MOBILE EXPERIENCE STUDY

1. MOBILE
EXPERIENCE
STUDY

2. 1234567
Motorola DynaTAC
1983
Motorola 4500X
1988
Motorola MicroTAC
1989
IBM Simon
1993
Pocket sized
First cellphone
Nokia 1011
1992
Mass-produced
GSM phone
Phone & PDA
combination
Nokia 9000
1996
Nokia 5110
1998
Nokia 3210
1999
‘Smart’ phone
Interchangeable
faceplates
Internal antenna
& vibrate function
Nokia 3330
2001
Blackberry 5810
2002
Ericsson T68
2003
Blackberry Quark
2003
Nokia 7110
1999
WAP
HTC Kaiser
2007
iPhone
2007
HTC Dream
2008
iOS
Android OS
Motorola Razr
2003
Nokia 7280
2004
LG U8138
2004
Sleek looks
Sold 120 million
handsets globally
Samsung F210
2007
Nokia 8210
1999
The ‘lipstick’
phone
Video mobile
network launched
Blackberry Curve
2009
iPhone 4
2010

3. Why is
the mobile
experience
so important?
Mobile advertising.
Nokia 8110
1996
Motorola StarTAC
1996
Featured in
‘The Matrix’
Ericsson GF 768
1998
Clamshell
It’s one of the most elusive opportunities of our
current age. Every single industry estimate,
including our own, recognizes the everwidening delta between explosive mobile usage
and the current level of advertising. Estimates
easily range in the billions.
Why can’t we, as a marketing industry, figure
this out?
It’s a complex problem to solve, with many
barriers created by the industry itself, such
as the need for better KPIs for marketers to
measure and justify ROI.
Sharp J-SH04
2000
Samsung SGH M100
2000
Ericsson T39
2001
Fully integrated
camera and
colour screen
MP3 Player
Bluetooth
Nokia N95
2006
Samsung SGH-X460
2006
5 megapixel
camera
HTC HD7
2010
Windows 7 OS
iPhone 5
2012
Samsung Galaxy S4
2013
4G
So, in order to find out more about how
consumers are using their mobiles, and
how advertising fits into that experience, we
undertook a complete rethink. In our latest
study we have used our proprietary panel of
consumers to study smartphone use in a range
of countries in a bid to understand the most
relevant and productive ways to reach people
on their mobile.

4. South
Korea
68%
Sweden
UK
Australia
US
58%
55%
54%
50%
Canada
France
Germany
49%
46%
46%
China
26%
Range of markets by smartphone penetration
2013 projected smartphone penetration, Strategy Analytics

5. Mapping
a global
experience
The mobile experience worldwide is extremely
diverse and complex. We needed to fully
understand how the mobile experience was
different and how it was common across a wide
variety of markets – 13 in total – speaking to
1000 smartphone users in each.
We chose the markets according to
smartphone penetration. We had very high
penetration markets like South Korea and
Sweden, but we also had markets that were
just emerging as enthusiastic smartphone
users like India. However, in interpreting what
we saw we also needed to take into account
significant legislative, structural, and cultural
considerations in each market, for example:
Italy
41%
Russia
Brazil
23%
23%
India
5%
1. The proportion of early adopters (in
India, nearly the entire sample) show
enthusiastic participation across a wide
range of activities, which will decline as
penetration grows.
2. Brazil smartphone users, in spite of
strong penetration and predisposition,
have not become enthusiastic mobile
shoppers due to the unreliability of the
mobile network services.
3. Chinese mobile habits have definitely
been shaped by popular home-grown
web institutions, like Weibo, and the
mobile payment system, Alipay.

