover the overlap between those who have an affinity for a particular brand and those currently in the car buying research process.

The profiles of car owners of auto brands are derived from data around deterministic auto owner properties such as car finance apps. The auto brands reviewed include Chevrolet, Chrysler, Ford, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Nissan, Subaru, Tesla, Toyota and Volkswagen.

Car Owner Highlights:

• Car owners (i.e. those that have downloaded car brand apps that indicate car ownership) across brands tend to be highest in the 46-55 age group.
• Individuals with auto finance apps tend to be younger, single renters (i.e. not homeowners). They’re also more likely than other car owners to have other finance-related apps on their mobile devices.
• Audio Buffs, Social Media Enthusiasts and Online Shoppers are the three most prominent Car User segments across car brands.
• Nissan, Subaru, Toyota, Honda and Hyundai are the only brands with websites that have audiences that are close to or over half female.
• A notable percentage of Hyundai owners are 66 and older.
• Only finance apps have more than 20% of their audience between the ages of 26 and 35, and every app has less than 10% of its audience between 18 and 25.
• Ford, Tesla, Volkswagen and Subaru owners have a higher tendency to be homeowners.
• Ford and Tesla performs better than other auto brands with individuals having Bachelor’s or graduate degrees, with Nissan, Subaru, Honda and Hyundai not far behind.
• Navigation apps such as Waze, Scout GPS link, Telenav and Google Street View show up often and for longer session lengths across web and app properties in Subaru, Tesla, Kia and Toyota owners.
• The digital persona of users who are on Auto Finance apps is very different from non-Finance users; they tend to have more finance-related apps such as banking apps and other financial mobile apps such as Citi Mobile, Venmo, Wells Fargo, PayPal, Credit Karma and more.
• Electric vehicle owners tend to skew male, as the majority of those with the Tesla app and Nissan’s EV app on their mobile devices are male.

Overview of Today’s Car Owner by Brand

Key Chevrolet Insights:

• Significant presence in the Midwest and Florida.
• 39% of its audience is female.
• Older settled lifestyle profiles are likely to be customers.

Key Chrysler Insights:

• Has a strong following on the East Coast, especially Georgia and Florida.
• Two-thirds of its audience is male.
• A notable percentage of people with its financing app on their mobile devices are between 26 and 35 years old.
• They typically perform better than other car brands with households that have three to four children.

Key Ford Insights:

• Has a strong presence in Midwestern states like Michigan and Illinois, and in highly populous states like Texas and California.
• Only about a quarter of its customers are female, and 70% are White.
• They perform better than other auto brands with individuals having Bachelor’s or graduate degrees.

Key Honda Insights:

• Has a similar geographic breakdown as Ford, but is more popular in Ohio than in Michigan.
• Its customer base is 41% female.
• They typically perform better than other car brands with households that have three to four children.

Key Hyundai Insights:

• Strong in the Northeast, Midwest and Florida.
• Close to half of its customers are female.
• A notable chunk of its consumers are between 46 and 55 years old.

Key Kia Insights:

• A notable percentage of people with its financing app on their mobile devices are between 26 and 35 years old.
• Close to half of its customers are female.
• Navigation apps such as Waze, Scout GPS link, Telenav and Google Street View are often used with by their app owners.

Key Nissan Insights:

• Strong presence in the Northeast, Southeast and Midwest.
• Close to half of its customers are female, although three-fourths of those with the Nissan EV app are male.
• 21% of Nissan app owners are Black/African-American, meaning they have the largest following among this demographic group.
• They perform well with the 56-65 age group.
• Older settled lifestyle profiles are likely to be customers.

Key Subaru Insights:

• 44% of its customers are female, and over three-fourths are White.
• Their customers are located in Washington State, the Northeast and Midwest predominantly.
• They perform well with the 56-65 age group.
• Their audience tends to be homeowners as opposed to renters.
• Navigation apps such as Waze, Scout GPS link, Telenav and Google Street View are often used with by their app owners.

Key Tesla Insights:

• They have the highest distribution in the $200,000+ income range among all the car brands.
• 17% of their audience is Asian/Asian-American; they have the largest percentage of their users in this demographic group.
• 30% of their customers are female.
• They have a strong presence in California and the Southwest.
• They perform better than other auto brands with individuals having Bachelor’s or graduate degrees.
• Their audience tends to be homeowners as opposed to renters.
• Navigation apps such as Waze, Scout GPS link, Telenav and Google Street View are often used with by their app owners.

