The Cell Consumer, During COVID-19
Written by Patrick McTiernan.
As the dawn of a global pandemic moved transcontinentally throughout 2020, all humans had to redesign and redirect their work schedules and personal lifestyles to some extent. With daily mask use, six feet of socially-distant luxury, and restaurants pivoting towards as little human contact as possible between the everyday American and their fast food craving, so many of us lost a number of our personal channels of human connection… but our human need for engagement and curiosity remained.
And we turned our attention towards our cell phones and mobile devices now more than ever.
Today our eyes and attention now routinely fixed upon our cell phones, some of us for over 10 hours per day between Zoom/Work meetings and our leisure time). In 30 years time, living with a phone evolved from a cinderblock-sized, luxury item for people like Zack Morris from Saved by the Bell, to a daily necessity for global consumers, predominantly those in first-world and second-world countries.
This undivided attention, for major brands and companies that want to keep getting their name out, they will pay massive sums of money to market themselves via these streams of digital media content consumption (e.g. cell phones, tablets, iPads, smart televisions, eBooks). Now that it is statistically proven that most commercial consumers are now making their digital devices practically an extension of themselves, massive companies, from Ford to Forgiato, are priming themselves, their message, and their overall brand to be seen via mobile.
In fact, Nahai even has a term to describe the discipline of anticipating digital consumer habits and behaviors. This term is called eyetracking. Eyetracking is how one understands not only the design of their website but more importantly how the daily consumer interacts within their site, the understanding of their behaviors of these consumers. In essence, where are they looking and for how long?
In Webs of Influence, Nathalie Nahai writes “When it comes to images displayed on a site, further research by Neilsen has found that we’re actually quite discerning, paying greater attention to visuals that contain contextually relevant information, such as product images in an online shop, or images of real people on social websites. We’re also quick to identify and discount images that are either terribly staged (it turns out we all hate stock photos) or that are just decorative in nature.” Personally, I find the next thing she writes to be critical “While we filter out much of the content we see online, there is one kind of image we find particularly irresistible: the human face. (Nahai 86).
Irresistible. Think for a moment about how many of these companies are using not only witty jingles and slogans but one singular person to become synonymous with their brand. We all remember the guy from Sprint because the mid-2000s was a time when so many of us were watching stationary television daily, we all remember him from his series of Sprint commercials. But now in pop-up video and audio form, nearly all of these companies, in 2021, are using a bereft number of words, and one-or-two spokespeople who give you a human face to tie to a name (the brand) as you now consume your daily dose of my world today through your phone.
Within this abyss of ads and overstimulating content, digital media takes up a substantial piece of the pie. In fact, over half of it. According to a 2020 study by smartinsights.com, there are 3.5 billion smartphone users in the modern era. (https://www.smartinsights.com/mobile-marketing/mobile-marketing-analytics/mobile-marketing-statistics/ for more details on today’s mobile marketing statistics).
So as this gargantuan commercial space continues to grow, a select few of these commercial markets have been surging into massive demand and massive draw from the people. On mobile consumer usage and its recent spike that came along with this pandemic, Digital Turbine states “Mobile usage has soared by 10% during the pandemic with the average user spending upwards of 4 hours and 18 minutes on their device every day. This increase is largely due to a surge in app usage with gaming, food delivery, and video streaming apps”. As the article reads on, this anonymous writer goes on to say “the new normal will see a redistribution of ad revenues with mobile dramatically increasing its lead”.
As we move past this global pandemic as a human race, we will be mindful of the vast lessons each of us has had to face. And most of us will do so with our cell phone within arm’s reach. Brace yourself for the new normal. Don’t forget to keep your battery charged.
Sources
https://www.digitalturbine.com/blog/coronavirus-shifts-consumer-behavior-towards-mobile/
https://www.marketingcharts.com/digital/mobile-phone-114746
https://www.statista.com/topics/6241/coronavirus-impact-on-online-usage-in-the-us/
Nahai, Nathalie. “Webs of Influence: the Psychology of Online Persuasion.” Amazon, Pearson Education Limited, 2017, www.amazon.com/Webs-Influence-Psychology-Online-Persuasion/dp/1292134607.