6. Clickthroughs/Downloads/Interactions
with touchpoints
Initiative’s Mobile Experience Study, March 2013. All Markets.
TEXT ‘VOTE’
TO 6332
Short code
texts
66%
Branded
texts
Branded
apps
60%
Mobile
search ads
51%
Mobile
banner ads
52%
Video
ads
61%
63%
Branded
emails
67%

7. QR
codes
Brand mobile
websites
Brand social
media sites
69%
71%
73%
Voucher
codes
74%
The rise of the
‘Native Mobile
Experience’
As marketers we’re often guilty of applying tried
and true methodologies and best practices
from one medium to another. This is certainly
true of mobile – the mobile banner being the
classic case. Mobile, however, is so specific
and so unique that we believe that ‘tried and
true’ is being surpassed in effectiveness by
‘native mobile experiences’ – activities and
touchpoints that can only happen on mobile.
When we aggregate our engagement metrics
for all 13 markets (clickthroughs/downloads/
interactions) across a wide variety of mobile
touchpoints, we see that mobile banners fall
far away from the most engaging. The top
performers are, simply put, touchpoints that
don’t occur anywhere else but mobile – QR
codes, mobile websites, branded applications.
Namely, native mobile experiences.
But where and how should these native mobile
experiences help marketers?

8. What each mobile touchpoint is good at
Initiative’s Mobile Experience Study, March 2013. All Markets.
Advocacy
Sharing
Purchase
Ad on a website accessed via mobile
Branded text/picture message
Branded email received on mobile
Advertising/informational video via mobile
Brand’s mobile website
Brand’s social media site via mobile
Audio recognition service (eg: Shazam)
QR code to access website
Tapping your phone (NFC) to access website
Ad on a microblog (eg: Twitter)
Texting a word to a short number
Voucher code/coupon accessed via mobile
Ad on a search engine
Ad within radio show/music service
Branded downloads (eg: apps, games)
Ad within a game on a mobile phone
Ad seen pre/post a video on a mobile phone
Fullscreen ad in an app
Information/deals via augmented reality
9%
14%
19%

9. The funnel conundrum
The other problem we have is that we are
thinking of mobile in terms of another old model
– the ‘funnel’.
Likeability
Information
Awareness
We asked consumers what each existing
mobile touchpoint was best at – from
awareness, to liking a brand, to helping
them buy. Currently, mobile touchpoints are
outperforming in awareness and purchase
but dropping off significantly in the deeper
emotional connections of delivering likeability
and advocacy.
Why should this worry us?
Simply put, consumers are deeply attached to
their mobile phones. We conducted qualitative
research groups across four very different
markets and discovered that people treasure
and depend upon their smartphones in the
same way for the same reason: it makes their
lives easier. So why is mobile advertising so
functional? Is the state of mobile advertising
the result of a self-fulfilling prophecy, in that
marketers have simply not delivered truly
engaging mobile experiences?
We believe that there are strategies that
marketers can pursue to deliver these deeper
emotional experiences – those experiences that
deepen familiarity and advocacy for a brand.
We have four key strategies:
1. Remember, it’s a phone.
2. Embrace the new mobile mindsets.
3. Help people live in the here and now.
4. Mobile browsing is the ‘missing link’.
24%
29%

10. Connecting
58%
37%
Being entertained
5%
25%
68%
7%
Gathering
19%
74%
% of time spent on each device by activity
Initiative’s Mobile Experience Study, March 2013. All markets.
IM / Text
79%
18%
Social networks
3%
41%
51%
8%
Email
32%
62%
High penetration smartphone markets lead social behavio
Initiative’s Mobile Experience Study, March 2013. South Korea, Sweden, Italy, UK, Australia.

11. 1. Remember,
it’s a phone
info
%
%
ors
The first and perhaps most obvious native
mobile experience is centered on the fact
that the mobile is, after all, a phone. We as
marketers have tried to come up with various
metaphors for what the smartphone represents
for people: it’s a wrist watch, it’s a fourth
screen, or it’s a personal assistant. It is, in fact,
all of these – but we often forget that what
drives the success of the smartphone is its
ability to connect us with the people in our lives.
Shopping
7%
15%
80%
5%
What’s most striking about this is how people
across all 13 surveyed markets are transferring
their digital social behaviors – as well as live
conversation – to the smartphone, away from
laptops and emerging tablet behaviors. When
consumers look to be entertained, they turn to
their smartphone 25% of the time. However,
when connecting with other people digitally,
smartphone usage rises to 58%. Connecting
and smartphones are made for each other.
What is remarkable about this trend is how
much the ability for the smartphone to deliver
instant communications has really migrated
social behavior. When we look at the top five
smartphone penetration markets, we see how
texting and instant messaging are leading the
migration of other social behaviors, such as
social networking and email.
6%

