June 19, 2013
Experian Marketing Services has released a new report [download page] on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgendered (LGBT) Americans, analyzing among other aspects their annual income and spending. The report shows that household discretionary spend among gay men trails their heterosexual counterparts ($15,100 vs. $17,400), and the same is the case with lesbian women ($15,000 vs. $16,000). However, on a per capita basis, discretionary spend is higher among gay men ($6,794) than heterosexual men ($6,041). Read more »
June 19, 2013
More than 9 in 10 college students claim to use their smartphone, tablet or computer at the same time as they're watching TV, including 49% who do so every day, according to a study from re:fuel. The study, which finds college students' Netflix use (63%) to be almost as prevalent as their pay-TV subscriptions (73%), indicates that multi-screening activities tend to be unrelated to TV content, much as with the general population. Read more »
June 18, 2013
Pay attention to "upscale Latinos," says Nielsen, calling them "the most influential segment since the baby boomers." In partnership with the Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies (AHAA), Nielsen has released some data concerning this demographic, which accounted for 29% of the Hispanic population last year but an outsized 37% of its total spending power. Defined as Hispanic households earning between $50k and $100k in annual income, these Latinos tend to be fairly young, with three-quarters of them under the age of 45. Read more »
June 18, 2013
The portrait of the tech-obsessed college student may have some grounding in reality. According to the latest College Explorer study from re:fuel, the average 18-34-year-old college student owns 7 tech devices (6.9 to be precise), up from 6.4 last year. The laptop computer is the most commonly owned device, by 85% of the college student population, with smartphone penetration nearing 70% and tablets (36%) more widespread than cell phones (33%). Video game consoles are also popular, owned by roughly two-thirds of the representative sample of college students. Read more »
June 17, 2013
After a big jump last year, discretionary spending by college students is expected to remain largely flat this year at $117 billion, per the latest College Explorer report from re:fuel. That remains significantly above discretionary spending power from 2009-2011, though, which stood at roughly $90 billion. Factoring in $287 billion in non-discretionary spending (on items such as room and board, tuition), the total college market's spending power is estimated to be $404 billion this year, down only slightly from last year's $409 billion. Read more »
June 12, 2013
[Editor's Note: This is the latest quarterly update to this article, this time containing Q1 2013 data and trend analysis.] There's a strong perception that with the rise of social media, mobile device usage, and other such digital trends, youth have put TV on mute. According to the most recent cross-platform report [download page] from Nielsen, traditional TV consumption continues to drop off on a year-over-year basis among 18-24-year-olds, though the rate of decline slowed somewhat in Q1. Read more »
June 11, 2013
Few viewers are drawn to TV shows because they saw something about them on social media, finds the Council for Research Excellence (CRE) in a new study [pdf], and despite the buzz about social TV, daily interaction with social media concerning TV is still relegated to a small minority of consumers. But, the study finds there is significant room for growth: the proportion of study respondents who interact with TV-related content on social media on at least a weekly basis is triple those who do so on a daily basis (37% vs. 12%), and the data also shows that social plays a bigger role in drawing viewers to new than existing shows. Read more »
June 11, 2013
Tablet adoption is rising quickly, and has reached majority penetration in certain segments of the population, according to [pdf] results from a new survey conducted by the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project. In the latest survey fielded last month, Pew found 34% of American adults reporting ownership of a tablet, almost double the 18% adoption rate it found in a survey fielded in April 2012. Looking at the demographics of tablet ownership, the latest study finds that adoption spikes in the 35-44 age bracket, and appears to rise alongside educational attainment and household income level. Read more »
June 10, 2013
3 in 5 consumers around the world would be interested in shopping at a fully automated "self service" store with vending machines and kiosk stations offering a virtual customer service, according to a new study from Cisco. With check-out often a pain point for in-store shoppers, the study finds that 52% of respondents prefer using self-check-out stations so as to avoid waiting in line to make purchases, with that figure rising to 57% among 18-29-year-olds and 55% among 30-49-year-olds. Read more »
June 7, 2013
61% of American cell phone owners can be classified as smartphone owners, according to a new study [pdf] from the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project. That's slightly higher than a recent comScore estimate of 58% mobile market penetration (though that was in the 13+ population, rather than the adult population), and leads the researchers to note that it means that 56% of all American adults are now smartphone owners. The study notes that smartphone ownership is higher among younger age groups, and similar increases within each group alongside household income level. Read more »
