10.09.15 | By Lindsay Sutton —

In advertising, our livelihood is dependent on being a couple steps ahead—being first, best, most innovative. That’s case study gold. But if that’s really what we’re striving for, why haven’t messaging apps—now dominating 6 of the top 10 globally used mobile apps—made it into the creative conversation? Tens of millions of people can’t be wrong. Right?

Earlier this year I spoke with Kik at the Insider Mobile Summit, and the conversation was eye opening. Brands approached us in droves wondering how to play in the messaging app sandbox. The most-asked question was, “Should all brands be playing in the space?”

The simple answer: No.

While messaging apps are clearly an opportunity to reach your prospects and customers, it doesn’t mean every brand has a right to play. Like any social platform or digital approach, it needs to be vetted and a comprehensive strategy should be developed. Bottom line: Messaging apps are most effective with specific audiences during specific times, when they are activated in a certain way.

When you are building out your next content approach and deciding on the right mix of platforms, keep these four things in mind.

1. Messaging apps are growing at a crazy, rapid pace. Snapchat is the messaging app we usually talk about in brainstorms. We, as digital idea generators and marketers, are molding our messaging and brand campaigns to have the grassroots, guerilla feel that work on Snapchat. But if you take a look at the graph below you’ll see that while Snapchat is certainly growing, Whatsapp and WeChat far exceed it.

Source: (http://contently.com/strategist/2015/06/30/the-state-of-messaging-apps-in-5-charts/)

If Snapchat currently has a seat at the table, then shouldn’t the above platforms have one too?

2. You want to reach young adults? Well I found them. In June eMarketer released research revealing that Facebook Messenger is used regularly by 50% of US teens. While WhatsApp and WeChat lag behind in the US, Facebook Messenger, Snapchat, and Kik are in full swing. One of my clients always says, “let’s fish where the fish are.” And I’ve found those pesky, hard to reach, impressionable, young fish/adults – they’re right there, do you see them? Nose deep in their messaging apps. Intimately chatting and discussing politics and the latest Kardashian blunder.

3. The social landscape is changing. More time is spent in chat apps than all other apps. Earlier this summer The Wall Street Journal published an article stating that, “on average, messaging apps are used an average of almost nine times a day, compared with 1.9 for all apps.” Now, take a look at the graph below from Business Insider, which states that not only are users accessing messaging apps more frequently, they are spending more time in them too.

Kik users alone spend 97 minutes a week in the app, and 35 minutes per session. That’s a lot of time to generate real relationships with our young adult target. More time to understand their behavior in these messaging apps and serve them content that is not only native to the platform, but also native to their behavior, and the context in which they are expecting brands to communicate with them.

4. No one trusts traditional advertising (duh). There are endless stats that back this up, and I’m not arguing it. On the flip side, 45% of teens and young adults say “brands play an essential role in my life.” So, as marketers it’s on us to figure out how we play that role, how we access our target, and speak to them in their language. In a recent conversation with the product team at Kik they shared that “16M Kik users have opted to chat with a promoted chat on Kik.” On top of that “users send an average of seven messages to a Promoted Chat account after they have opted-in to chat.” While traditional advertising is still collecting dust, native advertising is still very much alive. From this example alone, users are willingly having conversations with brands, and actually opting-in to those conversations. Mind = Blown.

I challenge you to consider messaging apps in your next brainstorm. Download them, chat with your friends, converse with brands, and see what all the fuss should be about. Because if you’re not taking advantage of them, you bet your competition is.

Lindsay Sutton is VP/Director, Social.Content, at DigitasLBi.