2015 was the year of mobile. There is no part of life that is now doesn’t have an active involvement of mobile phones. For many generations, newspaper was the morning habit and TV the evening habit, this has now changed. The day starts with mobile and ends with mobile. It doesn’t matter what brand or make or OS you have on phone, what makes a difference is the apps that people have on phone. The millennial who started, as extremely aware and opinionated kids are now the drivers of mobile age

2015 was the Ante Mobile year: the year mobile changed everything.

2016 then may be called Post Mobile era

Here is what I think the future may hold for 2016.

Social Networking will move to messaging apps: The hottest social networking place will not be FB or Twitter or Insta or Snapchat, but would be Whatsapp, and may be Hike, Line and Wechat. Whatsapp is already mirroring numbers of FB. What this will mean is that organic growth activity will die completely and brands will have to find intrusive strategies to speak with audiences. On the flip side, social networking will become a lot more about friends and a lot less about likes and followers. Broadcast based social networks will become one segment, participation based messengers will become the other.

Moving picture ads will see a transformation, they will find newer platforms to play on a mobile device and not just live on TV. The ability of the story to engage with audience on social platforms will define how the ads are crafted for TV. Moving picture ads for brands may become more participative or more interactive. Snapchat and whatsapp have a good chance to become the new TV station of your mobile.

Brands will actively repackage themselves to become chat worthy. While consumers will continue to buy regular household stuff regularly (even that has become tech enabled with Amazon Buttons), most indulgence or long purchase cycle driven brands will find newer ways to connect. This may mean fashion closets in hotel rooms to candy packs that make phone recharges happen. Digital graffiti will be the new indicator of pop culture. Mobiles will make consumers multitask every moment and drive the feeling of time poverty even more.

In the after mobile world, the old format of advertising will have to find new methods of engaging. Two things will happen. One the ads will have to be more intrusive for the short attention span consumers. Two the ads have to have multiple contexts, local contexts will help the brands connect better. In the Ante Mobile world brands used languages to be closer to consumers, in post mobile world hyper local contexts will drive communication.

The last of the possible trend in post mobile world may come as a bit of surprise, I expect people to have lot more friends in real world. Mobiles will play the matchmaker and make people physically meet each other. In the Ante Mobile world, networks allowed people to stay anonymous, in the new Post Mobile world; anonymity will be a barrier to status. Anonymity will be shunned and mobile personal social networks will drive societal status. This would be a radical departure from Ante Mobile age

The Post Mobile age has dawned, and 2016 will be just the start. I am not saying that all of it will come true exactly the way I have predicted, but they may move in this direction for sure

Originally written for AdGully.com