Key Toyota Insights:

• Strong presence throughout much of the country, particularly in the Northeast, Southeast, Midwest, California and Texas.
• 11.5% of their customers are Asian/Asian-American and over 31% are Hispanic/Latinx (the highest among all auto brands analyzed).
• 43% of their customers are female.
• A notable percentage of people with its financing app on their mobile devices are between 26 and 35 years old.
• Navigation apps such as Waze, Scout GPS link, Telenav and Google Street View are often used with by their app owners.
• Older settled lifestyle profiles are likely to be customers.

Key Volkswagen Insights:

• A notable percentage of people with its financing app on their mobile devices are between 26 and 35 years old.
• Overall, they tend to do well in the 36-45 age group.
• Around 40% of its audience is female.
• Their customers are largely in California, Florida, Virginia and Texas.
• Their audience tends to be homeowners as opposed to renters.

Highlighting the Users of Car Research Websites

How does the audience of car buyers overlap with the audience looking at the top car buying and car research properties via mobile? Who is visiting these mobile properties?

Gender

• Over half of CarMax site visitors are female, while most car app owners are male. CarMax is the only major car buying site with a majority female audience.
• Three-fourths of AutoTrader and Motor Trend readers are male.

Age

• CarMax performs the best in the 26-35 age group, with around 30% of its audience being in this range. This is a top group for auto finance apps, as Chrysler, Toyota, Volkswagen and Kia Motors have finance apps that are performing well with this segment.

Income

• Carvana and AutoTrader have older, more affluent audiences. CarStory does relative better at lower income brackets, which includes students and retirees.

Location

• TrueCar does well in the Southeast, while CarFax and CarStory do well in the Midwest. CarGurus is more regionally agnostic.

Interests

• Motor Trend users typically follow news and have a high usage of the SuperChevy website, showing keen interest in Chevrolet.
• Motor Trend readers are real car people, highly interested in automobiles and car specifics.
• People going to CarGurus, CarStory and Cars.com use many different car buying properties.
• CarsDirect and CarStory readers are really concerned about the bottom line.

Demographics

• Carvana skews White, but CarStory and CarMax mostly half Non-White.
• A high percentage of Carvana’s audience drives SUVs, lives in the suburbs and can be classified as golden year guardians. A significant portion of the audience for CarFax and CarStory are young couples, young singles and middle class couples.
• Carvana does well with left-leaning voters, small business owners and high-end fashionistas.

How to Use This Data To Inform Your Mobile Ad Campaigns

These insights are interesting, but how can all of this information from InMobi Pulse be used to more intelligently allocate in-app and mobile ad spend?

It’s critical to consider these kinds of characteristics when running a user acquisition or retargeting/remarketing campaign. Every brand’s audience is unique, and is found on certain sites/apps over others. By understanding who their target audience is, what they care about and where they are, automakers can more intelligently allocate their new customer acquisition budgets.

This kind of data can also help inform creatives as well. When running campaigns in apps versus on websites, advertisers may want to make sure that their ads feature people that look like their target audience and are featuring individuals doing activities that their users engage in too.

Curious to see more insights? Reach out today to learn more about InMobi Pulse.

Current State of Auto Advertising on Mobile

In the world of digital advertising, auto is a top spender. According to 2018 figures reported by eMarketer, the automotive industry is second only to retailers in terms of digital ad spending, accounting for a 12.6% share among the 10 industries measured.

Nevertheless, TV is the primary medium for automotive brand campaigns, although spending is expected to take a hit — declining as much as 3% year over year, according to 2018 figures from Magna Global — as automakers experience headwinds due to slumping sales. As a result of this shift, digital channels will be the beneficiaries of those headwinds as the industry moves toward cross-platform spending.

They’re also increasingly targeting mobile - and for good reason. According to eMarketer, automotive industry mobile ad spend in the U.S. is more than 60% of the total digital ad spend of the industry in the U.S. from 2016 to 2020, and is expected to reach close to 68% of the total digital ad spend by the industry by 2020.

The top auto advertisers in the U.S. include General Motors, Ford, Toyota, Chrysler, Honda, Nissan, Hyundai, Subaru, Volkswagen and Kia. These, in addition to newcomer Tesla, are the brands we looked at previously.

There’s a good reason for these brands to be heavily invested in mobile, as the auto research and news properties have a sizable mobile presence. In particular, between April and September 2019, total downloads of the apps for Carvana, CarMax, TrueCar, KBB and Carfax topped 3.2 million in the U.S., according to Apptopia. Increasingly, Americans are turning to their mobile devices and apps to learn more about cars.

