yahoo canada content connections research
TRANSCRIPT
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HOW & WHY
Consumers Find and Consume Content Online
Nick Drew Research Manager, Yahoo!
#YahooResearch @YahooAdBuzzCA
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“IT’S THE CONTENT, STUPID!”
We know that there are significant differences in how consumers use different online sources of news, sports and other content – this research set out to understand those
differences in more detail, the reasons for them, and what they mean for brands.
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WHAT WE DID
Review of existing thinking.
In-depth discussions with experts.
Detailed qualitative work with Canadian consumers.
Quantitative study among 2,000 Canadian internet users.
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CANADIANS’ MEDIA HABITS
Sources: TVB 2011/12, 2006/7; NADbank top 19 markets,; comScore Feb ’07, Feb ‘12
TELEVISION
Watch 27.4hrs per week.
Increase of 3% since 2007.
NEWSPAPERS
12.2m weekly readers.
Readership up 3% since 2007.
INTERNET
65.7bn minutes a month spent on the internet.
14% increase since 2007.
Canadians’ overall media consumption continues to evolve, but not necessarily in directions that we would expect – TV and print are still an important part of consumers’ lives.
*comScore
SPORTS
NEWS
THE WHOLE WORLD ONLINE
And online, we know that consumers’ behaviour is also evolving. Retail continues to grow; online banking is developing further; photo sharing is exploding.
BUT SOME CONSTANTS STILL REMAIN
More Canadians visit NEWS sites than use social networks each month
The top 7 publishers account for more than half the time spent on SPORTS sites each month
In the last 2 years, the share of time spent on the 10 biggest LIFESTYLE sites has grown by 60%
25% more Canadians use FINANCIAL NEWS sites now than did 3 years ago.
Despite this growing sophistication online, there are some constants in behaviour. There’s still a need for quality content online, and consumers are gravitating
towards the big publishers in each genre for that content.
CONSUMERS STILL HAVE TRADITIONAL NEEDS
66% ARE REGULAR ONLINE NEWS USERS
22% ARE SPORTS FANS
36% REGULARLY USE LIFESTYLE CONTENT ONLINE
In total, 8 out of 10 Canadian internet users are regular online consumers of news, sports or lifestyle content.
ENGAGEMENT COMES IN SEVERAL FLAVOURS
GOING DEEPER
Least frequent, delving into a particular topic; read several articles for analysis, perspective or opinion.
20% of internet users go deep with news online every day.
CATCHING UP
Most frequent and functional, quick check of headlines and what's happening.
54% of internet users catch up on news online each day.
TAKING A BREAK
Fill a little time, read an article or two, watch a couple of videos, check a handful of other sites.
53% of sports fans take a break with sports online most days.
BOOKMARKS SHARING
FORUMS LINKS IN EMAIL
APPS
TRADITIONAL NEEDS, NEW METHODS OF DISCOVERY
Browsing content sites
Direct to SPECIFIC PUBLISHERS
51% 58%
How people discover this content is changing. Social is growing in importance as a means of finding good content, but the majority of users still visit their preferred sites in
each genre and browse around.
CONTENT FOLLOWS PEOPLE ACROSS DEVICES
During the Olympics,
61% of the traffic to the
(Canadian) consortium’s
digital properties came
from mobile devices
(As reported 3rd August
2012)
I really depend on 680
News and CP 24 News
Alerts during the day…
on my work phone
m, 34
Usually before I go
to bed, lying in bed,
I have my laptop on
the bed, I might
read an article
m, 28
And good content is now channel-agnostic – people can consume it wherever they are, whatever they’re doing, through whichever device they have to hand.
…AND THROUGH THEIR DAILY ROUTINES
THE NEWS FAN
The research showed that people tap into their particular genres of interest throughout their daily habits, through a range of outlets.
THE SPORTS FAN
…AND THROUGH THEIR DAILY ROUTINES
DISTINCTIONS EXIST BETWEEN SOURCES
Across genres, there were clear distinctions for consumers about the sites they use to discover content, and those they then go to to consume that content.
HOW DO WE DEFINE THESE DISTINCTIONS?
“ Expertise: it’s quality if the consumer learned something by watching or reading it. ”
Jason Rapp, President, Maholo
“What’s most important is timeliness,
constant updating, relevance to the
audience; aggregating, your expert voice, and… getting contributors …engaged in the conversation”
Lewis Dvorkin, CPO Forbes
“Consumers will decide whether it’s
useful to them; and editors will decide whether the contributions… meet their standards.”
