Apps that offer personalisation have become the way to infiltrate the mobile medium, said Yahoo7’s director of product and audience Caroline Casey at a Vivid mobile marketing event.
Casey said marketers could learn a thing or two from Kim Kardashian’s 2015 launch of Kimoji – an emoticode keyboard specific to the Kardashian brand, adding that personalised mobile products are the "holy grail".
Dove, Durex, Burger King and Virgin Active also created personalised keyboards earlier this year, all using brand-related emojis to connect with their audiences.
Yahoo-owned analytics company Flurry found mobile app usage rose by 57% in 2015, with personalised apps witnessing the biggest growth of 332% in 2015.
“Traditionally marketers have had to make a choice between a massive audience that is generic or a massively personalised audience. With data's capabilities to drive mobile, we are able to understand a complete picture of our audience,” Casey said.
Flurry identifies audiences through groupings called “personas”, which are based on behavioural profiles of user bases. The identification of personas help create a better understanding of an app audience to allow advertisers to target each dollar spent.
The analytics company offers more than 40 personas, such as business travellers, new mums, fashionistas and hardcore gamers.
Casey told AdNews marketers have the potential to use personas identified by app usage to understand the audience they want to target, beyond just demographic targeting.
“There is more to a demographic than just age,” Casey said. “Marketers are wasting huge dollars monitoring demographics instead of personas, which give insight into consumer behaviour.”
While Casey backs mobile advertising, she believes TV still plays a role in a brand's overall marketing strategy. However, she says TV campaigns shouldn't be re-purposed for mobile.
“It's a different message when it's highly personalised. Most marketers will find multi-platform campaigns effective, but they also need to think of the role each platform should play.”
Also speaking at the event, The Iconic MD Adam Jacobs said the retail brand has more success with online campaigns and the use of Instagram rather than TV.
Casey recognises this could be a trend moving forwards, as new personas shift to online platforms.
To read more on The Iconic's marketing, see here.
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