While the auto industry’s pivot to mobile advertising is a good sign, that spending will all be for naught if carmakers are not approaching their in-app ad campaigns in an intelligent manner. As our above data notes, each of these brands has a highly specific audience, and these audiences are much more likely to frequent certain websites and apps over others. Auto brands need to truly understand and identify their mobile consumers to drive real connections with their potential consumers.

Interested in learning more about InMobi Pulse and about how to glean key insights for your business? Be sure to head to inmobi.com/pulse for more information.

Our Commitment to Data Privacy: What You Need to Know About This Data

InMobi takes user privacy extremely seriously. We meet the most rigorous governance, compliance, and security standards. We have collaborated with consumer advocacy groups and incorporate guidelines from multiple federal government agencies to define industry-leading practices for data governance in the U.S.

Users retain complete control over the data they provide, have a choice in whether they participate and have transparency as to how their data is utilized. Subscribers have constant access to their privacy elections through multiple telco touchpoints. The patented anonymization platform ensures data sets are 100% secure, and are refreshed to ensure all data are anonymized.

But is in-app header bidding actually part of the average app monetization strategy today? Last year, we surveyed dozens of app publishers, app development professionals and others in the mobile app advertising space to get their real opinion on in-app header bidding, mediation and many other topics. What we found was that while in-app header bidding adoption was nascent, it was already providing real benefits to the mobile apps where it was in place, and thus was likely to be included in everyone’s business models in 2019.

So did our prediction come true? To get to the bottom of this, we again surveyed dozens of experts in the field, from gaming apps to omnichannel ad exchanges and everyone in between, to get to the truth. What did our research reveal? Download the full report today to find out for yourself.

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While you’ll need to get your complimentary copy of the full 2019 Report: Predicting the Future of In-App Advertising and Monetization, to see all the details, here’s a sneak peek of what our data says about in-app header bidding in particular:

• 38% have in-app header bidding in place now, up from 31% last year.
• 45% said they were not utilizing it because they didn’t understand the technology, versus 31% who said the same thing last year.
• 36% this year said they didn’t have in-app header bidding in place because of implementation issues, which is up from 23% last year.
• 27% said they’re not using in-app header bidding because of compatibility issues; 10% indicated this was the case in last year’s survey.
• 23% said they had a limited understanding of in-app header bidding, up from 12% last year.
• 56% said in-app header bidding provides greater transparency into bids and impression value, and 56% said it provides better yield management and increased revenue.

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Of course, in-app header bidding is just part of the picture. We also wanted to dive deeper into other components of the monetization world. What app monetization models are commonly used? How does everyone from mobile games to utility apps think about the user experience offered by different ad formats? And even more broadly, do app publishers think about (and monetize) all smartphone users in the same way? Here’s what the data reveals in these arenas:

• Banner ads are the most common ad format involved in header bidding auctions, but interstitials and videos (including rewarded video ads) aren’t far behind.
• Close to half said they offer in-app purchases, while 29% ask users to pay for their app from the major app stores and 23% charge subscription fees.
• Only 7% of app publishers said they know what other apps their customers use and just 5% know their income levels. Further, only 16% know their hobbies and interests.
• 61% of app publishers polled they have a standard ARPU for all of their app users. Why is this case? 37% said they’re unable to gain granular user ARPU data.
• 30% said it takes about two seconds or longer for an ad to load.
• 17% use a single ad network for all of their ad monetization needs.

Sneak Peak of the Report

Interested in learning more about what our latest survey report reveals? Here’s an advanced copy of one of its chapters:

What does this survey data say about the present and future of monetizing mobile apps through in-app advertising? While there’s been some progress in the last 12 months, there’s still a ways to go. But, it’s reasonable to expect the industry to take a dramatic leap forward in the coming months.

Publishers simply cannot continue to rely on old methods and techniques, as it’s just not sustainable. In terms of monetization, publishers need to move to something more efficient.

This likely points to a rise in adoption in in-app header bidding, although it’s worth noting that the 2018 survey made the same prediction. So long as in-app header bidding technology matures and evolves to encompass server-side header bidding, more ad formats and multiple use cases, then it will likely gain more adherents. Helping this trend along would be a rise in knowledge of and understanding about this technology and how it actually works.

With the rise of supply path optimization, buyers are looking for more transparent and less risky routes to high quality inventory. This focus on a robust pipe that connects the demand sources to the publishers with minimal intermediaries will put additional pressure on publishers. It will drive them to ensure that they only work with mediation or header bidding partners who can offer an efficient monetization stack and provide a unique path that’s differentiated through enriched user/inventory insights and transparent auction mechanisms. This should most certainly be the playbook for publishers in the market for an in-app header bidding or mediation partner.

