Verve: 80% of Youth Spend More Time on Mobile Apps Now Than a Year Ago

Verve, a location-based mobile advertising company, released new research on millennials and Generation Z, two groups of young mobile experts that Verve terms Mobile Prodigies.

The research revealed just how deeply these younger consumers value their mobile devices and how quickly new mobile technology and apps are becoming an integrated part of their lifestyle. Key insights from the report include:

• 60% of Mobile Prodigies ages 14–17 would prefer to lose their wallet instead of their phone.
• 80% of Mobile Prodigies said that they spend more time on mobile apps than they did a year ago.
• 95% said they make purchases in brick-and-mortar stores based on ads they have seen on their mobile device.
• More than 1-in-4 Mobile Prodigies use a mobile phone while shopping in a physical store to seek guidance and input from friends and family.

"Mobile Prodigies are driving the app ecosystem," says Nada Stirratt, chief executive officer of Verve. "They are incorporating apps that feature innovative content and creative into nearly all the ways they work, play, and shop — while carefully granting mobile marketers measured access to device data so long as the apps and creative they experience meet their expectations around context and quality."

The research, done in collaboration with Wildness, a youth-insights group founded by Awesomeness TV, involved surveying 3,000 people aged 14–29 and also included a series of focus groups. The research shows the profound impact Mobile Prodigies will have on mobile advertising, its intersection with in-store shopping, and the future of mobile creative.

Verve's new research shows that Mobile Prodigies are continuously weighing the benefit of sharing their personal data as well. They will grant brands and marketers access to their device information if apps and creative meet or exceed their expectations. In a critical insight for advertisers and publishers, one-third of the study participants said that they would even reverse their data-sharing stance from 'no' to 'yes' if doing so provided them with more relevant personalized ads, experiences, and offers.

The full Mobile Prodigies white paper can be downloaded at http://vervemobile.com/prodigies.