What the Shift in “Waiting” Means for Advertising

Smart companies are taking advantage of how people use their mobile phones while they wait. Is yours?

Over the past five years, humans have come to rely on their mobile devices for information, maps, scheduling and calendars, contacts and communication, and to-do list reminders. Without them, we’re borderline helpless.

We even rely on our mobile phones to entertain us for short pauses in our daily actions. The next time you’re in the doctor’s office waiting room or in line at the grocery store, look around. How many people have their eyes on a handheld screen?

Some stats to back this up:

• To pass the time while waiting in line, 62 percent of people use their cell phones.
• Browsing time on mobile devices has stretched to 87 hours per month in the United States.
• Taking entertainment-while-waiting to the next level, 65 percent of millennials use their smartphones to make purchases while waiting in lines.

So how can you get all these eager, waiting eyeballs on your company’s message?

How to Capture Waiting

Once upon a time, smart retailers captured impulse buys by promoting items to people waiting in line. Today’s retailers may do so still—but their offerings now compete with what their customers can see on their phones.

Smart companies have moved to ensure their advertising has a mobile angle. In 2016, companies dedicated 51 percent of all digital ad budgets to mobile. By 2019, the advertising industry expects mobile advertising to represent 72 percent of all U.S. digital ad spending. And a full 71 percent of marketers feel that mobile marketing is core to their success.

This means your competition is already on board with mobile advertising.

To take advantage of mobile advertising, you need to understand which mobile technologies attract your target audience most—and how your target audience interacts with them. (After all, multiple demographics use Facebook, and we can promise you that they all use it differently.)

Once you understand where your audience members go on their phones while they wait, you can design an advertising campaign with the right amount of reach and frequency for your key messages.

(Of course, this assumes you have a rock-solid understanding of your target audience. You do, right?)

Follow the Mobile Herd

The world has mostly put down its newspapers and picked up its smartphones. Your marketing mix needs to do the same.

Not sure how to take the first step? Enlist FrogDog today!