In such a world, publishers will have access to not just auction/bid level information across advertisers but will also gain a deep understanding of high-performing segments. This can be achieved by using data that covers the location trail of the audience and demographics, along with their interests and pursuits as expressed both inside and outside the publisher’s app.

Insights from such precise segments can then be used to grow and acquire high ARPU users through lookalike modelling, open opportunities to build and strengthen direct sales channels and develop personalized content or services. This is in addition to, of course, monetizing these users through the header bidding/mediation platform.

To this extent, to proactively cultivate the share of high quality audiences within a wider audience base and push ARPU through the roof, publishers will have to consider working with partners who both have access to a robust ad stack and can also help build granular profiles that they bring through proprietary first-party data partnerships (eg: telco data).

There’s a lot more where this came from! For more insights and data, be sure to download the full report today.

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And, if you’re ready to get started on a more advanced monetization track, be sure to reach out to InMobi today. Whether you’re just looking for more premium advertiser demand, you’re in need of advanced data segments or new technologies or you just want to supplement your rewarded videos, InMobi has the perfect options and solutions for your app.

To uncover the truth about mobile’s role in shopping habits from Thanksgiving until the following Monday, we surveyed hundreds of people in and near the 10 biggest cities in the U.S. using InMobi Pulse. So what does our data reveal?

Survey Results Revealed

For starters, mobile won’t be the dominant shopping channel this year. Only 21% said they would shop during this period through mobile apps, while only 16% said they would turn to mobile websites.

In comparison, 18% said they used apps for holiday shopping last year, while 14% said they used mobile websites for shopping in 2018. Between 2018 and 2019, there should be around a 17% increase in planned app use for shopping.

But, one in three survey participants said they would conduct at least 40% of more of their holiday shopping through apps. And, over 70% said they turn to digital channels for product research before making an offline purchase.

Among app shoppers, 40% said they would use mobile apps to buy clothing, shoes and/or bag. An additional 33% said they would be buying electronics through apps.

These are not necessarily impulse buys either, with close to half of survey respondents describing themselves as needs-based buyers. But, 46% said they will be buying items either for themselves or a spouse during this time period.

Of those turning to apps, Amazon was far and away the top choice. 57% said they would shop using the Amazon app, while 37% said they would use Walmart’s app and 19% said they would use Target’s app. On one hand, this isn’t all that surprising; after all, Amazon is the proven leader in e-commerce. But, it shows that there is a strong affinity between the brands people shop with through their phones and the ones they shop at in person.

This data on app usage aligns with brick and mortar priorities in terms of brand preferences. Among the 20% of survey respondents who said they would shop at a physical storefront this holiday season, 55% said they would go to Walmart and 41% said they would go to Target.

How much will people be spending? Less than half said they will spend more this year compared to last year, while just 40% said they will spend more online in 2019 compared to what they spent in 2018.

Understanding the Survey Results

Overall, mobile will actually be playing a relatively minor role in how people approach Black Friday shopping this year. Even in major cities, less than one in four people will turn to e-commerce apps during this major shopping season.

But these numbers on their own don’t tell the whole picture. In 2019, more people said they will buy from apps than visit brick and mortar store locations (21% to 20%). And, not only did people say they were more likely to purchase via apps this year versus what they did last year, but a whopping 72% said they use their phones to conduct research about a product they may later buy in a physical store.

What this shows is that, slowly but surely, mobile is becoming ever more dominant in how people conduct their holiday shopping. No matter how someone makes a purchase, it’s likely that mobile is involved in some respect.

For brands, this shows just how important their mobile strategy must be during and immediately after Black Friday. Among those polled, 43% said they don’t plan to shop at all during this time of the year, and only 42% said they plan to spend more this year over last year. This shows just how critical it is for brands to get their mobile strategy right and capture available dollars.

So what can brands do to more effectively leverage mobile channels? Here are a few options to consider:

• Showrooming (looking up products online when reviewing products at a store) - and its various permutations - is here to stay. Instead of avoiding it or trying to make it difficult, brands can embrace the trend to their benefit. Offering free Wi-Fi, providing special deals for online or offline shopping and/or giving people the option to buy online and then pick up in store can all help brands boost their bottom line.
• Most people classify themselves now as a needs-based or value-based shopper. Brands should highlight how they can help people fulfill their needs at an affordable rate through their mobile-first promotions.

