Key findings include: People watch 3.7 hours of television per day, listen to the radio for 2.1 hours and access the internet for 1.8 hours per day. The time people spend on the internet has increased by 38% in the past two years, 37% of adults claim to social network each week, and the time spent writing to someone on paper has fallen to just 1% of communication time. (See below for further details.)
The IPA TouchPoints Survey is one of the most ambitious pieces of media research ever undertaken. It provides communication strategists with a consumer-centric planning tool which analyses how people are using the increasingly wide range of media available to them and how this usage fits in to their lifestyles.
IPA TouchPoints3, which has been conducted by Ipsos MediaCT, has been extensively updated and expanded particularly in its coverage of digital media (including mobile, VOD, social networking), and with the addition of word-of-mouth and gaming. It also provides a range of trend data where comparisons with IPA TouchPoints1 (launched in 2006) and 2 (launched in 2008) are possible.
The IPA TouchPoints Database is extremely extensive, covering general life activities, attitudes and media usage. Insights include:
How people are communicating
• Of the time they spend communicating, adults spend 75% talking or chatting face-to-face. This percentage share has fallen from 77% in 2008 and 81% in 2006. The share spent on the phone — landline or mobile - has stayed rela-tively constant at 11% whilst SMS texting and picture messaging has grown to a 4% share. The time spent writing to someone on paper has fallen to just 1% of communication time.
• For 15-24s, 72% of their communication time is spent on face-to-face talk-ing/chatting, down from 75% in TouchPoints2. 15-24s area of largest growth is
• SMS texting and picture messaging which now takes a 9% share of their time compared to 6% two years ago.
Overall media trends• Television remains the dominant medium for all adults in terms of average hours consumed per day (3.7) (weekly reach 98%), followed by out-of-home (2.3hrs/99% reach), radio (2.1hrs/89% reach) and then internet (1.8hrs/75% reach).
• About the same number of adults use a mobile phone (57%) as read a newspaper (59%) each week and for a similar amount of time; whilst just less than 40% of adults indulge in social networking each week for about an hour.
• Watching TV online and watching video online is done by just less than 20% of adults each week for about a quarter-of-an-hour a day.
• Only minor changes in the levels of television viewing (-5%), radio listening (+1%) and reading (-5%) have been recorded since 2008. Any marginal decline in consuming each medium through traditional means have been more than compensated for by the growth in their consumption through their digital platforms.
• The only medium to record a significant increase in audience is online, with hours spent using the internet on an average day up from 1.3 to 1.8 hours — a 38% increase.
• The number of adults using more than one medium in any half-hourly period has increased from 74% to 75%; for 15-24s the growth has been from 75% to 78%.
• For 15-24s, television is still the largest overall medium (97% weekly reach/2.6 average daily hours) but internet use (96%/2.3hrs) is a very close second with out-of-home third (99%/2.2). The reach and average time spent by 15-24s talking on a mobile phone, watching video online and watching television is greater than for all adults, whilst the time spent reading newspapers and magazines falls in comparison to all adults.
• The BBC continues to be the dominant supplier of media to the British public. It reaches 98% of all adults with at least one of its television, radio, online and magazine properties. In comparison, Sky only reaches about half that number.
Digital trends
• The percentage of adults claiming to use the internet in a week now stands at 75% rising from 53% in TouchPoints2.
• The daily amount of time spent using the internet has shown a significant 38% increase in the same period, up from 1.3 hours to 1.8 hours. This increase in usage has occurred throughout the day but is relatively greater in the evening and is being primarily driven by the growth in social networking.
• The growth in internet usage has been across all age groups but is relatively larger for 15-24s ie. +43% compared to 20% growth amongst those aged 55+.
• Usage of the internet in general has a slight male bias and is more heavily biased towards ABC1s and of course, under 54s. It also has a quite marked regional bias towards London and the South East with the rest of the country being much lighter internet users of all types.
• The incidence of using the internet and watching the television at the same time is highest between 7pm and 9pm.
