Published on the 26/07/2013 | Written by Newsdesk
Study shows every second New Zealander now owns a smartphone, but advertisers lag behind…
Google, in partnership with Ipsos MediaCT, has interviewed a total of 1000 New Zealand online adults who identified themselves as using a smartphone to access the internet. The results show that more than half (54 percent) of New Zealanders now own a smartphone, which puts us almost on par with the US (56 percent), while Australians are still ahead at 65 percent. We are, however, catching up quickly, with an increase of ten percentage points on last year.
Almost three in every four New Zealanders are now loathe to leave home without their phone, yet Google’s data shows that the majority of large advertisers do not yet have a mobile website, meaning they’re missing out on customers trying to visit them from smartphones.
“As consumers migrate to mobile, Kiwi businesses need to follow,” says Tony Keusgen, country manager for Google in New Zealand. “It all comes down to basics: know your customers and make sure they can find you on mobile devices. Otherwise you will keep missing out on sales leads.”
With smartphone ownership on the rise, mobile has continued to shape the way people shop, with omni-channel shopping now being truly mainstream – 74 percent of smartphone owners have researched a product or service from their device, with one third of them completing the purchase online.
Products aren’t the only thing mobile-savvy New Zealanders are searching for, with food and drink; restaurant, bar or pub information; travel; and house-hunting topping the search charts. Mobile is big for small business too, with almost nine out of 10 smartphone owners having searched for local businesses or services, while 87 percent have taken action as a result,
“Big or small, national or local, there is no business in New Zealand which isn’t being transformed by mobile,” says Keusgen. “If you’re an advertiser wondering when to develop your mobile strategy, the answer has to be: yesterday.”
New Zealanders haven’t just gone mobile, they’ve gone dual, or even multiscreen. While almost one in three New Zealand smartphone owners would give up their TV before their mobile, a greater number prefer to use both at the same time: more than half of smartphone owners regularly use their smartphones while watching TV. 30 percent use their smartphone while watching movies, while two out of five do so while browsing the web on their desktop.
It’s a significant opportunity for smart marketers to create campaigns that work across multiple screens, especially considering that almost six in ten smartphone owners surveyed searched for a product or service from their mobile after seeing an offline ad.
“We used to tell marketers to go mobile, but it’s clear that’s no longer enough. Kiwis are quickly becoming master multi-taskers, and businesses need to start creating campaigns that work across all screens: desktop, tablet, mobile and TV,” Keusgen concludes.