12. Activity throughout the day
Initiative’s Mobile Experience Study, March 2013. All markets.
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Just woken up
While traveling to
work/school
During work/school
(not a break or lunchtime)
During lunchtime
or a break
While travelin
from work/

13. It’s a frequency game
Connecting
ng home
/school
Being entertained
The mass migration of online social behaviors
to the smartphone is the sheer frequency with
which it happens. When we look at the daily
patterns of connecting on smartphone vs.
entertainment, the next most popular activity,
connecting happens constantly throughout the
day, only giving way to entertaining during the
evening when relaxing at home.
It’s also a compulsion that crosses
demographics. When we look at both age and
gender, the compulsion to constantly check all
day every day (via IM, email, status updates)
crosses all ages.
However, there are no huge surprises in the
frequency with which the different age groups
carry out these functions: 18-24 year olds are
most active – particularly on IM (71% check
several times a day) – 45-54 year olds the least
so (though 62% still check their emails several
times a day) with the 25-34 and 35-44 groups
decreasing at a proportional rate between the
oldest and youngest groups.
While relaxing
at home
Just before
bedtime

14. Social applications are the ‘stickiest’
Initiative’s Mobile Experience Study, March 2013. All markets.
71%
have a branded
social application
Gaming
Applications
67%
use it daily
Check out my new sh
49%
check it several
times a day
Shopping
25%

15. A wider social circle
44%
play games at
least once a day
(both solo and social)
In our 2012 study, The Age of Social Influence,
we proved that consumers have contact with
a wide variety of people – some of whom they
have never met. Our updated statistics here
show that in fact smartphone users across our
markets have an average social circle of 52
people whom they talk to on a regular basis,
either face-to-face or online, including 13 whom
they have never met.
Simply put, everything is more successful when
seen through a social lens, thanks to the huge
benefit of word-of-mouth.
36%
are played with
someone else
(social gaming)
hoes!
%
This compulsion to connect via the smartphone
has become so crucial to marketers because
the effect of social networks, enhanced by the
smartphone, has been to materially increase the
size of the average circle of friends.
Key learning
SHARE
26%
Social applications are by far the most popular
of all branded smartphone apps, and the
‘stickiest’, with nearly everyone who has one on
their phone checking it daily and half of those
doing so several times a day. The rise of social
gaming has increased dramatically with the
aid of the smartphone while social shopping
is reaching significant penetration rates: one
quarter of consumers regularly post what they
are buying and the same number take pictures
to share with their friends.
Everything we do must allow people to connect
with their friends and family as frequently as
possible, via as many touchpoints as possible.
will regularly take a picture
to share with their friends
regularly post updates
or comments on what
they are buying

16. Viewing and sharing video while passing the time
Initiative’s Mobile Experience Study, March 2013. All markets.
39%
34%
82%
30%
28%
28%
view to share
conversion
globally
24%
Watched video
while passing
the time
Uploaded or
shared video
while passing
the time
Global
North America
EMEA

17. 2. Embrace
the new mobile
mindsets
40%
The second native mobile experience is
the emergence of two new mindsets that
produce the highest relevance and openness
to advertising that we’ve seen through the
smartphone.
34%
First, there’s boredom
The first one – and we’ve all been there – is
boredom. What’s the first thing we do when
we’re bored and need to pass the time?
Across all 13 of our markets, almost uniformly,
we connect with other people, through social
networking, gaming or texting. On average,
40% of global respondents turn to social
networks, gaming or text/IM when bored.
25%
However, what’s truly wonderful is what
happens next. It’s during this mindset that
people are most likely to download or view
content and, most importantly, when they are
most likely to download or view video.
19%
So – people are bored, they use their
smartphone to socialize, see some great
content…and then what happens? It’s also
during this mindset that people share the most
content – again the most significant sharing
happens for video. People are most likely to
upload and share video when they are bored or
need to pass the time. In fact this behavior has
nearly doubled since the last time we looked at
it in 2010. Boredom leads to people telling your
brand story for you, across their social circle.
LATAM
APAC

