Everyone is constantly on their phone; from the moment they wake up, when their morning alarm app goes off, until they go back to bed, where they will probably set their alarm for the next day.

According to The Social Skinny, 50% of 18-24 year-olds go on Facebook when they wake up.

After you have scrolled through social media a bit you might then head off to work, listening to your favourite artist through your Spotify app.

At work, you might use your phone to calculate figures; look at the evening’s travel time; and listen to the radio on your Radio 1 app.

Once you are home you might watch an episode of Orange is the New Black on your Netflix app before replying on the Facebook group chat that yes, you will go for a cheeky Nando’s.

At the restaurant, you take a picture of your meal on Snapchat and take a selfie of you and your friends for Instagram.

Tucked into bed, you once again scroll through social media and set your alarm for the next day.

The average US adult uses their mobile phone for 3 hours and 8 minutes a day (emarketer.com). This means that the average US adult uses their mobile phone for 21 hours and 56 minutes a week. That’s about 4 days a month and 7 weeks a year. According to emarketer.com, mobile accounted for one quarter of time Americans spent with media in 2015.

Would it be reasonable to draw the conclusion that total ad spend on mobile would also be about 25%? That advertisers are making the most of mobile as an advertising strategy?

Interestingly enough, however, only 12% of total ad expenditure was spent on mobile based ads in 2015 (emarketer.com).

Why is it that 76% of Americans own a smartphone when only 12% of ad expenditure is spent on mobile?

The world is going mobile at an incredibly fast rate. The smartphone has rewritten landscape and yet brands are still thinking that television and print media are the best advertising strategies. Let’s not even mention the fact that mobile advertising has higher click through rates, better and more accurate targeting and measurable CTA.

Brands will be using mobile based advertising’s enormous growth potential to their advantage. Mobile usage will undoubtedly continue to increase and advertisers will increase their investment into this platform. The brands that do not use mobile as one of their advertising strategies will have the lowest return on investment rates and will not be doing too well for themselves.

Where does that leave Radio? As brands move more to mobile advertising, how can Radio leverage this?

Radio can and should embrace these changes and should do so in a manner as to build on its own strength. Here are a couple of ways to do so.

1. Promote online listening – especially via the station’s own App. Not only does this give an opportunity to keep the station’s brand in the listeners’ view, but it offers many new ways of communicating with the listeners in a personal manner – push messaging, target audio advertising, etc.
2. Complement Radio advertising with mobile offers. While promoting a business on air, offer companion ads on your mobile website/app. You can also offer vouchers/discount coupons and the like that your listeners can get from your mobile app combining the power of on air advertising with mobile advertising.

To know how Exaget can help you leverage the growth in online and mobile advertising, contact us.