Digital Report Snapshot

As you may know, Locowise was quite heavily involved in the Global Digital Overview Report 2019.

There was a ton of insights in the report, with many areas that brands and marketers can learn more from and adapt the new knowledge to their own campaigns and plans.

We thought we’d focus on another area of the report in this article.

The explosion of mobile

We have covered the growth of mobile before, but things are starting to get a little crazy. The report highlighted a couple of things that should tell brands how much of their strategy should be mobile first.

Back in 2014, daily Internet time on mobile devices was less than 25%. No big deal. And then of course it started to grow year on year. But even the most informed analyst would have been surprised to see where we are right now.

In 2019, according to the report, a huge 48% of daily Internet use is on mobile. To the rest of us, that’s half or thereabouts. It’s pretty fair to expect this to go up again next year, and the one after that. If a brand has not got a true hold on a mobile strategy, there are serious problems ahead. It’s literally where half the audience is.

Even using the term ‘mobile first’ is possibly old hat. Things are definitely moving ahead, and any brand that isn’t concentrating its marketing efforts on reaching that mobile audience is just throwing money away.

Put simply, one in two people use their mobile device to search and browse the Internet.

Usage

This is where some brands may well be holding their heads in their hands. We have been screaming about video and how important it is for years now at Locowise. We have consistently pointed towards the explosion in video that was ‘coming soon’. And then the Global Digital Overview threw up a concept that will scare any brand that isn’t all over video.

A huge 92% of Internet users stream video content each month. That’s an absolutely staggering amount of people. Granted, most of this will be on YouTube, but there are other sites that offer videos (including brands websites, and Facebook). Video is everywhere, and the sheer popularity of it makes it a medium that you simply have to be a part of if you’re a brand.

Brands need to see what works in video, and they need to see how that understanding will translate into what they do. The more a brand has a clear and purposeful strategy for video the more likely they will succeed.

The rest of the usage every month was actually focused on gaming on the whole. Brands may not be able to make an impact on that, but it’s important to remember that we are now very much at the stage where video is more important than any other medium on any platform.

Voice search and voice commands

Another relatively new area that is spiralling out of control, voice search and voice commands are becoming more popular. The report delved deep into the global picture, and found that powerful economies such as India and China are using voice more than any other country.

These economies are also growing still. With the usage of voice being nearly twice as big in India, for example, than it is in the USA, it should be quite easy to see that the technology is growing and leading the way.

The biggest and the best

Social media is now saturated as regards the number of platforms available. The report showed us which platforms are most popular, and with a few surprises, things have become a lot more interesting in 2019.

Facebook is right at the top, as always. Nothing has changed there. YouTube comes up behind it, but right there in third place is WhatsApp. Outside the big two, WhatsApp has the most active user accounts.

Facebook Messenger is next in the list. So, you have two communication based platforms in third and fourth place. This has something to offer as regards info for marketers. If brands have the ability to use WhatsApp and have a clear strategy for that platform, there is a huge area to grow in.

Instagram is the next more conventional platform on the list. There’s no surprise there. But it’s important to remember that Facebook, while it is still the behemoth of platforms, isn’t quite dominating like it used to.

The report told us a lot, and we were glad to be part of it. Social media and marketing is changing for the better, and we still think that the biggest news of the report is the absolute domination of mobile.

Need to know exactly what is going on with your social media marketing? Of course you do, you wouldn’t be reading this otherwise. Have a free week of Locowise on us. Then it will all start to make sense.