Conscious Connectors
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Forces of Change Issue 4 • November 2019 REDEFINED MEDIA LANDSCAPE The UnreachablesCONSCIOUS DISCONNECTORS Forces of Change Issue 4 • November 2019 The New York Times and Fast Company • 64% of study participants actually take control of their time—and how their 2 noted how unusual it was for a media decreased their mobile app usage time spent with media is monetized? And WELCOME agency like ours to be the ones to put over the past 14 months, from five how do we help set brands up for long- a stake in the ground around ethical hours per day to four hours per day term success with consumers in a dynamic, marketing. But we are a consumer-first on average. ever-changing media environment? Welcome to the fourth organization, committed to challenging • Within this group of “Conscious conventions—reaching and engaging Disconnectors,” we saw two distinct These are the questions we will tackle in issue in our series people in ways that add value and promote behaviors: “Slow-and-Steady” “Conscious Disconnectors,” with the help authentic connections. We prize consumer mobile dieters, who reduced their of leading voices from across the industry. “Imagine: Forces of choice, champion data transparency and time with apps steadily throughout We hope you enjoy what you read and Change.” take our responsibility within this media the research time frame, and invite you to challenge conventions with ecosystem very seriously. “Intermittent Fasters,” who looked us by sharing your thoughts and feedback more like yo-yo dieters, increasing with us using #forcesofchange. After that study was released, we knew we usage to a point, then cutting back, In our last report, “Net had to continue to monitor the disturbing but still reducing usage overall. trends we saw around app addiction. • When people cut back, they tend Persuasion,” we asked Erin Matts Would the trends continue, with people to cut back on gaming, mobile CEO an uncomfortable increasing their mobile app consumption browsing and social media—the apps HEARTS & SCIENCE question: Are people without limit? Or would the pendulum start where they spend the most time. to swing the other way? And if so, why? Still, the reductions weren’t always addicted to their apps? proportional to each app type. CONSCIOUS DISCONNECTORS • They’re spending their newfound And we found that, in a To answer these questions, we partnered free time with family, friends, on word, yes, they are. with OMG Research to conduct a 14-month other hobbies, with other media or longitudinal study, tracking actual sleeping. smartphone app usage across more than • 77% say cutting back their app usage Our extensive research combined 2,000 participants (with their permission) was one of the best decisions they’ve behavioral monitoring, self-reported data through a mobile meter installed on ever made. and a neurological study to determine that their smartphones. We conducted a the average smartphone user—regardless quantitative survey in which just under But not everyone cut back. During this of age or demographic—spent five hours 1,000 respondents, representative of the same 14-month time period, 36% of people a day with their apps, checking them an U.S. population, reported their mobile increased their mobile app usage and now average of 88 times a day. We also found app usage as well as their motivations in clock in at six hours per day—more than that mobile in-app experiences generated doing so. Lastly, we went to participants’ one-third of their waking hours. a 2X greater physiological response than homes, observing their day-to-day mobile linear television experiences. behaviors and asking them about those As marketers, we face a challenge ahead: behaviors in order to create a robust How do we engage people on screens We partnered with design ethicist Tristan ethnography. of Net Attention in a way that’s ethical Harris and Dr. Jean Twenge, author of and provides value rather than disrupts the now-notorious study that linked teen In the pages that follow, we’ll share the experiences or contributes to mobile app depression to smartphone and social results of what we found. (Spoiler alert: addiction? How do we help consumers media usage, to bring these findings The pendulum has swung!) At a high level, to life—and sound the alarm about our it seems we’ve reached the tipping point: growing “attention economy.” 