Is marketing’s new frontier the convergence of mobile web and app?
Marketers who heavily prioritise the development of their mobile web presence over native applications or vice-versa will miss out as these two fast-growing channels increasingly converge, a new report says.
The convergence of the mobile web and apps has long been mooted, but developments over the past 12 months mean that it is becoming a reality.
The report, Marketing’s New Frontier, produced by The Drum in partnership with Tune and published in full here, explores the impact on advertisers of the convergence of the mobile web and apps.
Marketers have to create a more personal and engaging app experience but also prepare for when web and mobile merge into a more fluid system, centred on content and discoverability, rather than friction and discrete downloads, the report concludes.
They must develop each one with the other – and other channels and platforms – in mind, in order to increase the effectiveness of both.
As Isobar’s chief strategy officer Patricia McDonald says: “It is not just thinking about the user experience in app, but the user experience being created around the app.”
The Marketing’s New Frontier report was produced by The Drum with contributions from the New York Times, Nice, Booking.com, Expedia, Mondo, Google, M&C Saatchi Mobile, Isobar UK, Luma Partners and Mindshare.
Max Macintosh, specialist agency head at Google says today’s marketer cannot afford to choose one channel over the other. “It is not an either/or debate anymore,” he says. “The mobile web is still increasingly important.”
This, despite figures from comScore that show that 62% of all digital media time is now mobile – yet nearly 90% of that time is spent in apps. However, because consumers are highly selective about apps the browser continues to drive more traffic.
The experts in The Drum and Tune report believe that technology advances in the mobile web, the ability to index app content that is not replicated on the web, and promising trials that allow users to “stream” apps they have not downloaded, will further drive this convergence.
The Marketing's New Frontier report is available to download here.