Nothing like some cold, hard data to settle those emotive discussions about who is using which mobile phone, as well as how, when and why they are using it. Thanks to the good people at Google, mobile marketers now have access to a treasure trove of South African and international mobile data as well as a nifty tool to create personalised graphs and charts.
Launched locally at the Google Think Mobile event in Cape Town last week, Our Mobile Planet [www.ourmobileplanet.com] comprises the results of a global survey carried out by Google, Ipsos and the MMA (Mobile Marketing Association). The survey was carried out during May and July 2011 and set out to better understand the mobile user and mobile usage. It takes a look at search, video, social, email, mobile research and purchase intentions; then compares them to the traditional desktop internet.
Users can generate their own graphs and then customise them. So for example, the graph below shows that 15% of South Africans own a smartphone, and that for 64%, this is their first smartphone and that almost a third have been using a smartphone for 7 – 12 months. This data can be further broken down into age, gender and level of internet use.
Of these smartphone users, 98% use their smartphones at home and 89% use them at work. Interestingly for retail marketers, 81% of smartphone users use their smartphones in a store, and restaurateurs should take note of the 79% using their smartphones in restaurants. Again, this data can be further broken down by various demographics, and also easily downloaded as an image, CSV file, or Excel spreadsheet.
Other data points that can be explored include what people use their smartphones for, including: apps, search, social networking, video, email and in parallel with other media. Further insight is derived from statements such as “my smartphone is more entertaining than TV” (29%), “I don’t leave the house without my smartphone” (83%) and “I read magazine/newspapers less often (If at all), as I prefer to access this content on my smartphone” (30%).
As well as smartphone activities, the data looks at how people use their smartphones to research and make purchases, broken down by vertical. Interestingly, more than a quarter of users have changed their mind about a purchase while in-store, thanks to research they have done on their smartphone.
Finally, marketers can take a look at how aware South African smartphone users are of mobile ads: a third notice them all the time, with the vast majority of these located in a search engine (62%), in an app (33%) and on a retailer site (29%). 36% have then clicked on the ad and 33% have visited the advertiser’s site. In addition, it turns out that while only 15% of smartphone users have used a mobile coupon to but a product in-store, 54% don’t mind receiving ads on their smartphones if they received rewards or freebies in return.
