Australians get connected

Warc, 2 July 2014

SYDNEY: A significant proportion of Australian consumers are developing their use of connected devices to include in-car connectivity and monitoring of biometrics.

Market researcher TNS conducted a study – Connected Life – into digital attitudes and behaviours in 50 countries and found that Australia was one of the most connected countries in the world, with the average Australian owning 4.8 devices and spending 3.3 hours a day online on personal interests, including browsing, shopping, entertainment.

Some 16% said they were using in-car connectivity, reported Inside Retail, with another 18% expressing interest in doing so in the next 12 months. Similarly, 18% were already using 'quantified self' devices to monitor biometrics, with a further 17% inclined to explore this area in the future.

But the area with the greatest potential for development remained in the home where 19% of Australians had connected mobile devices to other devices and more than one quarter (28%) showed interest doing so in the near future.

"We're now on the cusp of a new digital revolution – the connected consumer revolution – that poses a rich opportunity for us to achieve precise targeting instead of mass reach and to create new channels of engagement in the connected homes and cars of the future," said Alistair Leathwood, executive director at TNS Australia.

"We should be marketing by occasions, needs, attitudes, and the various mindsets for different media, reaching customers through specific channels at specific times of the day," he added.

The study found some predictability in the timings of channel usage, with, for example, 31% of respondents going online first thing in the morning, but by the evening TV became the more popular channel (36%).

In the battle for personal media time, television, at 2.2 hours, was losing out to online (3.3 hours), although there was some cross-over with people multi-screening. Only 53% cent of TV time was undivided, said TNS, but it remained a viable channel at certain times of the day.

Data sourced from Inside Retail; additional content by Warc staff