Part 2: Apps Driving Community Engagement for Businesses and Consumers

Laetitia Gazel Anthoine, founder and CEO of Connecthings talks about the major trends of 2018 in mobile that will carry forward into 2019

Mobile apps have become an integral part of engaging and connecting with customers. They will deliver brands in unique ways and evolve as a gateway to new services or experiences. We’ll talk more about apps in the business and consumer markets in part two of our series on predictions.

CONTENT THAT CONNECTS: WHY INFLUENCER MARKETING IS THE FUTURE OF GEN Z ENGAGEMENT

Gen Z is a business opportunity you can’t afford to miss. As 40% of the population commanding upwards of $40 billion in spending power, modern marketers need to build compelling strategies to engage with Gen Z.

Download

You can read part one here

Businesses Leveraging Mobile Apps for Productivity

In the coming year, we will see global actors move to dominate entire categories beyond their initial core business — Uber, from car service to global transportation, Airbnb from room renting to global travel, WeWork from coworking spaces to global/local communities. As we consider their growth strategies, we find mobile at the core. All are leveraging the capabilities and convenience of mobile apps to solve customer challenges and remain top-of-mind and in the palms of their users’ hands.

• Large corporations will migrate from desktop software to mobile and could even develop their own apps to improve productivity, communication and connectivity among their employees, especially in a global context.
• Retail boutiques, fast food restaurants, airport terminals will continue to be disrupted by mobile apps that enhance the “in-store” experience – e.g. pre-ordering on app, in-store pick up.
• Entertainment is less likely to advance as much as other categories as business models and experiences have matured. They will remain somewhat siloed (music-only, news-only), unless curator and aggregator apps take over cross-categories.

Also Read: 6 Types of Mobile Advertising Frauds You Should Know About

Consumer Apps That Will Be Most Popular

The most popular consumer apps will be those that bridge the physical and digital worlds - transportation, shopping, delivery, dating, gaming. Users will move away from online-only experiences to more authentic relationships with other people, products and brands and will demand apps that are privacy-focused and use contextual engagement.

• Fintech apps - Venmo and Revolut (payments), Acorn (savings/retirement), Robinhood and Betterment (stock market) have all achieved massive growth over the course of 2018. Their simplification of an otherwise convoluted aspect of daily life will continue to seduce the Millennials and Gen Z, who are eager to bypass traditional (and antiquated) banks and manage their accounts, start their savings plan and invest in their favorite companies through easy-to use, mobile-friendly fintech services.
• Health tracking, fitness and wellness monitoring will continue to be popular. There could be more “single usage apps” to detect and track major diseases for cardiology, oncology and diabetes. We’ll also see apps use more visual and audio capabilities.
• We’ll see micro apps with a single purpose and unparalleled experiences in retail, entertainment, niche social or news. And curation, aggregation and search apps will cut across categories, allowing for a more authentic experience, with human intelligence taking over AI.
• Also, expect a shift in transportation apps with an overwhelming dominance of global actors, e.g. Google Maps and Waze. And more sophisticated “single-use/transportation mode” apps, e.g. bike, scooters, will become more popular.

Also Read: 6 AMP Tips for Optimized Mobile Experience

We live in a mobile, on-demand economy, and mobile apps are transforming businesses and consumer preferences. But for marketers to be successful, they must adapt to users’ needs for apps to be relevant and incorporate context into their daily lives. Innovation is moving at rapid pace in many industries, and Connecthings is working to ensure these groundbreaking apps are useful and keep consumers and brands engaged.