By Tony Boyte, Director, Nielsen Media
Online New Zealanders now spend close to half a standard working week (18 hours) getting their digital fix, up from 15 hours in 2015. Accessing the internet from a mobile device is now well and truly commonplace for nearly 8 in 10 (78%) online Kiwis- up from 65% in 2015.
A flow on effect of increased mobile usage is the growing number of people accessing the internet from multiple locations. Over the course of an average week, 47% accessed the internet from four or more different locations.
CHOICE INTRODUCES CHALLENGE
While the use of smartphones presents more opportunities for consumers to interact with brands (and vice versa), it also presents some challenges. Here are three considerations for marketers when reaching these smartphone savvy consumers today.
Availablilty on the small-screen: With the increasing availability of information online, consumers could be physically less likely to go out of their way to seek out detail on the products and services they want. Arming consumers with as much information as possible via the small screen, including the option to purchase online, will keep brands at the forefront of the buyer’s mindset.
Relevance: It’s important to understand the context when connecting with consumers. Today’s mobile consumer can move from clicking an in-app ad during a work lunch break, to watching a product review on the bus, to doing a price check while looking at a product in-store. Capturing consumers with the right message at the right time, and even at the right location, is key to capturing attention via devices used on the go.
One experience: While some people may exclusively use a mobile device to access the internet, one third of the online population (33%) use three or more devices to access the internet each week. Despite the growing internet usage on mobile devices, marketers should aim to provide consumers with one consistent omnichannel experience. This means optimising the user experience across devices, platforms, customer service touchpoints, and in-store. It’s the same shopper; they’re just using a different doorway.
GEARING UP FOR THE CONNECTED CONSUMER
Not only are there more people using their phones to access the internet, but they are online via these devices for longer. On average, we now use our phones to access the internet for an hour more each week than we did two years ago – bringing online time via a mobile device up to over nine hours for the average person.
The discerning marketer just needs to look at how much time young people spend accessing the internet on their phones to gauge what the future might look like for mobile marketing. 15-24 year olds spend over six hours a week more accessing the web using a phone, when compared to the average.
The challenge facing marketers now lies in identifying the potential cracks across their brand’s digital offering, and ensuring that customers are not slipping through them.
Source: Nielsen New Zealand Connected Consumer Report 2018, Base n=2,002
To find out more, purchase The Nielsen New Zealand Connected Consumers Report. The NZ Connected Consumers report is a one-of-a-kind industry tool to guide your business’ marketing and media strategy in alignment with today’s connected consumers. The comprehensive insights and data sets provide your business with a unique ability to identify core audience segments and deep-dive into their device and cross-platform content consumption and influences, and the way they interact with brands. So you can capture and maximise the opportunities of this increasingly connected consumer.