Luke Beatty, TechStars
The difficulty lies in explaining what makes those differences – why some sites are better than others for news, sports, finance or lifestyle content.
COMPARING SOURCES
And so, through the research, we set out to understand that framework. We compared 15 different websites from news, sports and lifestyle.
BUT WHAT DOES ‘QUALITY’ MEAN? HOW DO USERS COMPARE SITES?
46
43 42
39
35 33
31 31 30
25 23
21
9 7
4 0
10
20
30
40
50 Perceived quality of website (% saying high quality)
…and asked our respondents what they thought of the quality of each of them. There was a clear consensus of opinion.
We then took the top 5 sites, and the 4 lowest-quality sites, and compared them further
BUT WHAT DOES ‘QUALITY’ MEAN?
LOW QUALITY SITES
8.7
HIGH QUALITY
SITES 32.7
Likelihood to read webpage (% saying they would)
Firstly, respondents were asked about readability – how likely they would be to read each of these sites as a source of news, sports or lifestyle content.
Poor quality
Trustworthy Informative Biased
Insightful
Features leading
columnists/ writers
For someone like me
Well- organised
Well-written
Worth sharing
WHAT MAKES IT WORTH READING?
Easy to read
Believable
Annoying
Entertaining
Easy to navigate
Has something
for everyone
Something I’m interested
in
Funny
Inspiring
Provides original
viewpoints
Sensationalistic
Provides local info
Visually Appealing
Popular
Worth paying for
Has enough detail
Has a good reputation
Frequently updated
The focus then shifted to describing these sites.
Inspiring
24%
11%
Inspiring 24%
Easy to read 80%
35%
Informative 77%
30%
Well written
Well written
74%
33%
Insightful
Insightful
51%
21%
Entertaining
Entertaining
42%
22%
Worth sharing
Worth sharing
57%
23%
42%
15%
COMPARING SOURCES
High quality sites Low quality sites
14 attributes were found to be the best indicators of site readability; unsurprisingly, the high-quality and low-quality sites performed very differently on these metrics
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
Category 1 Category 3 Category 2
Visually Appealing
65%
18%
About Something
I’m interested In
65%
18%
55%
13%
For someone
like me 48%
13%
COMPARING SOURCES High quality sites Low quality sites
…with differences of nearly 400% in the proportion of respondents saying the sites showed these attributes.
WHAT DOES QUALITY MEAN FOR BRANDS?
Quality’s an important concept for brands as well. When consumers are presented with a product or brand they haven’t tried before, they use visual and other cues to assess whether to try this product. Environment and its quality plays an important
part in this process.
REALLY?
To test this concept in practice, the research placed a series of ads on the webpages shown to respondents. The results were then aggregated and compared.
49
30
ADS ARE MORE MEMORABLE
10 5
High quality sites Low quality sites
When ads were seen on the high-quality pages, ad cut-through and recall was 50% higher than when the same ads were seen on the low-quality pages.
TRUSTWORTHY
25
31
High quality sites Low quality sites
POOR QUALITY
19
10
VISUALLY APPEALING
29
39
16
29
GOOD FIT WITH THE SITE
ENTERTAINING
11
17
…AND THEY’RE SEEN MORE FAVOURABLY
And respondents felt more positively about the ads as well when shown them in the high-quality environments.
ULTIMATELY, ADS HAVE A GREATER IMPACT
6
4
9
6
High quality sites Low quality sites
Brand impact was 50% higher simply by placing the ads on higher-quality pages.
BRINGING IT ALL TOGETHER
Consumers still have traditional needs for news, sports, financial news
and lifestyle content.
Ways of discovering this content have changed, but how users
determine what’s worth their time has not.
Websites that provide informative, well-written, believable and well-
laid out content are seen as better sources.
Ads benefit from this source quality
…and perform significantly better on high-quality sites.
BRINGING IT ALL TOGETHER
Ultimately, the message is a familiar one. Consumers know what they want, and they know how and where to get it. While more and more people are getting their
news and sports fixes online, the essential attributes of what makes it worth reading or watching remain the same regardless of medium: trustworthiness, how well written it is, how relevant it is. For marketers, the key is to understand these
distinctions, and motivations; and ensure they are reflected in a brand’s messaging and marketing frameworks, to better engage with the audience wherever they are.