3 Forces of Change 4 Issue 4 • November 2019 Thankfully, the industry is also starting to The Conscious Disconnectors are happier mobile devices means fewer chances question its role. Apple introduced Screen after cutting back, with three-quarters to reach consumers on these devices, Time, Android deployed nighttime vision saying it was one of the best decisions increasing the cost of mobile advertising POINT OF VIEW apps and parental controls for devices and they ever made. That’s a pretty powerful in the near-term and forcing marketers apps now abound. figure—one of the best decisions they ever to rethink where and how they spend made was not using something that didn’t advertising dollars in the long-term. But a new phenomenon has emerged in even exist 15 years ago. The figure was the fight against app addiction, driven even higher among Gen Xers and those It also means the media industry must by consumers themselves. New research with children at home. They are spending rethink ad-based models themselves. shows that 64% of Americans reduced their newfound free time with family, We may see increased investment in Are we the amount of time they spent with apps friends, reading, sleeping or—wait for it— product placement, branded content over the past 14 months, from five hours watching TV. and influencer marketing. Recent moves to four hours per day. Four hours may by publishers to adopt micropayment or still seem like a lot of time to spend glued If the trend continues, it will have large subscription models may be a harbinger of CONSCIOUSLY to a screen, but the drop is meaningful— implications for marketers and for the larger shifts to come. one that took place across genders, age digital business models that rely on groups and geographies. We call them the capturing attention. Less time spent with People understand their time and data DISCONNECTING? “Conscious Disconnectors.” are being monetized by media companies but remain wary of advertising. Streaming Conscious Disconnectors are cutting leaders Spotify, Pandora and Netflix By Renee Cassard back app usage by going on a mobile recently found that inserting just one more phone diet, making a conscious effort to ad per hour of streaming increased the check their apps less frequently or turning likelihood that users would opt for ad-free off push notifications. Only 31% went subscriptions—but a greater likelihood that cold turkey, completely cutting out or Conscious they might abandon the app completely. deleting apps altogether. In an era where Americans get a bad rap for their lack of Disconnectors are In the end, we must move from a model moderation, the majority of us are of informed consent to a model of real self-regulating. cutting back app consumer choice. By letting people usage by going on a choose the model that suits them best in What’s behind the move? The top reason each scenario—micropayments one day, people cited was “wasted time,” an mobile phone diet, watching a video ad the next—marketers The arrival of every new form of media, has now been well documented. The study said app addiction was making in- ironic answer given how many apps are can ensure their message is welcome, adds from television to video games, brings with relationship between increased mobile and person communication harder, attention marketed as helping us save time. While making a conscious value and doesn’t waste people’s time. it the notion that it will ruin our society, social media usage and unhappiness isn’t spans shorter and sidewalks and roads people tend to underestimate the total Otherwise, we run the risk of losing the our relationships or even the gray matter just correlative, but causal. more dangerous. amount of time they spend with apps, effort to check their audiences we’ve been trying to cultivate. in our brains. they do accurately assess which apps Concern about app addiction has crossed As an executive at a major media agency, are getting their attention—social media, apps less frequently But something different happened when over from academia to the dinner table. I continuously question our role in an gaming and mobile web browsing. And smartphones became ubiquitous in 2007. Four out of five consumers say they’re “attention economy” and the responsibility those are the apps they tend to cut back or turning off push Warnings about the perils of social media aware of app addiction; 49% say it we hold as stewards of the relationship on when they reduce their time spent notifications. and app addiction, especially among teens, will become a crisis in the near future, between brands and consumers who with mobile devices. But even after the weren’t just fearmongering. The negative according to a recent study by OMG advertise in these environments. reduction, these apps still dominate how psychological impact of app addiction Research. The majority of people in the users spend their time. 5 Forces of Change Issue 4 • November 2019 “We used a multi- methodological approach 6 to understand whether people felt the need to cut By Pamela Marsh, Ph.D. back on their app-addictive BEHIND behaviors and if so, how Pamela Marsh, Ph.D. they went about doing it. Managing Director, Primary Research Did they cut OMNICOM MEDIA GROUP THE back consciously or NUMBERS non-consciously?” “Conscious Disconnectors” builds on the findings of two of our We used a multi-methodological approach to understand whether don’t realize the full extent of it.