18. 85%
of all viewers talk about
TV shows
54%
of all viewers talk about
TV shows online
22%
of all viewers talk about
TV shows online more
than once a week
Multitasking with mobile is a benefit to brands
Initiative’s The New Power of TV, November, 2012. All markets.

19. Second, there’s
multitasking
As an industry, we’ve often thought multitasking
detracts people’s full attention from ads.
Smartphones are now the main facilitator of
multitasking, and we think that’s a good thing.
We asked people from all 13 countries surveyed
what they are doing when they turn to their
smartphone as a multitasking tool. The three
most prevalent activities were watching TV
(56%), commuting (54%) and listening to radio
(53%): not, coincidentally, all paid media.
But here’s the good news: multitasking is a
great opportunity to connect the sociability of
mobile with brand advertising.
TV Talkers
In Initiative’s The New Power of Television:
How Social is Revitalizing the Future of TV, we
talked about a new breed of young consumers,
identified as the TV Talker, who use social
media to discuss traditional mediums, such as
TV shows and ads. Far from detracting from
television viewing, social media has actually
enhanced TV, as people take to the internet
(usually via their phones) to talk about TV shows
(54%) with 22% doing so more than once a
week. Of those people 58% discuss brand ads
online – music to the ears of marketers.
That’s how brand stories get told. And it starts
with having your phone on all the time.
Key learning
58%
of TV Talkers
will talk about
brand ads
The two mindsets that we’ve always thought of
as negatives – boredom and multitasking – are
actually incredible opportunities for marketers.
Targeting these mindsets will directly amplify the
already social nature of the smartphone.

20. At least once a day, I use my smartphone to...
Initiative’s Mobile Experience Study, March 2013. All markets.
76%
69%
21%
IM / Text
Update
Status
Post
Video
19%
Post
Photos

21. 3. Living in the
here and now
One of the most anticipated areas of
improvement that smartphones can bring to
consumers’ lives is the increase in productivity
and the ability to truly live mobile. We have
certainly seen that happen, with the mobile’s
impact on journalism, for example. However,
we believe that the power of the here and now
has the potential to be a rich native mobile
experience for marketers.
There is an app for that,
but is it ‘sticky’?
The first and most obvious area of study would
be applications. Many of us have over 40
applications on our smartphone, but use 15 or
less on a weekly basis. Our study showed, not
surprisingly, that the most popular and ‘sticky’
applications are social. That’s followed in
popularity by banking and shopping.
15%
The ever-increasing use of social apps is giving
way to living in the here and now and the
emergence of ‘live reporting’. Smartphones are
increasingly allowing people to report, in the
moment, what’s going on in their lives. Whether
it’s texting – by far the largest activity – or
complex actions like posting video or photos,
we are being the ‘live reporter’ at least once a
day.
Where we think this has tremendous potential
for marketers is in building on the previous
two strategies – be as connected as possible,
during the mindsets of boredom and
multitasking.
Check-in

22. When people post online about a TV show
Initiative’s The New Power of TV, November, 2012. All markets.
During the show
43%
wa
During the
commercial
break
36%
Before
watching
the show
31%