• It’s critical to note who specifically uses apps. While only 21% of those polled said they will shop through an app this holiday season, 39% of those between the ages of 18 and 24 said they will turn to apps, as will 29% of people between the ages of 25 and 36. In fact, among app shopped between 18 and 24, 72% of them will use Amazon. And, among this youngest adult demographic, 56% said they will buy electronics through apps this holiday season and 58% will purchase shoes, clothes and bags. It’s important for brands, when promoting an app or providing value through an app, to think about who their most valuable persona segments are for each channel.

Interested in learning more about mobile shopping habits? Want to conduct your own mobile-first research campaign? Reach out today to learn more about InMobi Pulse and its many capabilities.

About the Author

Matthew Kaplan has over a decade of digital marketing experience, working to support the content goals of the world’s biggest B2B and B2C brands. He is a passionate app user and evangelist, working to support diverse marketing campaigns across devices.

Consumer Frictions on Mobile

At all stages of the customer shopping journey, consumers report issues with the mobile experience offered by their favorite brands. Here’s just a small snapshot of what our research revealed:

• Long video ad load times.
• Lack of communication in local languages.
• No omnichannel experience provided.
• Not enough reviews and ratings.
• The product that someone gets is different than they looked at online.
• There are too many steps needed to make a purchase, and the checkout process isn’t optimized for mobile.
• Poor after-sales service (delivery, installation etc.)

Consumers want a seamless mobile shopping experience. Brands aren’t providing it, though.

Greasing the Wheels on the Mobile Consumer Journey

More than four in five consumers globally say they will immediately switch to a new brand if they have had a bad experience, according to Kantar, and three-fourths of consumers expect a consistent brand experience wherever they engage with a brand (e.g. website, social media, mobile, in person).

Brands need to eliminate the various frictions - information, experience, relevance and payment related, to maximize their chances of winning the connected Indian consumer. Here are the three main things they need to do:

1) Provide a Seamless Omnichannel Experience

Brands should be able to provide a seamless experience across their web stores, apps and offline stores. A frictionless omnichannel experience can be provided by ensuring easy checkout on mobile or in-store, minimizing steps for learning and exploration, providing enough payment options, doing away with registration/ form fills, providing enough ratings and user/ product reviews.

2) Think About and Prioritize Mobile at Every Stage

A frictionless experience needs mobile-first thinking. Brands need to ensure that they optimize for mobile, build mobile-first video or interactive ads and partner with the right technology platforms.

3) Personalize Communications

Brands must deliver personalized communication through precise targeting with the right offers, relevant recommendations, and vernacular communication. TIming of such communication is critical - dynamic messaging depending on which phase the consumer could be in must be accounted for.

Overcoming Frictions to Deliver a Stellar Mobile Marketing Campaign

The goal always has to be to build a frictionless consumer experience using mobile. This happens when brands understand consumers’ needs and behaviour with always-on insights and identify audiences through micro segmentation to drive precise targeting. It happens when they engage and acquire audiences through contextual and relevant mobile marketing, and when they provide a frictionless mobile experience from start to finish.

By prioritizing mobile at all stages, brands can make sure they are capitalizing on the enormous opportunity available to them today.

InMobi continues to strengthen its commitment in this regard by enhancing its app onboarding checks beyond the standard levers set by the industry. Instead, a dedicated in-house team evaluates each app across 21 different parameters, which can be broadly categorized across the following themes:

• High-Risk Content
• User-Generated Content
• Dynamic Content / Page Context
• Get Rich Schemes / Pyramid Schemes / Work from Home Schemes
• Ad Placements
• Ad Cluttering and Invasive Pop-Ups
• App Functionality
• In-App User Experience
• User Ratings and Reviews

This is in addition to the typical checks that are covered by InMobi’s content policy guidelines such as violence, hate speech, alcohol, tobacco, gambling, pornography, illegal activities and violence — all subject to a specific country’s laws and regulations. Other grey areas include fake news, un-moderated user-generated content and copyright infringement. The team evaluates such idiosyncrasies, explores the level of tolerance based on current industry limitations/ regional tolerance and arrives at providing a specific rating to each app.

Post evaluation, the app is given one of the following ratings: high, medium and low. Apps that fail to comply with the rating standards will not be onboarded by InMobi. Additionally, as a part of proactive policing, live apps will be periodically monitored and reviewed for similar checks when there is an app update in the app stores.

By increasing the number of controls and evaluating apps on a variety of factors beyond pre-existing standards, InMobi aims to build a safe in-app ecosystem that prioritizes the needs of both buyers and users.

Interested in learning how you can leverage our new standards? Set up time with your InMobi representative to learn more.

Think about the classic marketing funnel. In the mobile in-app advertising space, we tend to focus a lot at the very top and very bottom of the funnel. If you want reach and awareness, there are a lot of options. And if you want app installs and downloads, there are also a lot of options.

