New Study Finds Canadians are "Bite-sized" Information Bingers
43 per cent of our population describe themselves as social media addicts
TORONTO, Feb. 6, 2014 /CNW/ - We may be a country chock full of multitasking, multi-screened social media addicts, but give us our information in 30-second parcels please, because that's how we prefer to "binge" on information. So finds a new national study commissioned by the CASSIES, entitled The Canadian Cross-Screen Report.
According to the survey conducted on the Angus Reid Forum from January 31 to February 2, 2014, 58 per cent of respondents agreed that Canadians are bite-sized information bingers who prefer their content in 30-second packages.
"This study explored how our capacity to absorb messages is changing, based on our interaction with our devices and the social media platforms on which we journey on a daily basis," says Jani Yates, president of the CASSIES, Canada's only industry awards recognizing business effectiveness based on rigorous published case studies. "If long-form communication such as feature articles and shows were meals, and social media posts and tweets were snacks, a surprising number of Canadians would appear to be addicted to constant snacking."
We are in fact, a nation surrounded by self-described "social media addicts." A full 43 per cent of Canadians describe themselves as such, and interestingly this figure jumps to 51 per cent among women and among respondents in Western Canada. In addition, more than half of all Canadians (54 per cent) report multitasking on more than one electronic screened device at a time, such as watching TV with their smart phone or laptop in hand, giving credence to the new term "multi-screen user."
The CASSIES' Canadian Cross-Screen Report also uncovered a new definition for the term "couch surfing." Visions of sitting on a sofa, pulsing the channel changer on a TV remote is so yesterday. According to almost six in ten Canadians (58 per cent), today, couch surfing means surfing for content everywhere, and on every screened device (e.g. laptops, TVs, tablets, and smart phones), all at the same time.
"Through these behaviours, we've developed a dependency on our devices to keep us feeling empowered and informed, and for our industry's communicators, there are strategic implications for multi screen marketing to be considered now and in the future." added Yates.
Her comment references the surprising finding that a third (32 per cent) of all young Canadians aged 18-34, report that their devices make them feel powerful, and how without them, they'd feel like they are not in charge of their life.
"In terms of multi device and cross screen usage, the challenge for marketers will be to build multi-level engagement platforms that are intuitive to consumers' desires," says Yates. "Case in point, last year's CASSIES Grand Prix winner, autoTRADER's The Most Cars In One Place included cross-screen marketing strategies featuring television, mobile, digital and social components."
This year's winners will be announced at the CASSIES annual awards ceremony on Wednesday, February 19, 2014 in Toronto. Tickets for the awards show are on sale now at www.cassies.ca. This website also features a full CASSIES case library, which serves as a valuable industry reference that captures winning business-building strategies within the context of our constantly transforming communications industry.
Becoming a CASSIES winner brings top industry accolades. Gold-winning cases will be featured in strategy magazine's February issue, and qualify for The Globe Effectiveness Prize, which provides delegate passes for the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity to the winning client-agency team. Select winners will also appear in a multi-part series of stories released in Report On Business and online.
ABOUT THE CASSIES' CANADIAN CROSS-SCREEN REPORT
From January 31st to February 2nd, 2014, an online survey was conducted among 1,009 randomly selected Canadian adults who are on the Angus Reid Forum. The margin of error is +/- 3.1%, 19 times out of 20. The results have been statistically weighted according to age, gender, region and education (and language in Quebec) to ensure a representative sample.
ABOUT THE CASSIES
The pre-eminent CASSIES awards show, celebrating its 21st year, is Canada's only industry awards recognizing business effectiveness based on rigorous published cases. The CASSIES are presented by the Institute of Communication Agencies (ICA), the Association des agences de Publicité du Québec (AAPQ) and Association des professionnels de la communication et du marketing (APCM) and produced by strategy magazine. The 2014 sponsors are: The Globe and Mail, Millward Brown, TVB, TAXI and DDB Public Relations. Since its inception in 1993, the CASSIES has recognized the business achievements of over 500 campaigns from Canada's top advertisers and communications agencies. All award-winning case studies can be viewed in the Case Library section of the CASSIES website at www.cassies.ca.
SOURCE: CASSIES
For more information on the CASSIES or to arrange an interview, please contact:
Paige Calvert
[email protected]
604.608.4421
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