How brands can tap into mobile marketing maturity to drive growth

Today, brands are increasingly finding new ways on digital and mobile to reach their end consumers and expand their presence in this space and time spent by users. IAMAI’s India Digital Summit 2021 turned the focus on ‘Building Resilient Brands: The Era of Mobile - Marketing Maturity’. The ‘trialogue’ was moderated by Vasuta Agarwal, Managing Director - APAC, InMobi, and she was joined by Jayesh Ullattil, Vice President & General Manager - India, InMobi, and Navin Madhavan, VP & GM, Growth Marketing Platforms, InMobi.

Vasuta Agarwal highlighted how the COVID-19 disruption had affected markets globally, with people restricted to their homes, which also resulted in mobile consumption shooting up 2020. According to her, “2020 was the year of ‘Welcoming The Mobile First World Order’ and mobile became the closest companion for all during this time. Mobile app downloads, time spent and also users spending on mobile increased significantly and this sector showed growth equivalent to 3-4 years.”

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Some key numbers shared for the mobile first world order in 2020 included:

• 321 million new internet users.
• 25% worldwide downloads growth in peak month H1 2020 vs H2019
• $143 billion worldwide app store consumer spend in 2020
• 2 hours spent on mobile by the average user in April 2020
• 6 tn hours spent on mobile worldwide in H1 2020 alone
• $240 billion mobile ad spends in 2020

Agarwal said that this showed the unparallel growth that the mobile economy had seen globally. She then went on to talk about the Indian mobile market, where the growth seen has been exponential and the pandemic has further acted as a catalyst to the digital adoption rates in the country. India houses 25% of all new internet users globally, she added.

Some key stats for the Indian market in 2020:

• 734 million monthly active internet user base whose primary device is mobile
• 14% of worldwide app downloads were driven by India
• 300% higher app download growth compared to global average
• 8 hours spent on mobile by the average user in April 2020
• 37% growth in time spent on mobile
• 11 GB data consumption per user per month

Agarwal also talked about the shift in the Indian app economy in 2020 and how every business was trying to beat the pandemic by building apps and enlarging their digital presence. During this time event the Government was using apps extensively to inform users and keep them up to date with the latest developments on the ongoing pandemic.

Gaming is the growth driver

Agarwal further spoke about how gaming has changed the face of entertainment in India and rapid growth in the in 2020. There were almost 4.7 billion gamers across the world and gaming revenue accounted for 48% of the worldwide revenue. Mobile gaming even beat PC and console gaming.

India showed the highest growth of 35% year on year in terms of the number of games played each month by an average user. Today, 1 in 10 gamers is from India and 89% of the gamers are using their smartphones. Agarwal noted that gaming has become democratised because of the smartphone. She added, “If gaming continues to growth this way, it will become as mainstream as video entertainment.”

Short Video trend

Agarwal also spoke about the massive growth of short form videos in 2020 and added that mobile didn’t just democratise content consumption, but also creation during this time. Users were creating content with the ease of their phone and this wasn’t specific to any genre. Whether it is fitness, music, dance or funny videos, all the genres grew exponentially during this time.

Agarwal concluded her address by pointing out the shift to mobile to learn, explore and buy in 2020. She said, “63% people use mobile to learn and discover new products, 77% use it to explore and research about products, and 62% use mobile to make purchases.”

The era of mobile marketing maturity

Jayesh Ullattil talked about the change in brand and user behaviour caused by the pandemic. Brand and marketers are trying to find new ways to sustain through this time and further grow in a post pandemic world. According to him, digital marketing maturity is the path that all brands and marketers should take during this time. Digital marketing maturity is an organisation’s capacity in delivering seamless brand experiences and is defined by 4 maturity levels – Nascent, Emerging, Connected and Multi moment.

Further elaborating on these 4 stages, Ullattil said that achieving digital marketing maturity is a real struggle. In the middle of the pandemic, only 12% achieved this feat. He then navigated through the process of digital marketing maturity and how can brands go from Aspirational to Actionable. He further said that in 2021, digital marketing maturity will be equal to mobile marketing maturity.

Building resilient brands: Thriving in the Era of Mobile

Navin Madhavan spoke about how brands can grow in the mobile era and what brands need to do to achieve this growth. Citing from a BCG report, Madhavan said that 83% marketers couldn’t link data across consumer touch points, 68% still relied on manual processes. 78% couldn’t add value to their individual touch points across consumers and 80% suffered from inadequate cross-functional coordination to truly measure the success or failure of their digital campaign.

According to Madhavan, in order to drive growth through mobile marketing maturity brands need to:

• Leverage mobile first consumer intelligence
• Adopt in app programmatic
• Play to the gallery with mobile video
• Drive personalisation using data, measurement and automation

He also dissected each of the steps that brands need to take to drive growth in a mobile era through mobile marketing maturity.

Catch the complete presentation here.