Seamless, experiences on phone lock screens to become a mainstay in mobile marketing

InMobi, a leading provider of content monetization and marketing technologies that help businesses fuel growth has unveiled its annual Mobile Marketing Handbook (MMH) 2024. The MMH 2024 offers a comprehensive exploration into smartphone consumption trends that are reshaping mobile marketing in India, driven by a growing demand for seamless, serendipitous, and smart experiences delivered with a single tap. MMH 2024 also presents marketers with state-of-the-art strategies to drive meaningful consumer engagement in this redefined world, with a focus on the transformative role of the smart lock screen.

Said Vasuta Agarwal, Chief Business Officer at InMobi Group, “The MMH 2024 provides a strategic roadmap for brands navigating India's dynamic smartphone landscape. With consumers in the country becoming more reliant on their smartphones for everything from entertainment to utilities, brands find themselves at a crucial juncture, requiring an evolution in their approach. The handbook highlights innovative tools and strategies marketers can adopt to meet changing consumer demands. Amongst these, the smart lock screen has emerged as a key strategy, offering brands an opportunity to establish early consumer connections and inspire purposeful action.”

Report Highlights

Decoding internet consumers in the truly mobile-first India market

The MMH 2024 offers valuable insight into the average internet consumer in India. Consumers here are genuinely mobile-first, dedicating 4 hours and 5 minutes daily to their smartphone, outpacing the global average by nearly an hour. The country ranks among the top 20 globally in terms of time spent on mobile devices. These consumers tend to instinctively pick up their phones for various reasons, from taking a break to seeking instant services. Usage spans utilities, gaming, entertainment, shopping, and more. According to InMobi Platform Data, the top five App categories include Social Networking, Photo and Video, Games, Entertainment, and Utilities, showcasing the multifaceted nature of mobile engagement.

Defining the new ‘Always-on’ User

While over 881 million consumers in India all love their time online, a new type of ‘Always-on’ User has risen amidst the growing demand for mobile experiences. The MMH 2024 highlights who these super users are and what they want. These users have an appetite for seamless, instant, and efficient on-the-go experiences, preferring single-tap engagement that eliminates the friction of unlocking their smartphones.

Engaging the Always-on user through smart lock screen experiences

The smartphone lock screen has always been a dead space, meant only for notifications, time, weather and other mundane information. Now, however, the lock screen has been redefined as a smart surface, where consumers can enjoy what they love, even without unlocking their phones. Given its innate capacity to enable frictionless, instant access, the lock screen is now at the epicentre of consumer engagement.

The MMH 2024 highlights the role of Glance, the world’s leading smart lock screen, in catering to the needs of the Always-on user. Over 200 million active Glance users are today discovering personalised content and a variety of experiences such as gaming and shopping on their lock screen, without unlocking their phones, downloading multiple apps and without searching. Spread across the country, Glance users are likely to spend 1.2 times more time on smartphone usage than non-Glance users. This diverse and engaged user base has positioned Glance as an influential platform for brands aiming to connect seamlessly with a broad spectrum of Always-on users.

Navigating trends: What brands can do

MMH 2024 highlights the various lock screen centric strategies that brands can adopt to connect with consumers in today’s world. With these strategies brands can establish a relationship with their consumers early. Their aim is to leverage the mobile lock screen to delight, drive consideration, interaction, and resonance, ultimately inspiring purposeful actions from the consumers.

Several brands are already leveraging Glance Lock Screen to reimagine how they cater to evolving consumer needs. The report highlights case studies of brands including Pizza Hut, American Tourister, and Swiggy, and how they have achieved great success in driving engagement at various levels of their marketing funnel through strategic and creative utilisation of the lock screen.

Here is a snapshot:

Pizza Hut ran an awareness campaign targeting India’s youth by driving serendipitous discovery of their deals and pizzas before people unlocked their phones by showing them on the lock screen. They leveraged special days meant for food sharing, such as Easter and Friendship Day, so the context was also right. This resulted in 1.18 million clicks – their highest-ever single-day activity on their website.
American Tourister engaged potential customers by strategically displaying its products when consumers checked live cricket scores before unlocking their phones. Using a creative approach featuring Virat Kohli showcasing an American Tourister bag, the brand provided viewers the opportunity to explore its collection in various colours without requiring them to unlock their phones, reaching 2.72 million Indians.
Swiggy utilized location-specific targeting to connect with food enthusiasts. With irresistible offers and mouth-watering visuals of hyperlocal delights, Swiggy delivered a personalized experience on the smart lock screen. With a 29% month-on-month increase in first orders on food delivery, one-click install was a cherry on the cake as foodies instantly installed the app while consuming content.