But what about the middle of the funnel? What if a brand is looking to drive engagement, signups or one-time purchases? In this realm, there historically hasn’t been as much available, especially within the mobile in-app advertising ecosystem.

That is changing, however. After all, my goal (and the goal of InMobi overall) is to make sure we’re always meeting a client's marketing objectives. It is increasingly feasible to do mid-funnel prospecting effectively within mobile apps, so long as campaigns are set up appropriately.

Understanding Mid-Funnel Prospecting

Let’s level-set on definitions here. What do we mean when we say mid-funnel prospecting (MFP)?

As I briefly mentioned before, MFP encompasses everything in between pure branding/awareness campaigns and those with hard, down-funnel KPIs like app installs. MFP combines the benefits of in-app advertising (device IDs, targeting, etc.) with the benefits of mobile web (form fills, established tracking mechanisms, availability for all businesses, etc.).

MFP is ideal for clients that already have awareness and are looking for web traffic (with calls to action around learning more or signing up or purchase) since they don't have an app or aren't yet looking for app downloads. For example, direct-to-consumer (DTC) subscription services that don’t have an app benefit from MFP, as do businesses that rely on signups or big-ticket purchases like airlines. Further, MFP is ideal for businesses that can only target very specific user groups for compliance/legal reasons, like alcohol or cannabis brands.

Challenges with Legacy Approaches to MFP

One of the reasons why mobile in-app advertising hasn’t focused much on MFP generally stems from issues around measurement and creatives. From a UX standpoint, not only can it be hard to get clicks from in-app media, but consumer dropoff between app to mobile web ranges between 25% to 70%, as a result of that poor experience.

Plus, attributing credit to multiple touch points throughout the user’s journey via cross-device measurement (marketers should be using multi-touch attribution and measurement) has historically been lacking. In particular, while Google DoubleClick is the most common attribution solution because it has device graph for cross-device and multi-touch attribution and measurement, they don't share device IDs or other key data points needed to gain a full measure of success.

Solving Key Measurement Challenges with MFP

As with anything in mobile advertising and marketing, measurement is key. How do you know what’s really happening with your campaigns if you lack oversight?

In all aspects of in-app advertising but especially in relation to MFP, user behavior is critical and needs to be observed. In particular, user behavior needs to be central to how campaigns are measured.

But accurately measuring all touch points in someone’s decisioning process is notoriously fickle in today’s always-on world. While mobile has a lot of measurement built in, it’s only one touch point of many used by someone.

There are some actions that someone is unlikely to make directly on a mobile device, like buying a car. But, that doesn’t mean that mobile isn’t influencing them. Mobile can be a trigger for someone to do more elsewhere.

This all needs to be tempered by the fact that advertisers want immediate results from their campaigns. However, that can be hard to show holistically when you’re only looking at one type of media or one type of device. This is why you need to have the right attribution windows (7 days, 30 days, etc.)

And then, how are you giving credit when a conversion happened? How do you credit all of the touch points that are influencing the conversion? Without holistic measurement, you may be putting too much weight on some channels/touch points over others, and missing your target consumers (who, after all, are basically everywhere).

So what is InMobi doing to address these measurement-related challenges around MFP? For starters, we have a unique cross-device attribution solution powered by Tapad that gives the marketers we work with unprecedented oversight across a wide variety of devices, not just mobile. That way, marketers know with greater granularity how campaigns across a wide variety of devices are influencing user behavior and ultimately leading to signups and other mid-funnel benchmarks.

Multi-touch tracking is especially critical for MFP. If you’re using an in-app ad to drive someone to a mobile webpage form, for example, then you need to know that everyone is being tracked and counted for properly across all media.

View-through attribution is key here too, especially for our app publisher partners. Marketers can't always expect immediate action as soon as someone sees their creative, but an end user can complete the specific goal within 10 days of seeing an ad, for example. With view-through attribution, marketers working with us on mid-funnel campaigns are able to track ad impressions in addition to clicks over time.

Overall though, we subscribe to last-touch attribution for all third-party app campaigns, giving the most weight to the final ad that directly led to the desired user action. This doesn’t mean that we’re ignoring other touch points (far from it, in fact) but we’ve found that the final ad is often the biggest influencing factor in convincing someone to undertake a desired action.

Solving Key Creative Challenges with MFP

Of course, as with any advertising beyond branding and awareness campaigns, the ultimate goal is to use the ad to convince someone to take a desired action. In the case of MFP, it’s crucial that marketers use compelling creatives that are eye-catching and provide as smooth a user experience as possible.

