DIGITAL - App Trends, What You Need to Know

The mobile app economy was expected to grow rapidly, but not quite as quickly as it has.

Many corporations are now behind the eight ball, thinking there was more time to move into the mobile market.

A report by App Annie predicts the mobile app economy will double in size to $101 billion by 2020.

According to their 2016 Retrospective, “In 2016, the mobile market maintained strong momentum and saw significant growth in usage, downloads and revenue. Worldwide downloads exceeded 90 billion, an increase of more than 13 billion across the iOS App Store and Google Play.”

The retrospective examines the key trends driving the growth of the app economy, and takes a closer look at some of the stand-out countries, categories and apps.

Download the complimentary report to learn about:

• The emerging markets that that are growing by leaps and bounds for downloads and usage, and the factors behind their increases.
• The monetization opportunity that exists for publishers worldwide, and the countries seeing the largest gains.
• Top industries — like media and entertainment, social media, retail and retail banking — that are being transformed by mobile apps, and the trends they must embrace to stay ahead of the competition.
• How mobile gaming continues to evolve, led in 2016 by the juggernaut that is Pokémon GO.

App Annie is also offering a free webinar on Wednesday, February 22nd: 2016’s App Trends - What You Need to Know which examines the facts presented in the retrospective in detail.

App Annie analysts will answer attendees questions and talk about:

• The continued, steady growth of the app economy in 2016
• How mobile is disrupting and transforming traditional industries
• The changing landscape of mobile gaming and the prominent apps that contributed to these changes
• How to translate 2016’s findings into actionable items for your 2017 mobile strategy.

Sign up for the free webinar and/or download the report.

DIGITAL - Snapchat Offers New Advertising Features

In an effort to improve mobile commerce and lead generation marketing, Snapchat is testing deep-linking and auto-fill in their ads.

With deep-linking, consumers can swipe up and tap a link to be taken out of Snapchat and into a new app - to a playlist in a music app, or a product page in an ecommerce app.

Auto-fill allows viewers to fill out lead-generation forms with one tap on the screen after seeing an ad.

This time-saving feature addresses the challenge advertisers have getting consumers to take the time to fill out forms, particularly when they are using a smartphone with its small screen and keyboard.

"Snap's new features make its advertising platform more amenable to the type of direct response advertising that could make it a social commerce player," said eMarketer analyst Yory Wurmser. "Mobile retail above all is about relevant, compelling images and simplicity."

Other social networks already have these features so Snapchat is taking steps to catch up to them and stay on top of social commerce in general.

Some interesting statistics for businesses thinking about advertising on Snapchat:

• Over 100 million active daily users
• Snapchatters watch over 10 billion videos per day

• 58 percent of college students would be likely to purchase a brand’s product or service if they were sent a coupon on Snapchat.