Brands are only spending a fraction of their advertising budgets on mobile content even though smartphones now account for more than two-thirds of measured site traffic, according to a new in-depth report published by Gartner L2.

Mobile devices have soared in popularity for content consumption during the last few years as the public pivots towards small-screen devices to read the latest news, articles, blogs and watch videos. However, it appears that brands have yet to fully adapt their campaigns and strategies to cater towards this latest trend.

Gartner L2 noted that mobile content consumption was traditionally associated with “top-of-funnel” awareness but has now evolved into something much greater that can have a real and lasting impact on revenue and growth. Gartner L2 studied 400 consumer brands to identify new trends, best practices and case studies as marketers continue to optimise their content and ad campaigns across devices and platforms.

The major takeaway is that brands that don’t optimise their content for mobile consumption are missing out. A sizeable 67% of measured site traffic for brands is now attributed to smartphones, and to a lesser extent, tablets, but brands are investing just 13% of their total ad spend on mobile content.

“Mobile has expanded from a top-of-funnel awareness device to a legitimate transaction point for brands,” Gartner L2 VP of Intelligence, Evan Neufeld said. “However, even as consumers increase their reliance on mobile phones, the majority of brands continue to underinvest in mobile marketing initiatives. Those who fail to prioritise mobile risk losing sales and consumers to competing brands who understand the degree to which mobile phones are constantly connected to their customer bases.”

 

Gartner L2’s Senior Associate, Evan Bakker, added that brands can overhaul their mobile marketing efforts by delivering higher quality content and ads to smartphones, improving their targeting with sophisticated platforms and investing more money in Google’s Shopping Ads. Bakker said this is very important in an era where “cross-device purchase” journeys are becoming increasingly prevalent.

In other branded content news, research from online news site Topix has found that brands that tap into a consumer’s history and nostalgia during the creative process can reap the rewards through higher levels of engagement. Audiences also react strongly to schadenfreude and humour.

Topix looked at the highest grossing brand stories since 2013 with the aim of uncovering the emotions that lead to the highest levels of engagement. The study indicates that marketers can benefit from being more attuned to the emotions of their customer base, as knowing how they will react and behave can help brands serve up more relevant and personalised content.

“We’re in times that are very challenging,” Monster’s vice president of marketing, Margaret Magnarelli said. “If we don’t combine feelings with facts, we’ll lose customers. They want to feel validated.”

Nostalgia, history and schadenfreude – which is defined as a person taking pleasure somebody else’s misfortune – topped the list of emotions, with humour and pride of knowledge rounding out the top five.