Observations:In March the ABC reached a deal with Mobile 365 to supply various media services, which the corporation described as part of its Content on Demand strategy. Recently, Channel 7 announced its plans to extend the distribution of content over mobile devices by the middle of 2006. Both moves show where content suppliers foresee growth. It also opens up new opportunities for marketers who are looking for effective means of reaching younger audiences.

These initiatives in channel and content supply are indirectly supported by research into the media habits of mobile users in Australia. From an online survey published in August 2005, the data opened a window into the mobile content habits of the young adult user. 1

The key findings are below:

General Purchases

  1. • Over 30% had purchased a ringtone in the last 12 months and over 25% had purchased an accessory for their mobile phone. Only 15% of people had purchased a logo, wallpaper or screensaver, they made an average of seven purchases. Most respondents had purchased an average of three ringtones and two games.

  2. • Of the 50% who purchased some kind of mobile content, a percentage of the respondents purchased it via the Internet from a PC, using WAP and using an SMS keyword.

  3. • News was the most popular content purchased, followed by weather and sports in equal second and astrology in third.

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Age Cohort Behaviour

  1. • The 13-16 year old age group purchased significantly higher numbers of ringtones, logos, wallpaper, screensavers and accessories compared to other age groups.

  2. • The 22-25 year old age group purchased more games than other age groups.

  3. • The 17-18 year old age group used chat and astrology services significantly more than other age groups.

  4. • A higher proportion of respondents from the 17-18 and 13-16 year old age groups used comedy services, compared to other age groups.

Gender/Marital Status Behaviour

  1. • Females bought more ringtones, while more males bought more games.

  2. • The 36-40 year old age group had significantly higher usage of lotto number information, compared to the other age groups.

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  4. • Married participants tended to use the movie reviews more than most, but used the comedy and astrology services less than others.

  5. • Males tended to use news content, comedy, sport and adult content more than females, while females used more astrology content than males.

One of the most revealing instances of how consumer behaviour may be influenced by technology were respondents on the 3G network. These respondents purchased more content than those with other telecommunications networks. The inference is clear: that with access and content, users will tend to buy it. That inclination in consumer behaviour would be encouraging for content providers and media distributors.

That news will deliver an incentive to marketers who pay a large dividend to reach this young audience in traditional media. In mass media terms this age group is diminishing relative to the over 40 age group which is a result of inevitable demographic trends.

The key points of this survey illustrate how uses buy content and use the mobile in a range of interactions. Organisations can take this information to examine their marketing options through mobile content communications, to add to their suite of channels and position themselves with the growing mobile medium for the future.

1 The Australian Mobile Phone Lifestyle Index. Respondents were offered the chance to win an iPod and an effort was made to reduce respondents completing the survey more than once.

Composition and profile of the survey was:

  1. • Age: 80% were under 35 years old with nearly 40% between 22 and 30 years old.

  2. • Gender: 67% female and 33% male.

  3. • Residential status: 61% were single, with just over half of those living with parents. 22% were married and 17% were in a ‘couple’ but not married.

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As the survey acknowledges this survey has a methodological weakness: “…the project team acknowledges that there may be some bias in the results arising from the difference in the profile of the online population and actual mobile phone users.

Considering that nearly all our results pertain to younger age groups, the entire data set is generally supportive of itself. Clearly we would have liked to have captured a larger number of older respondents, but the medium and the topic were perhaps less appropriate and of interest to this age group.” With these sampling variances the survey must be treated cautiously.