Micro-moments: The new battleground for brands

We are more connected than ever. According to Canalys research there will be more than 18 million smartphones in South Africa in 2015, rising to nearly 35 million in 2018. Sixty-nine percent of South Africans prefer to use their smartphones to go online over any other device, according to Consumer Barometer. At the top end of the market, traditional desktop-only internet users are spending more time engaged with their high-end, large screen smartphones, and at the lower end, new users are discovering the internet for the first time through affordable smartphones and will likely never use a desktop.

The ways that users engage with the internet and brands are being fundamentally redefined by the capabilities of these "computers in our pockets". We no longer set aside dedicated time to go online using a PC, we use our smartphones or nearest device to take action on what we need or want in the moment. The consumer journey is changing from predictable sessions on the internet to hundreds of fragmented interactions with many different touchpoints influencing consumer decision-making and preference shaping.

We interact online all day, every day - and it's the I want-to-know, I want-to-go, I want-to-do and I want-to-buy moments which are open invitations from customers to engage with brands which understand their intent and context. We call these micro-moments, where consumers are actively turning to online resources to learn, discover, do or buy. How brands respond in these moments is critical to how they feature in the digitally-connected consumer's journey.

Local brand Netflorist generated 199% return on its mobile advertising investment by targeting its ad spend to where its customers are when they want to buy flowers - on their mobiles. Research conducted by Netflorist into the effect of mobile advertising on the business showed that mobile had the most influence when combined with research on other devices; that users primarily purchase via mobile, while tablets and desktops are used for research and that by increasing its investment in mobile it increased its cross device conversion rates (i.e. users who research on one device but move to another to purchase).

Nedbank Insurance used insights gained from search traffic to optimise its website to ensure mobile browsers get the information they want, when they want it to enable them to get what they need - and for Nedbank Insurance to convert browsers to customers. The company says it has dropped its cost per lead by 54% as a result, and grown its average monthly traffic 10% month on month.

Fifty-four percent of South African internet users, according to Consumer Barometer, use their smartphones to look for local business information. To succeed in a micro-moment world you have to earn your customers' consideration and action, moment after moment. Why? Because people are more loyal to their need in the moment than to any particular brand. This makes micro-moments the new battleground for brands. The winners will be those that understand where their customers are and how they want to engage - online, in real (fast) time - micro-moment by micro-moment.