Mobile Reigns Supreme for Engagement and this Recently Headline-Catching Company is Trying to Reimagine the Sector, Again

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The following post was written and/or published as a collaboration between Benzinga’s in-house sponsored content team and a financial partner of Benzinga.

According to Pew Research, 85% of U.S. adults own a smartphone, whether it be an iPhone from Apple Inc. AAPL or a Galaxy from Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (KSE: 005930). That’s up from just 35% a decade ago. For adults ages 18 to 29, that number tops 96%. The world is interconnected in ways that were difficult to imagine not that long ago.

In fact, 15% of Americans access the internet solely through their mobile devices. They eschew a traditional broadband connection — and the devices that go with it like a desktop or laptop computer — in favor of their smartphones.

According to data from Statista.com, 79% percent of Americans are on their phone at least 3 hours a day and almost half use their phones 5 to 6 hours a day. And that is not including work-related time spent on their phones. Americans’ lives revolve around the use of their mobile devices. They use them to manage every conceivable aspect of their days.

This has directly led to massive sales for brands that use mobile platforms. Almost $340 billion in e-commerce sales happened through mobile devices last year.

An effective way for brands to engage customers is through their smartphones. Multiscreen-as-a-Service (MaaS) is a business model in which companies pay for a suite of cloud-based services to engage their customers through mobile devices.

Phunware Inc. PHUN is one company that is trying to capitalize and innovate in this sector, but it's no stranger to mobile. In fact, it built mobile applications for the NFL, NASCAR and even Fox. Phunware provides companies with the ability to engage, manage and monetize their users using their enterprise cloud platform for mobile.

Brands often waste large amounts of money advertising to people they are unlikely to convert. John Wanamaker, often referred to as the father of modern advertising, famously quipped, “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is, I don't know which half.” This can happen for several reasons, but perhaps the most common is that the company lacks data on its users such as who they are, what’s around them and what’s most important to them at any given moment.

With Phunware’s platform, brands can now enable contextual engagement in the real world to ensure brands reach their target customers. This includes using a smartphone’s GPS. Imagine you are walking into the lobby of a hotel after a long flight. Now imagine that instead of stopping at the registration desk, you can receive digital keys to your room and a welcome message from the hotel directly on your phone. And when you exit the lobby on the last day of your stay, you receive a thank you, a survey and a car is already waiting to take you to the airport without you having to lift a finger.

Another option is a beacon campaign where a user’s proximity to a physical location is used. Take, for instance, a clothing store. It could let users know of a sale or serve special deals to users who are within a ¼-mile of the store. As companies like Phunware explore the possibilities of technology, it will likely be the consumer who benefits the most by enjoying what these solutions make possible.

The preceding post was written and/or published as a collaboration between Benzinga’s in-house sponsored content team and a financial partner of Benzinga. Although the piece is not and should not be construed as editorial content, the sponsored content team works to ensure that any and all information contained within is true and accurate to the best of their knowledge and research. This content is for informational purposes only and not intended to be investing advice.