3D Digital Dimensions 2013 – Afternoon Day 2

The final afternoon session of this year’s ESOMAR 3D Digital Dimensions in Boston was a mobile-research fast track, a series of short presentations.

The session chair, Piet Hein van Dam of Wakoopa, kicked things off by talking about the rich behavioral data that could be passively collected through smartphones. For instance, Dutch panelists click the Snooze button on their Android alarm clocks the most on Tuesday – in fact, 29% more on Tuesday than on Mondays. One 16-year old hit the Snooze button 25 times. Android users check their bank accounts 51 times a month compared to 9 times a month for PC users. And Apps are communicating unbeknownst to their smartphone owners: only 15% of Wi-Fi activity was caused by the user; the rest was produced by background processes. “From a researcher’s point of view, a mobile phone and its multitude of sensors is like a paradise.”

Youth to Mobile World
William Bell of the International Broadcasting Bureau (Voice of America) conducted a multi-country comparative case study of mobile use among young people in emerging markets. “Emerging markets in some contexts is a euphemism for poor countries, but in telecoms it is an apt term given the growth.” The study of 18 to 29 year old urban youth in 7 countries found that mobile is a supplement to desktop computers in Russia, China and Vietnam, but is cannibalising cybercafés in Nigeria, Kenya, Pakistan and Indonesia. The prime driver for mobile usage is social media; in fact, Facebook is so prevalent that some carriers offer lower-cost Facebook-only packages: Facebook is all that such subscribers see of the Internet. Mobile can disrupt local cultures, facilitating clandestine relationships, exposing corruption, and championing citizen journalism.

Tapping into Tabletomics
Kristina Bruehl of Viacom shared a study of “tabletomics”, the unique way that tablets are used compared to laptops or smartphones: tablets as TVs, as game consoles, and as a source of parent/child friction. The self-reported share of time viewing TV shows among respondents was 64% television sets, 15% tablets, 7% smartphones, 5% laptops, and 3% gaming consoles – tablets have rapidly overtaken other devices to become the leading alternative to television sets, stealing time away from those other devices. TVs overall are seen as providing the better experience, with the exception that children find it easier to find the shows they want to watch on tablets. Tablets are cannibalizing time spent on game consoles: 78% of respondents play games weekly (30% daily), with the top tablet genres being card games, puzzles, and physics, different from the traditional consoles (sports, racing, fitness) and handheld consoles (puzzles, action/adventure, racing). Serious tablet use starts as early as 2 year olds, with 70% of parents think kids regard it as a gaming device and 24% as a video device – time spent on tablets is strictly or moderately monitored as part of overall “screen time” (time on TV, consoles, computer and tablets).

Mobilising Your Branded Panel
Next, Jeff Vidler of Vision Critical and Joseph Blechman of AOL discussed monitoring panel data quality as more respondents take surveys on smartphones. They interviewed 1,554 smartphone users, dividing them into three groups – panelists who were instructed to take the survey on their PCs (348 responses), panelists told to use their smartphones (339 responses), and panelists given a choice (867 responses, with 90% of those given a choice choosing their desktop). The good news was there were few significant data quality issues from smartphone respondents; the bad news was lower participation and completion rates – a 10% participation rate on smart phones, compared to 27% on desktop/laptop and 28% for the self-select group, with a drop-off rate of 6% on smart phones, 2% on desktop/laptop, and 5% for self-selects. Smartphone surveys were typically done at home, work or school – only 8% weren’t, which was double the 4% rate for desktop.

Insights to Action
Olga Churkina of Fresh Intelligence Research and Tristan Morris of PepsiCo shared a mobile ethnography case study on understanding why Tostitos, the second leading snack brand in Canada, did not sell as well in western Canada as it did in eastern Canada. They fielded an online survey to 1,000 respondents, of whom 140 self-selected in to the mobile ethnography. In this case, the participants were asked to be ethnographers themselves. They could choose to either be “Marketing VPs” or “Aliens” – the VPs had to photograph the display of Tostitos and its competitors in stores, while the aliens had “no idea how humans consume tortilla chips and should send back photos of humans with tortilla chips”. The ethnography revealed that Tostitos’ low-share competitors were often displayed in deli and produce aisles and received a “halo effect” of being more nutritional than they were, while Tostitos was merchandised in the snack aisle and seen as a snack. Additionally, the “aliens” found that humans consumed tortilla chips with all manner of toppings – cheese, chili, avocado, tomatoes, etc. – but that Tostitos were seen as the chip that went with salsa. PepsiCo is adjusting its merchandising and messaging based on these findings.

Dan Foreman of ESOMAR wrapped up the conference, asking the student volunteers what they thought of the conference and – by extension – the industry. Summer Lambert said, “I’m happy I majored in the right thing and didn’t waste all that money!” Alan Strahanic said, “I am now in love with the industry.” And Sherwin Su, international student, said “Curiosity is a responsibility—we now know how research can benefit the rest of the world and society.” No doubt these students will graduate to be speakers at some future ESOMAR conference!