‘Virtual Ownership’ trend to dominate 2013 as CES puts more devices into consumers’ pockets

Jan. 8, 2013 - PRLog -- Almost 50% of consumers now download music or video content to a device at least once a week, with this behaviour growing by 30% in the last two years as more and more devices flood the market. At the same time those consumers that say they prefer to own music as opposed to having it in purely digital form are becoming the minority, with a 10% decrease in those who prefer ownership in the same period.

Taken together these two statistics, from Mindreader, Mindshare’s proprietary research tool, reveal a growing trend of ‘virtual ownership’ as we become more accustomed to not seeing the CDs or DVDs on the shelf, but instead enjoy the immediacy of on-demand and downloaded content. This is being fuelled by the proliferation in new devices, with The Consumer Electronics Show 2013 (CES) in Las Vegas set to be home to the launch of 20,000 new products this week from phones and tablets, to smart TVs and wearable technology.

Norm Johnston, Global Digital Leader Mindshare Worldwide, an expert in marketing both in the United States and the UK, believes that this trend will also have an impact on business marketing strategies. He said: “Perhaps unsurprisingly the love affair with new devices such as tablets and smartphones has led to a boost for the content industry – Comscore saw a 25% increase in sales of digital content and subscriptions last  year, the highest growing category.

“We’ve already seen the expected Christmas Day downloading rush. Many people now give vouchers as last minute presents because Apps and digital content are instant – there is no supply chain, which suits today’s consumer who doesn’t want to wait for anything – making it the perfect last minute gift.”

The implications are huge for established businesses that deal in physical goods and services that could be delivered ‘virtually’. The recent acquisition of Zipcar, the membership-based car sharing business, by rental giant Avis highlights the seriousness with which established players are treating this trend, also showing how it lives beyond simply music and video.

Across Europe spending on all gifts is increasing, but 70 per cent of German consumers, for instance, were planning to buy Christmas gifts online, according to recent Ernst and Young research. In Asia, where online sales dominate but there is more caution with the economy remaining fragile, there trend of virtual ownership is also flourishing.

Gowthaman Ragothaman, CEO, South and Southeast Asia, believes this has had an impact on marketing in the region. He said: “The rising convergence of technology will ensure that digital gifts are increasingly popular. There is a growth in demand for iTunes gift cards and Amazon gift coupons and the younger generation send each other such gifts more than ever before.”

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The increase of digital is not the end of the high street, though, with Norm Johnston offering words of reassurance for bricks and clicks retailers.

He added: “I would advise companies not to panic. Christmas is not a virtual holiday and the increase of digital consumption is merely a change in how consumers are finding, buying and having their gifts delivered. This means that an increasing focus on the consumer journey – from initial awareness, through to research and the decision to purchase – is required. Companies have to pay more attention to more different channels and in particular the role digital plays, but they should see it as an opportunity rather than a setback.”  

ENDS

Notes to the Editor:

ABOUT MINDSHARE

Mindshare is a global media agency network with billings in excess of US$29.2 billion (source: RECMA). The network consists of 113 offices in 82 countries throughout North America, Latin America, Europe, Middle East, and Asia Pacific, each dedicated to forging competitive marketing advantage for businesses and their brands. Mindshare is part of GroupM, which oversees the media investment management sector for WPP, the world’s leading communications services group.

Mindreader is Mindshare’s proprietary research looking into the digital consumers from around the world.  Its aim is to not only understand people’s media habits but to also understand their lives, attitudes and cultural differences.

The most recent wave of fieldwork covers 42 countries across 5 continents. Using an online survey of 1000 people in each country, we cover a wide array of topics, including media behaviour (including both traditional and digital media), attitudes, personality, concerns and lifestyles.

To find out more, please visit: http://mindreader.mindshareworld.com/

ABOUT GROUPM

GroupM is the leading global media investment management operation. It serves as the parent company to WPP media agencies including Maxus, MEC, MediaCom, and Mindshare.  Our primary purpose is to maximize the performance of WPP’s media communications agencies on behalf of our clients, our stakeholders and our people by operating as a parent and collaborator in performance-enhancing activities such as trading, content creation, sports, digital, finance, proprietary tool development and other business-critical capabilities. The agencies that comprise GroupM are all global operations in their own right with leading market positions. The focus of GroupM is the intelligent application of physical and intellectual scale to benefit trading, innovation, and new communication services, to bring competitive advantage to our clients and our companies.

Visit Mindshare online at www.mindshareworld.com  

For further information contact:

David Alexander, Calacus PR: david.alexander@calacus.com or +44-7802-412424

Laura Church, Calacus PR: laura.church@calacus.com or +44-7525-041447

Nathalie Agnew, Calacus PR: nathalie.agnew@calacus.com or +44-07985-595510