23. Initiative’s The New Power of Television: How
Social is Revitalizing the Future of TV, also
shows how smartphones are helping TV
become more social. That study showed how
TV Talkers have transformed the TV broadcast,
and in this project we have tracked when and
how they approach the program as an event.
Directly after
atching the show
39%
Sometime later
after watching
the show
There is plenty of posting before and after the
show, but crucially online conversation peaks
during the show, driving a return to live viewing.
And how do TV Talkers prefer to chat? Social
networks through the computer still rule (64%
say they post this way about a TV show) but
are quickly being overtaken by – you guessed
it – posting through smartphones (34% text,
23% use IM and 33% hold mobile phone
conversations). In fact, this group is starting to
prefer using their mobile phones as it allows
them to maintain several conversations at once,
and to share different kinds of content with
different people.
37%
Key Learning
Use the smartphone’s ‘live reporting’ strengths
to create in-the-moment social surges – starting
with TV, when people are multitasking across
their social circles.

24. Highest and lowest mobile browsing/shopping countries
% likely to browse and/or shop. Initiative’s Mobile Experience Study, March 2013. All Markets.
91%
66%
91%
65%
88%
63%
Mobile browsing/shopping categories
Initiative’s Mobile Experience Study, March 2013. All Markets.
Clothing
Groceries
Home electronics
Highest
mobile browsing
categories
Mobile phones
Highest
mobile shopping
categories

25. 4. Mobile
browsing is the
‘missing link’
The fourth and final native mobile experience
that we found is what we call the ‘missing
link’ — the role of the smartphone in shopping
behavior. We call it the missing link because
the mobile phone is the only touchpoint that
connects what happens before people go in
store to the moment of purchase.
67%
64%
29%
We found that as mobile browsing accelerated
as a behavior, the ability of the smartphone
to act as the closer for the final sale also
increased. In other words, the more you browse
on mobile, the more you shop on mobile.
This is highly variable across our 13 markets:
Asia leads the world in mobile browsing and
shopping, while consumers in European
countries are slower to adopt these trends, so
are typically less active in mobile shopping.
Applications
Books
Music
Clothing
29%
We measured the effect of mobile shopping
behavior in 23 different categories across 13
markets. Naturally there is much variation
across all those categories and markets, but
we undertook extensive analysis to really
understand in aggregate what was happening.
Likewise, particular categories are far more
likely to be high for mobile browsing – generally
in those sectors where applications are the
most popular – but the categories can vary
considerably by market, with a high percentage
of early adopters skewing current behavior.
High mobile browsing and shopping conversion
is driven by countries and groups that use
the mobile web heavily, use branded mobile
sites, are more likely to use branded shopping
applications and, of course, are more
advertising responsive.

26. Make the most of the ‘Relaxing at home’ context
Initiative’s Mobile Experience Study, March 2013. All Markets.
52%
shop on their smartphone
while relaxing at home
Smartphone
shopping
Relaxing
at home
50%
watch videos while they
are relaxing at home
47%
share videos while they
are relaxing at home
Watching
paid media

27. How can marketers
drive more mobile
browsing and
shopping?
Mobile shopping isn’t that mobile – in fact,
much of it is done at home.
40%
check product
specifications
Mobile
browsing
40%
42%
use price comparisons
check product reviews
51%
text while they are
relaxing at home
Constantly
connecting
50%
use social networks while
they are relaxing at home
While a lot of shopping is done via mobile,
more than half is actually done while people
are relaxing at home, usually in the evening.
What’s excellent news for marketers is how this
extremely valuable time allows them to connect
the mobile browsing and shopping experience
to the other three native mobile experiences
outlined in this study.
This is the perfect environment for brands to
promote content, benefit from social influence
and tap into real shopping behaviors. At home
a brand can link experiences to really build a
relationship with the consumer and express its
brand personality.
This is critical because when it comes to instore the game changes entirely. Smartphones
are used at that point to validate and to close
the deal. The brand communications are
entirely focused on rational short term decisionmaking. Use of QR codes, accessible only
via smartphones, is now heavily involved in
smartphone shopping (39%), while comparison
sites and coupon/voucher sites are used in
30% of cases. Price comparison sites are used
the same amount, with 29% of people using
their smartphone to read about the product
online, and 27% to read a product review.

