A Look into Platform Switching and Modern Mobile Marketing

If technology truly does advance at a near exponential rate, the notion seems more astounding with every year one ages. I remember enjoying tinkering with my dad's brick of a cell phone at age 7, as I was then at the cutting edge of technology. Here I sit, a mere 15 years later, reflecting on how that phone (and so many pieces of tech from the 90's) has been rendered obsolete. 15 years! How much time spanned between the first landline and the first cell phone? Roughly 100 years. Technology moves fast, and as a marketing student at age 22, I have a unique perspective on how these changes shape people and markets. I was brought up in the thick of changing digital consumption, from early cell phones to functional laptop computers to smart phones, to tablets.

Cell phones have evolved into a valuable tool for consumers and marketers

As a marketer, these technological advancements pose new and unique challenges for digital marketers:

Platform Shifts: not only are marketers using new, different devices to consume digital content; they are doing it simultaneously across multiple platforms. Consumers tend to rapidly switch between forms of digital content, sometimes consuming two pieces on two different platforms at the same time.

Content Shifts: to compensate for these developments in consumer behavior, marketers are re-thinking the content released on these digital platforms, reframing them with the aim to make advertising as engaging as possible.

Demographic Shifts: digital consumption is dominated by the millennial generation, brought up in the midst of these rapid changes. Digital marketers focus specifically on trends in millennial behavior, in order to gain insight on consumer behavior for years to come.

Marketing Shifts: in reaction to all of these subsequent changes in the digital industry, more marketing dollars are being poured into digital marketing, especially cross-platform usage. Digital tools like Google Analytics refine the process in revolutionary ways, allowing for laser focus on a target market, reducing the waste of advertising dollars.

One the most telling developments in the technological landscape has been the penetration of smartphones and tablets in the digital consumption market. According to comScore, in three years (from 2010 to 2013), time spent on mobile devices nearly tripled, time spent on tablets increased by a factor of 10. It seems now that mobile consumption has usurped desktop use in the market. 

Mobile acquiring the the top spot for content consumed is not only a characterization of the market, but also a bit symbolic of the times we live in. Mobile usage is innately fast paced, ideal for consumers looking for content on the go. Has this trend shaped the lifestyle of the consumer, and their expectations for digital content?

To answer that question, we must delve into why platform switching is a growing activity, and what types of marketing resonates with this group. 

According to Milward Brown, 41% of time spent consuming digital media is over multiple devices, signifying tangible growth in the platform switching arena. 70% of multiple platform consumption is stacking (viewing multiple pieces of unrelated content). Based on these statistics, perhaps consumers that switch platforms do so to escape other forms of digital content, to optimize the entertainment of informational value of their time. Milward Brown states that the most popular reasons for switching include: filling time during ad breaks, keeping up with friends on social media, or having the TV in the background for ambient noise.

Indeed, it seems that content switching, especially from TV to mobile, is mostly driven by intentions to fit in other forms of content consumption while the current form isn't as engaging. Yet, Milward Brown records that the most favored and attention getting form of media is still the TV. So most media consumption is captured by mobile, but consumers pay more attention more engaging media like TV? How the heck does a marketer utilize that behavior to promote their message? Milward Brown has a few answers for that, too! The types of ads people are most attentive and receptive to TV ads linking to a brand's web presence, or promoting a mobile app. Consumers are also responsive to shorter, more "shareable" advertisements and online ads promoting TV shows in advance. One big takeaway from this data is the growing popularity of cross-platform promotion, where consumers will be directed toward content on a different device than they are currently using. With this method, digital marketers would be utilizing the tendency to platform switch, by providing the type of content that induces a platform switch in the first place. They are advertising a piece of content that may help optimize the consumer experience, so a platform switch is induced, and engagement is retained.

So how does this knowledge translate into marketing activity?

Focus on apps. According to Think with Google, 85% of all mobile searches are through phone applications. Optimizing a brand's app or a brand's connection with an app could be crucial to succeeding in the digital marketplace. Another stat I found interesting is that one in two mobile users turn to mobile to apps to make purchase decisions. Not only have phones reached a point of ubiquity in our lives, but some apps have reached a point of ubiquity on our phones, almost as if it was a built in feature. Apps, to me, embody the general difference between mobile and desktop. They are fast, easy to use, convenient, and often shallow in content. They are essentially synonymous with mobile at this point, capturing the majority of digital consumption in the modern era. Digital marketers should aim to get involved with mobile and apps, designing them around the idea of convenient, easy alternatives to something more focus intensive like TV.