As more consumers opened those notifications, from brands and retailers as well as news organizations, those entities began pushing more notifications. There was an increase in the number of push notifications (16%) and an increase in website notifications (36%) from February to March 2020. Most of those opens (88%) came from mobile devices.
"Mobile customer engagement has steadily grown in importance for more than a decade, but in just one month the pandemic made it absolutely critical for every business as customers seek in-the-moment information, reassurance and even entertainment," said Brett Caine, CEO and president, Airship. "These trends show increasing marketer reliance and consumer receptivity to in-the-moment notifications, which is positive, but businesses must ensure messaging is helping to streamline operations and orchestrate excellent customer experiences across channels to leverage as much from digital as possible in these trying times."
Akamai researchers have found a spike in how phishers are using COVID-19 to get private financial and personal data from Brazilians. Their data shows than more than three-quarters of a million consumers (850,000 people) had their personal data stolen and some had Adware installed on their computer because of phishers using the coronavirus pandemic. The scams used fake government benefits to defraud consumers, specifically low-income families.
"Criminals have no scruples when it comes to targeting the vulnerable and engaging them. They design their scam pages and phishing kits to target people and their fears, and in recent years have adapted their tricks to focus on platforms and popularity, such as developing kits that only target mobile users, since nearly everyone is on a mobile device these days. But the added element of social propagation is where many of these scams gain traction, which is a hard process to combat, as people are social creatures," writes Or Katz, via the Akamai blog.
Most victims of the Brazilian phishing attack were mobile users, according to the data.
Mobile usage, overall, has skyrocketed during the pandemic. According to new Tapad data, tablet the desktop usage has bumped up between 24% and 34% from the 6am to 2pm time period, with CTV activity increasing about 50%.
Much of that mobile usage is going to social networks. As more consumers work from home and stay home rather than going out with friends, many are turning to Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter to stay connected with one another. Overall time spent on social media has increased through the pandemic, which has prompted SproutSocial to release new guidelines to social media posting for brands.
According to their data the best times to post to Facebook and Instagram have expanded from Wednesday and Friday mornings to include Monday and Tuesday mornings as good posting times for brands.
SproutSocial's data also shows a drop-off in social media usage by consumers in the evening hours, perhaps because people are spending more time online during the day as they work from home and they need a break in the evening hours.
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