The first step is to leverage creatives that will actually capture attention. While we will use static banners if absolutely necessary, we prefer utilizing more high-impact creatives like video, native ads, interactive ads (like with end cards) and ads featuring rich media creative.

InMobi’s interactive in-app ads get the brand recall needed to nudge users towards conversion and directly increase engagements, thereby improving conversions within app. Dynamic sequential ads are also often used to stay top of mind with end users.

From a UX perspective though, MFP can be difficult with in-app advertising because there’s invariably going to be a dropoff when leading someone from an app environment to a browser environment. To address this, we tailored a creative solution using Celtra to create rich media ads with mobile web behavior inside the app; this helps to reduce dropoff and provide a better experience that both users and app publishers appreciate. In fact, InMobi’s in-app browser experience has helped our mid-funnel advertiser partners see a 71% reduction in bounce rates.

Providing a Holistic MFP Solution

MFP has long been a black spot in mobile in-app advertising, plagued by challenges around creatives, user experience and measurement. But, thanks to major innovations from InMobi and others, it’s now possible to run highly successful MFP campaigns at scale in app.

Interested in learning more? Head to inmobi.com/dsp for more information, and be sure to reach out today to discuss what a MFP campaign might look like for your business.

A truly connected customer experience is especially needed in the retail world. The rise of e-commerce has in turn enhanced customer expectations from shipping to customer service and everything in between.

To illustrate how connected Indian consumers shop today, InMobi recently surveyed over 1,000 people throughout India to see when and how they would be shopping during the 2019 Festive Season. So what do our numbers reveal?

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Understanding how mobile impacts the Shopping Journey in 2019

The festive season records some of the most significant purchase decisions throughout the year, making it the basis of our study. How will connected consumers in India be buying during the four-month period from Dussehra through Christmas this year? As our research shows, when it comes to shopping, connected devices are a crucial component of the buying journey.

At the beginning, middle and end of the shopping journey, mobile reigns supreme. Whether the festive shopping is online or in-store, mobile is the constant companion for learning, exploring and buying in the customer’s shopping journey.

Consider what our survey uncovered:

• 62% use mobile to learn and discover about products. Only 9% do the same in store.
• 77% use mobile to research and explore about products, while only 24% do the same in store.
• 67% use mobile to make purchases during festive season, while only 33% said they would be making in-store purchases.

How Do Indians Plan To Shop This Festive Season?

It’s important for brands to get this right, as festive season represents an enormous opportunity for a wide variety of retailers. Indians will spend INR 15,000 on average this festive season, with 56% of those surveyed saying that they expect to spend more this year versus 2018. This is why advertisers in India are expected to spend 28,000 Cr. this festive season, 8% to 12% more than what was spent last year.

Who stands to benefit from this shopping bonanza? According to our survey, 56% of respondents said they will spend the most on apparel and clothing this festive season. In comparison, 21% said they’d spent the most on jewelry, 20% said home appliances and 15% said gadgets like smartphones and tablets.

Conventionally a highly-planned affair, the festive season is witnessing a mixed bag of planned and impulse shopping. This change in consumer behavior is supported by shifting population demographics, access to a variety of choices and enhanced connectivity. India’s connected consumer is being defined by the ever-growing millennial and Gen Z population, who highly value the shopping experience and prefer to learn, explore and buy on the smartphone.

How Brands are Connecting with the Connected Consumer

While consumers are readily embracing mobile, it appears as though brands are not following suit. As our survey shows, consumers face issues throughout the buying journey.

• When asked about the biggest issues faced while learning and discovering about products on mobile for the festive season, survey respondents cited lack of communication in local languages and too much or too little information about brand/product as some of their top concerns.
• When asked about the biggest issues faced while researching for festive season shopping on your mobile, top cited concerns included not enough reviews/ratings, multiple steps for discovering products on website or in-app, lack of trialability, not mobile optimised and irrelevant product offers/suggestions.
• When asked about the biggest issues you face purchasing for the festive season on mobile, survey respondents said their top concerns included actual product differing from online display, multiple steps for completing purchase, checkout not being mobile optimised, poor after-sales service (delivery, installation, etc.) and transaction delay/failure.

So what does this reveal? While today’s connected mobile consumer wants - nay, demands - a frictionless experience, brands are simply not able to deliver. Considering how important mobile is to today’s consumers, this is a huge missed opportunity.

“With the multitude of shopping options available, it’s important for brands to engage at every step of the customer journey. Whether the consumer is doing initial research online, stopping by the store to check a product out, or browsing a social media page, brands should facilitate a personalized, comfortable experience,” Deloitte Digital has noted.

