26 January, 2007

Internet & Mobile Communications to surpass most media such as TV, Radio and newspapers in importance & involvement

Singapore, January 26th, 2007 — A recent study on youth media consumption, jointly conducted by OMD and Yahoo! across South East Asia reveals that youths rank internet and mobile communications as significantly more important in the future than mainstream media such as TV, newspapers and radio. On the same token, the engagement levels with the new but already pervasive media are ranked highest, by the surveyed youths.

The time the youth spend on the Internet on a typical weekday could be as much as two times more than the time they consume on traditional media. 89% claim they probably could not live without mobile phones or the internet.

According to Florence Oong, Director of Communication Insights, OMD Asia, “Importance is interpreted as how crucial or meaningful the medium features in their life, whether it is part of their lifestyle and if they may live without it. What is interesting is the unanimous agreement across all the markets, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Philippines, that the importance of Internet and handphones will shoot exponentially beyond all other media in the coming three to five years. Youths today are truly evolving into the “my media” generation”

The landmark youth media study entitled, "Truly, Madly, Deeply Engaged” is based on a global research study conducted earlier in 2005, by OMD and Yahoo!. The updated South East Asia study surfaces a remarkable degree of multitasking among youth. Globally, the “my media” dubbed ’Gen M’ (by OMD and Yahoo!) finds itself with more tasks than time, to accomplish them on a daily basis. As a result, GenM is highly adept at multitasking and media meshing.

Ms Oong adds “Technology has led to significant changes in youth lifestyles and social networking behavior, with multi-tasking significantly extending the average day’s activities beyond twenty-four hours. In Singapore, GenM may fit up to 36 hours of activities in just a day. On average, they perform approximately three to four other tasks while surfing the Internet and approximately about the same number of tasks, whilst watching television.”

The Singapore study interviewed 500 youths from ages 15-24 years. Additionally, five focus groups and three home visits were conducted to add more in-depth understanding of the groups and get down to where they live to observe first hand the youth’s “environment”. Dr Chung Wai Keung, an Assistant Professor of Sociology with the School of Economics and Social Sciences, Singapore Management University, supervised the research and helped provide advisory support and insights.

According to the survey, the majority of the respondents use the Internet for information seeking, more than for entertainment purposes. 86% of youths visited search websites in the past week while 57% of them visited YouTube in the past week.

Based on the findings, there are differences in new media usage between the two age groups – 15-17 years old and 18-24 years old. The younger youths (15-17 years) are more likely to use chatroom and instant messaging compared to the older group of 18-24 years. On gender differences, females write blogs more frequently. 31% females mentioned they write once or more times a day compared to only 19% of males.

The study also reveals that the use of social-networking sites in Singapore, among teenagers and young adult is also not as popular as in the West, especially the United States. According to Dr Chung, latest Pew Internet survey indicates that 48% of teens in the US visit social networking websites at least once a day. OMD survey findings indicated only 33% of Singaporean teens said they visited Friendster.com the day before the interview, and only 6% visited Myspace.com the day before the interview.
The study also highlights the decreased degree of receptivity among youth to advertising, in newer forms of media like mobile phones and websites. Specifically, while 80% of Singapore respondents believe it is okay to have ads on TV and 78% accept advertising in magazines, only 54% are okay with ads online, and 20% consent to mobile advertising. But compared to U.S., Singapore youths are a lot more receptive to mobile advertising (20% versus 9% in U.S).
“What this means is that targeting youths would require paying attention to how the messages can command almost immediate attention and interest to reduce “turn off”. If successful, Gen M demonstrates greatest inclination of participation and sharing of anything deemed cool with their friends. In other words, the rollover effects are quickly multiplied”, explains Ms Oong.

Traditional media still has a place amongst youths. About 1 in 3 of youths interviewed say they would still depend and use TV, newspapers (19%), radio (14%) and magazines (7%). TV, radio and magazines are still seen as important sources of entertainment. Newspapers may not come across as interesting but nevertheless an important source of news and information.

On the study, Dennis Susay, Regional Head of Marketing, Yahoo! Southeast Asia says, “The ‘My Media’ perspective of GenM is unique. Youths will consume media, when they want it, how they want it, whether at the PC or when they are on the go. Above all, GenM wants interactivity and connectivity -- to their friends, families and communities. More than a media, it is a social space that goes beyond functionality. The pervasiveness of the Internet and its integration with the mobile space will continue to wrap itself around the younger generation.


About OMD
OMD (www.omd.com) is the largest and most innovative media communications specialist in the world, with more than 140 offices in 80 countries. OMD was named 2005 Global Media Network of the Year by Campaign and 2005 Global Media Agency of the Year by Adweek.

OMD Asia Pacific was named Media Agency of the Year 2006 by Media & Marketing. OMD also had the distinction of winning the most industry awards in the Asia Pacific region. The agency network is a unit of Omnicom Group Inc.

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Enquiries please contact:
Florence Oong, Director of Communication Insights, Asia
Tel: 65 6876 6876
Email: florence.oong@omd.com.sg

Germaine Ngan, Research Manager
Tel: 65 6876 6873
Email: germaine.ngan@omd.com.sg