Londoners send an average of 38 messages a day, eight more than the UK average. They also make 19 calls daily, compared with 15 across the country, according to research published by Vodafone in 2026.
That’s a lot of activity before you even consider social media, online shopping, emails and the countless notifications that pop up throughout the day.
For businesses trying to reach customers in the capital, it raises an interesting question: With so much happening on our phones, how do you get someone to pay attention to your brand?
And maybe more importantly, how do you make that attention worth their time?
Londoners are rarely far from their phones
It’s hardly surprising that Londoners are spending so much time on their phones. From checking TfL updates on the morning commute to ordering lunch, paying bills and catching up with friends, smartphones have become part of almost everything we do.
And the amount of time we’re spending online continues to grow. Ofcom’s Online Nation report, published in December 2025, found that UK adults now spend an average of four hours and 30 minutes online every day. That’s 10 minutes more than the previous year.
The same report found that adults use an average of 41 different apps each month.
For businesses, that means more opportunities to reach potential customers. But it also means more competition.
A retailer isn’t just competing with another retailer for someone’s attention. It’s competing with WhatsApp messages, Instagram videos, news alerts, banking apps and whatever else happens to be on someone’s screen. Getting noticed in amongst all of that isn’t easy.
Businesses are spending billions trying to get noticed
The amount of money being spent on advertising shows just how valuable our attention has become.
Figures from the Advertising Association and WARC, published in January 2026, found that UK advertising spending reached £12.5 billion in the third quarter of 2025, an increase of 11.4% compared with the same period a year earlier.
Search and online display advertising accounted for 83% of that spending. In other words, businesses are putting an enormous amount of money into reaching people online.
But there’s a difference between someone seeing an advert and actually being interested in it. Think about the last time you scrolled through Instagram or watched a video on YouTube. How many adverts can you remember? And how many did you skip without giving them a second thought?
That’s the problem facing businesses. They can pay to appear on someone’s screen, but they can’t guarantee that person will care. For smaller London businesses, which may not have the advertising budgets of major brands, finding ways to build a genuine connection with customers can be even harder.
Could paying people for their attention become more common?
One approach attracting interest is giving people something in return for engaging with a business. It’s not an entirely new idea. Supermarkets have offered loyalty points for decades, while cashback websites have long rewarded shoppers for making purchases.
But the idea is now being applied to more activities online. Some platforms offer rewards for completing surveys, testing apps, trying new services or taking part in promotional activities. Rather than expecting people to engage with advertising for nothing, businesses can offer an incentive.
It’s a different way of thinking about digital marketing, where the person on the other side of the screen gets something out of the interaction too.
A spokesperson at Prograd, an app that helps people find online side-hustles they can do from their phones, explains:
“People are becoming more aware of how much time they spend on their phones and what they get back from it. For businesses, there’s an opportunity to make that time more worthwhile. Rather than just asking people to watch another advert, rewarding them for taking part can give them a reason to engage.”
Of course, rewards alone won’t turn someone into a loyal customer. If the product or service doesn’t interest them, a small incentive is unlikely to change that. But for businesses looking to encourage people to try something new, it offers another option beyond paying for more adverts.
People are spending more time online, but they’re not necessarily enjoying it
There’s another interesting finding in Ofcom’s research. Despite the amount of time people spend online, only 33% of UK adults believe the internet is good for society, down from 40% the previous year.
At the same time, 65% believe the personal benefits of being online outweigh the risks.
So while people clearly find the internet useful, that doesn’t mean they feel entirely positive about the experience. It’s something businesses should pay attention to.
Consumers already have plenty of reasons to pick up their phones. What they don’t necessarily need is another notification, another advert or another app asking for their time.
For London businesses, the challenge may be less about getting in front of as many people as possible and more about giving the right people a reason to engage.
That might mean better offers, useful content, loyalty rewards or opportunities to earn something from activities they’re already doing online.
With Londoners sending dozens of messages every day and spending hours online, there’s no shortage of opportunities to reach them. The harder part is giving them something worth stopping for.
