Digital Sees Audience Gains, But Traditional Media Still Influential For America’s Affluents

October 12, 2016

ipsos-affluents-national-newspaper-readership-oct2016America’s affluent population continues to grow in size and median income, according to the latest Ipsos Affluent Survey, which examines the 31% of US adults living in households with at least $100,000 in annual income. The report shows that while affluents are growing more attuned to digital media, traditional media types also remain influential.

Of the 292 multi-platform media brands measured for the report, 54% experienced an audience increase during this year, with 77% of the 290 digital properties and 64% of the websites analyzed seeing an increase.

Affluents’ media tastes are evolving more towards social media, with Facebook remaining easily the most-used platform (78% using in the past 7 days). Still, in the short period from Spring of this year, affluents’ use of Instagram and Snapchat has grown by 4% points, with Twitter, LinkedIn and Pinterest use also rising among Gen Xers and Seniors.

Streaming services are also gaining in interest: 73% of affluents now report watching one, including 58% of Boomers.

Even so, when it comes to advertising, traditional media continue to hog the spotlight. These media types pepper the “sweet spot” combining high reach and interest in ads, led by TV ads. That aligns with primary research from MarketingCharts, in which TV ads topped print newspaper and magazine ads in purchase influence among affluent respondents.

TV viewership remains almost universal among affluents, according to the Ipsos study, with 97% having watched TV in the prior 7 days (compared to 87% listening to radio). Affluents spent a median average of 18.2 hours watching TV per week (compared to 7.3 hours for radio) across a median average of 13.9 networks. Still, only 34 of the 100 TV networks analyzed for the report experienced viewership increases during this year, a far cry from digitals’ increases.

Also in the Ipsos study “sweet spot” for advertising are magazines and newspapers (as they were in purchase influence in MarketingCharts’ study).

Some 84% of affluents ready magazines, per Ipsos, with print titles much more commonly read than digital ones (82% and 37%). Affluents’ preference for print magazines is not unique to this segment: US adults in general are far more likely to read print than digital issues of magazines. Overall, 46% of the 139 publications examined for the Ipsos report experienced an increase in their average issue audience since the Spring 2016 edition of the report.

As for national newspapers, 48% of the affluents surveyed for the report said that they read at least one of the 9 national titles measured. More than one-third (36%) read a national newspaper in print, while 29% read a digital newspaper and 16% access newspaper content via mobile app at least monthly.

National newspapers boast one of the most highly concentrated affluent audiences of any major media, according to a MarketingCharts study. In the US Media Audience Demographics report, adults with household income of at least $100,000 were found to be 32% more likely than average to read national newspapers, comprising 38.4% of the average issue audience. That was easily the heaviest skew of the traditional media types examined in the report (broadcast TV, cable TV, terrestrial radio, national newspapers, local newspapers and monthly magazines).

For more on affluents and media, see the following MarketingCharts studies:

About the Data: The Ipsos data is based on a survey of 24,424 adults living in households with at $100,000 in annual income.

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