28. Research and comparison is important for all categories
Mobile activity index. Initiative’s Mobile Experience Study, March 2013. All Markets.
167 167
150
149
136
Each category
has unique areas
where mobile is
used in the
shopping
process
136
129
121
118
128 128
114
Activity
Research
product
Compare
prices
Take a photo
to send
Take a photo
for self
Call/text
for opinion
Refer
to list
Use
coupon
93
88
88 88
80
77
72
72
67
82
79
69
62
40
31
29
Automotive

29. While our research shows that home is the
most popular place to shop and research,
in-store research and price comparison is also
a big market. In fact, almost half of all research
and price comparison happens in-store.
Whilst research and price comparison are
popular for all categories, mobile has particular
strengths for individual categories, which
marketers should play to. For example, ‘taking
a photo to send’ indexes particularly highly for
automotive versus the other categories and
‘recommend’ is strong for
non-alcoholic beverages.
159
157
151
149
123
114
108
96
Purchase
item with
phone (NFC)
Post or
share on
social
98
Recommend
96
84
59
51
46
Music
48
Household
cleaners
Key Learning
Make the most of the at-home browsing and
shopping experience to drive brand preference,
before the fight to close the deal.
103
Purchase
item online
Mobile browsing at home continues to be
a vital way to build brand preference, but
marketers should also bolster and monitor
price comparison sites, product reviews and
resources for product specifications closely to
ensure the sale happens.
Non-alcoholic
beverages

30. The four
native mobile
experiences
we consider to be the building blocks
for more successful mobile strategies:
Help people
connect as often
as possible through
as many ways as
possible
Embrace the new
mobile mindsets
and give them the
right components
of the brand story

31. 1. Social has to be an endemic strategy –
but importantly, to get the most from it,
marketers should embrace two distinct
tactics. First, don’t just use one social
outlet - use every means possible for
people to spread the word, from texts to
Facebook to check-ins. Second, social
through mobile is a frequency game
– make sure you constantly provide a
constant stream of reasons for people to
pass on your brand story.
2. Boredom and multitasking provide the
moments of deepest receptivity – and the
natural means to engage them through
social (of course), video and gaming. Once
you’ve got their engagement, give them
two key ways to access your brand. First,
make sure your content – video, games,
promotions, are short form and easy to
pass on. Then give them ways to access
more information about your brand so they
can tell the full brand story for you.
Live in the now
as a brand
Mobile
browsing
is your
ultimate goal
3. There are moments in every marketing plan
when you can take full advantage of the
‘live reporting’ native mobile experience.
Whether it’s an investment in a buzzworthy TV integration or a live PR event,
pre and post event are important, but if
you do nothing else focus on mobile as
the means to spike conversation live and
create a brand event.
4. All three native mobile experiences
culminate in one key moment that drives
brand preference – using social, mobile
dayparts and live reporting to drive
mobile browsing at home. We seriously
underestimate the power of mobile as a
lean-back device that connects all of these
elements that drive brand likeability – with
a proven link to driving brand sales. Keep
the mobile tactics that drive the final deal
– price comparisons, reviews, product
features – for closing the deal at shelf.

32. Methodology
The Mobile Experience Study is part of Initiative’s Consumer Connections global research program which now
spans in excess of 50 countries. To understand how consumers are using their mobile and the role it plays
in their lives we first ran a series of in-depth discussions amongst 160 individuals covering UK, Brazil, China
and India. These interviews then informed our quantitative study which covered a total of 13,000 smartphone
users aged 18-54 in US, Canada, Brazil, UK, Sweden, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, India, China, South
Korea and Australia. These countries were selected to represent markets at different stages of development
in terms of mobile activity to provide a truly global view.
About Initiative
Initiative is a global communications network within IPG Mediabrands (NYSE: IPG) one of the world’s
pre-eminent media services entities. We believe in four basic principles when solving our clients’ business
challenges: fast, brave, decisive and simple. Fast and responsive to the changing world of business. Brave
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processes and conduct.
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evaluation and accountability services, social media strategy and community management.
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© Initiative 2013