SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwire - Feb 15, 2012) - JiWire, the leading location-based mobile media company reaching the on-the-go audience, today announced its latest Mobile Audience Insights Report, which examines connected-device adoption, location and mobile-shopping trends and public Wi-Fi trends. This quarter's report revealed key themes in mobile shopping behavior and uncovered a special section about price-comparison behaviors and shopping preferences as it pertains to the automobile industry. Key highlights include:
- Location-based Advertising - 75 percent of the on-the-go audience take action after seeing a location-specific message
- Mobile-shopping Behavior - 25-34 year-olds are most likely to comparison shop in store and make a purchase
- Device Adoption - iPad shows the highest increase in market share, growing 7.1 percent in the U.S.
- Automobile Purchasing Behaviors - 25 percent plan to purchase an automobile in the next 12 months
Location-based Advertising Trends
JiWire's report discovered that 80 percent of the on-the-go audience prefers locally relevant advertising and 75 percent are more likely to take an action after seeing a location-specific message. The top three actions include clicking on location-specific ads (31 percent), searching for the nearest location (21 percent) and/or conducting additional research (21 percent). Behavior further varies by smartphone device type. After clicking on an ad, iPhone users are most likely to conduct additional research (22 percent), Android users search for the nearest location (25 percent), and Blackberry users immediately make a purchase (21 percent).
"It is exciting to see how important location-specific messaging is to consumers today," said David Staas, senior vice president of marketing at JiWire. "As the on-the-go audience demands locally relevant information, brands need to focus on reaching consumers in and around their locations."
In-store Comparison Shopping is Popular
In-store comparison shopping on a mobile device has become the No. 1 mobile behavior across all ages and gender. Similar to Pew Research's findings that "One third (33 percent) used their phone specifically for online information while inside a physical store," JiWire also found this trend to be true with 34 percent of on-the-go consumers participating in comparison-shopping behavior. JiWire's report also delved a little deeper and found that 39 percent of consumers between the ages of 25-34 are the most likely to comparison shop in store with 13 percent making a purchase on their mobile devices instead of in the store. Other key findings include:
- Consumers are four times more likely to search for reviews than to search for a friend's recommendation
- Twenty-one percent of consumers searched for coupons while in store
Mobile Commerce Making Strong In-roads; Evident by Coupon and Payment Adoption
In a world of constant connectivity, it's no surprise that consumers rely on their mobile devices to make purchases. This recent phenomenon has caused online coupons to take off and become more popular over the years. In fact, 34 percent of consumers have redeemed an online coupon in the past 90 days. Additionally, mobile coupon redemption is rapidly nearing newspaper coupon redemption thresholds with 18 percent redeeming mobile coupons and 22 percent redeeming newspaper coupons.
Also in the mobile shopping realm, Quick Response (QR) codes seem to be a confusing technology. Thirty four percent of consumers surveyed don't know if they have a QR scanner on their mobile device. However, 18 percent of all consumers have scanned a QR code representing half of consumers who know they have QR scanners.
Mobile Device Trends and Adoption; Tablet Momentum Ensues
Tablets continued to dominate market share with significant growth across both the U.S. and U.K., including the iPad, which saw substantial gains in Q4. The iOS and Android platforms increased in market share while Windows OS decreased. For the first time, the HP Touchpad, Kindle Fire and the Samsung Tablet have entered the Top 10 mobile devices. The report also looked at brand loyalty and found that iPhone owners are more likely to stay loyal to the Apple brand with 89.3 percent either owning or planning to purchase an iPad. While the majority of Android users are planning to purchase an iPad, Android has made fast strides in gaining customer loyalty considering it just launched its tablet June of last year. However, the BlackBerry Playbook sees extremely little brand loyalty with 4 percent of consumers even considering owning one.
Automobile Shopping Behavior: Women and Men Are In-market
Heading into 2012, 25 percent of the on-the-go audience is planning to purchase a car in the next 12 months and they are using location-based services to assist with their car shopping. Specifically, women are 50 percent more likely to schedule an appointment at the dealership than men. They are also more likely to use location-based tools to find a dealer (26 percent) and check availability of a make or model (25 percent) while men rank "reviewing products" as most important (29 percent).
About JiWire's Mobile Audience Insights Report
JiWire's Mobile Audience Insights Report is based on data from approximately 315,000 public Wi-Fi locations, as well as surveying more than 5,000 customers. JiWire serves advertisements to over 30,000 public Wi-Fi locations in North America and records data from every ad request. The report surveyed more than 5,000 U.S. customers randomly selected across JiWire's Wi-Fi Media Channel from October 2011 to December 2011. Quarterly public Wi-Fi location rankings and business model distributions are based on the final day of the quarter.
About JiWire
JiWire is the leader in connecting advertisers to today's on-the-go audience by using the world's largest location-based interactive media channel. JiWire's platform enables advertisers to identify and deliver ads to audience segments based on a person's physical location while taking the venue type and brand into account. JiWire also allows device manufacturers and wireless broadband network hosts to leverage advertising as a currency for wireless Internet access. With a goal of engaging users however they connect to the Internet while on the go, JiWire provides a cross-channel solution that extends location-based targeting to multiple devices, from laptops to smartphones, across content channels from Wi-Fi to the Internet to mobile. In the U.K., JiWire has partnered with British Telecom to extend its media channel to more than 4,000 locations. For more information, please visit www.JiWire.com or call (415) 877-4711.
Contact Information:
Kelly Murphy
650.762.2820