Of course, providing a frictionless mobile experience for today’s connected Indian consumer is no easy feat. Stay tuned for our next blog post to learn more about why it’s necessary and what brands can do today to improve.

What has your connected shopping experience been so far this year? We’d love to hear from you on social media! Let us know your thoughts on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn!

The change has been led by mobile, with many Indians today having skipped the desktop era and jumped directly to mobile. As smartphones and wireless connectivity expand beyond the major cities into smaller municipalities and rural areas, mobile devices take up a central role in how Indians shop, play, eat and do just about everything. This is a big change from just five years ago.

The Connected Indian Consumer Throughout the Country

This rise in mobile device and smartphone usage isn’t just happening in Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities either. The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) has previously predicted that by next year, around half of all internet-connected consumers in India will be from rural areas. Considering that around 67% of India’s population lives in rural areas, the growth in connectivity in these parts of the country is significant.

“Cheaper mobile handsets, the spread of wireless data networks, and evolving consumer behaviors and preferences will all drive rural penetration and usage,” the report’s authors noted.

And, their usage habits are not all that different from their urban peers. BCG noted that the most popular activities undertaken by rural consumers on their phones including accessing social media networks and communicating with others through chat and text messages, among many other activities.

Festive Season and the Connected Indian Consumer

To highlight just how connected Indian consumers will shop during this key holiday period, InMobi surveyed over 1,000 Indians this summer. The goal of this research was to see how the connected Indian consumer plans to learn, explore and buy during the four-month Festive Season, which here is defined as the period from August through Dussehra/ Vijayadashami and Diwali ending in December with Christmas.

A characteristic feature of the 2019 festive season is the increased nature of impulse shopping around this highly planned affair. And, how mobile is the constant companion in this endeavor - planned or unplanned.

So what did we uncover? Here’s a small sampling of what we found:

• 62% of respondents said they discovered and learned more about products from mobile, while only 9% said they did from visiting physical stores.
• 77% said they will use mobile to research and explore about products, while less than one in four said they will in store.
• Two-thirds of respondents said they will turn to mobile devices to make a purchase, while only a third said they will buy in store.

This festive season is characterized by the emergence of the connected Indian consumer. Today’s festive shopper owns multiple devices and is constantly multi-screening.

Of course, the very “connectedness” of the Indian consumer is defined by the smartphone. With a whole new generation now experiencing the internet and living the connected experience through mobile, it is undoubtedly the go-to screen this festive season.

A recent report showed that 33% Indians couldn’t live without their smartphones, and 90% of Indian consumers use multiple connected devices throughout the day.

Driving Real Connections with Connected Indian Consumers

For brands - especially those hoping to win consumers this festive season - the emergence of the connected Indian consumer presents both unique challenges and unique opportunities. How can companies use mobile to their advantage?

As mobile cements its place as the center of the modern Indian’s life, it’s crucial that mobile be the linchpin of any marketing and advertising strategy, whether for festive season or really any other time of the year.

This is a big change, especially for marketers accustomed to the old ways of doing things, but it also represents a huge opportunity. Mobile offers marketers with the unprecedented ability to understand, identify, engage and acquire customers like never before. As a highly personal device, marketers can use mobile to connect with consumers on a level that was simply impossible before.

In an increasingly mobile-native economy like ours, marketers can effectively reach potential customers during the festive season through a comprehensive mobile marketing strategy that not only targets the right audience but does so in a creative, data driven and frictionless manner. While the festive season is ripe with opportunity for marketers across the nation, it’s imperative to have the right strategy in place well before the shopping frenzy begins to maximize impact!

Your Captain Obvious insight for the day: People love to stream video. There’s a reason big streaming video properties like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video are household names in the U.S. today.

But here’s what you might not realize: A lot of people use their smartphones to watch video. The screen may only be a few inches wide, but it’s what many of us turn to for streaming TV and movies - despite Steven Spielberg’s misgivings.

In fact, here’s a look at net installs of OTT apps over the past 12 months:

In the last 12 months, net new installs of these top five OTT video streaming apps (Amazon Prime Video, HBO, Hulu, Netflix and Starz) increased over 400%. Between July 2017 and September 2019, these apps have been downloaded a combined 224 million times, according to Apptopia. Even with their small screens, mobile devices are a go-to source of video entertainment content.

And people aren’t just downloading these apps and forgetting them. Users in the U.S. watch a lot of video content on their mobile devices:

• In August 2019, Netflix users, on average, watched over five hours of streaming content.
• People with the Hulu app on their phone have viewed more than four hours of video content from their mobile device in August.