• Emailing is still the dominant internet activity accounting for a 20% share of all internet activity. The next largest activity is using the internet for work which takes a 16% share. Both activities have shown substantial growth in overall time use, however, due to the even more rapid growths in other activities they have lost overall share between surveys. The time spent social networking has risen by 113% therefore increasing its share of internet activity to 11%. Although, still at the 1-2% share levels, the time spent consuming media online has also grown substantially; listening to radio/podcasts is up by 166%, looking at newspaper websites by 61% and watching online television by 216%.
• 16% of all adults and 34% of 15-24s use their mobile phones to access the internet each week.
Social media trends
• 37% of adults claim to social network each week — as we know, this group is particularly skewed towards 15-34s particularly 15-24s, and those either still studying or working full-time and also has a slight female and ABC1 bias. The incidence of social networking also has a strong regional bias towards London and the South East: with the notable exception of the North West, the rest of the country are much lighter social networkers.
• Social networking takes place throughout the whole day but peak time for people to social network is between 6.30pm and 10pm in the evening when 3 to 3.5% of adults claim to be active — about a third of these also claim to be watching the television at the same time. Only a relatively low level of people claim to be social networking at work and this peaks over lunchtime.
• 35% of all adults claim to use Facebook each week — up from 16% in 2008. For 15-24s Facebook’s weekly reach is 79% - up from 39% in 2008.
• Only 4% of adults claim to use Twitter once a week or more whilst the comparative weekly reach figure for Linkedin is 1.4%.
Attitudes to the Olympics
• 62% of all adults think that the 2010 Olympics will be good for Britain — this shows a rise of 3% from 2008.
• However, 46% of all adults in the country feel the Government is spending too much money the Games — this rises to 49% for those living in London. It is felt even more acutely by those living furthest from London eg. Scotland, Wales and those aged 65+.
• 20% of all adults in the country and 36% of all adults in London are planning to attend the Games — men, the under 44s and the more upmarket are the most enthusiastic.
Lifestyles - shopping trends
• The average amount of time spent shopping fell between 2008 and 2010 from 0.73 hours a day to 0.63 hours per day.
• The effects of the recession can be clearly seen in the responses to a range of lifestyle statements with 33% of all agreeing that they work longer hours these days, 44% agreeing they are more stressed and 23% feeling that there is little they can do to change their lives.
• 54% of all adults agree that they have tightened their belts significantly and 72% saying if they want something expensive, they would rather save up for it than put it on their credit card.
• Compared to 2008, when shopping an increasing number of adults say that: they look for the lowest prices (59% from 53%); they shop around to take advantage of special offers (62%from 59%); that price is the most important factor in choosing a product or service (39% from 33%). Also there has been a reduction in the number of adults who are prepared to pay extra for a better quality of service (from 71% in 2008 to 67% in 2010). The percentage of adults who say that they use a particular store for the main reason of price also rose from 33% to 36%.
Says Lynne Robinson, IPA Research Director, IPA: “TouchPoints goes from strength to strength. We have significantly improved and extended the survey giving users a unique perspective into the communications marketplace.”
Says Steve Williams, Chief Executive, OMD Group and Chairman, IPA Media Futures Group: “The publication of the third IPA TouchPoints marks the survey’s coming of age. It is now the must-have tool for communication planners - giving them a consumer-centric perspective of the communications landscape combined with the context of how each media is consumed.”
For more information and to subscribe to TouchPoints 3 contact Belinda Beeftink
Belinda@ipa.co.uk /020 7201 8205, or Andrew Smith, andrew@ipatouchpoints.co.uk /07778 052 002. Join the conversation on Twitter #IPATP3
TouchPoints was first launched in 2006, followed by a second survey in 2008 and now the third survey in 2010. It has been emulated by many countries around the world, including France, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland and now the USA.
It is designed as a stand-alone survey and a survey which allows other media research currencies and surveys such as BARB, NRS, RAJAR, TGI etc. and proprietary surveys to be integrated onto it.
The survey, conducted by Ipsos MediaCT—, questioned 6,050 adults aged 15+ through a substantial self-completion questionnaire and an e.diary that collected data every half hour for a week on how they were spending their time, their opinions, and the role of media in their lives.