UniversalMcCann_strangers_reportLR_200809_35S - Page 1 - 1 When did we start trusting strangers? How the internet turned us all into influencers September 2008 29 countries 17,000 internet users © Universal McCann 2008 3 Contents Introduction ➜ No strangers anymore Welcome to the new influence landscape ➜ The rise of social media ➜ Digital friends ➜ Proliferation of influencer channels The impact ➜ The influence economy ➜ The democratisation of influence ➜ The new super influencers 5 Methodology This unique perspective comes from data collected in the third instalment of Universal McCann’s global digital research programme “Wave”. The research was completed among 17,000 active internet users in 29 countries – making it one of the most wide reaching investigations into the subject of influence and word of mouth. Respondents are provided by the world’s leading online panel companies, all recruited to strict ESOMAR standards. Every market is representative by age and sex to the 16-54 Active Internet Universe. Quotas and universe sizes were established from local data sources such as TGI and Simmons. To qualify as a member of the Active Internet Universe the respondent needs to be using the Internet everyday or every other day. They are the audience that matter to current and future of marketing communications and represent the consumer that are driving the new influence landscape. Australia Austria Canada China Czech Republic Denmark France Germany Greece Hong Kong Hungary India Italy Japan Mexico Netherlands Romania Pakistan Philippines Poland Russia South Korea Spain Switzerland Taiwan Turkey UK USA 7 No Strangers Anymore Long before the concept of marketing existed our sources of information were limited. What we now tag “Word of Mouth” was the only source of information outside religion, the monarchy and the state. People’s lives were localised and the information that impacted on their main decisions in life came from friends, family or perhaps the man in the market. Then came the mass media age: newspapers, radio and the television set created exposure to influences beyond the ancient controllers of information. However this influence was still professional and top down – the news reader, the columnist and the expert. Mass media offered little in terms of consumer recommendation; readers’ letters in newspapers and magazines or phone-ins on TV and radio shows were as far as consumer influence went. Peer to peer interactions remained localised and face to face. Then along came the web and a revolution began. In the early days, bulletin boards, chat rooms and home brew websites allowed those technically in the know to project their thoughts and opinions. More recently social media such as blogs, social networks, photo or video sharing sites and wikis have opened the door to consumer publishing and hundreds of millions have embraced it. Today the web is driven by its’ users and peoples’ thoughts on everything are found across the web, personal blogs, to reviews on price comparison sites and wish lists on Amazon are just some examples. It is now incredibly easy to share opinions and cultivate influence, often without even trying. The result has been the democratisation of influence to the masses. This is a fundamental change in the way we source and share opinions and today anyone can wield influence far beyond their immediate social group. In the old days the conversations we had with our immediate peers generally stayed inside that network. Today opinions and experiences are shared worldwide. Never before have we been exposed to so many opinions and recommendations from so many people - most of whom are complete strangers, without the aura of expertise or celebrity recognition. The result is an influence economy that is forcing everyone in the public realm including the owners of products and brands to become more transparent, open, conversational and honest. They have to rethink the way that influence is distributed and the role of marketing communications in an information landscape dictated by consumers. Agnes, France Graham, UK Carlos, Brazil Dmitri, Russia 9 No Strangers Anymore This study demonstrates through a unique global research project in 29 countries that things have changed forever. In the new influencer landscape there are five fundamental changes that every brand and marketer will have to acknowledge. Anyone can influence anyone: We now trust strangers as much as our closest friends. Friendship is no longer local or face to face: It’s becoming distant and virtualised. Everybody is an influencer: The power to influence no longer belongs to the experts or “those in the know”. The idea that we live in a simplistic world where there is a small group of “influencers” who dictate the agenda to everyone else is no longer true thanks to social media and digital cont. Welcome to the new influence landscape 3 key trends ➜ The rise of social media ➜ Digital friends ➜ Proliferation of influencer channels Scott, USA Michael, Germany Olga, Greece technology. We all share influence today whether we actively mean to or not. New super influencers rise above the mass: Not all consumer influencers are equal. A new breed of “super influencers” has been created by the tools of the social media revolution. The new influence ecosystem has fundamentally changed how we buy products and services: There is a new level of transparency and truth that all public institutions, companies and brands have to adhere to. Darren, UK Yvonne, Switzerland Teresa, Canada Brendan, Hungary 11 The rise of social media From its inception the internet has allowed consumers to create content in a manner that was never possible in the age of mass media where TV, radio and press belonged to the professionals. The web reduced the barriers to production and opened the channels of distribution to anyone with a desire to create content or share their thoughts and opinions. In the early days it required technical knowledge, experience and a substantial investment in computing hence the impact was limited to the geek community. However, in the last few years these barriers have disappeared and consumer content and opinion has exploded due to the emergence of mass market social media platforms like YouTube, Blogger and MySpace. These developments combined with the ever falling costs of computing and broadband have enabled a global revolution in consumers publishing their content and thinking. This explosion of social media has created hundreds of millions of content creators as demonstrated by data from our Global Social Media Tracker in Figure 1. This shows massive growth in a very short period of time and users have gradually moved from passive consumers to active creators. Writing blogs has risen from 28% to 44%, creating a social network page has grown from 27.3% to 57.5% and uploading a video clip from 10% to 42%. The result is billions of thoughts and opinions online available for anyone to read which is driving an influence revolution. Social Media adoption over time (Waves 1 – 3) 90% 80% 70% % Ever done Read blogs/weblogs Start my own blog/weblog Leave a comment on a blog site Upload my photos to a photo sharing site Upload a video clip to a video sharing site Watch video clips online Create a profile on a social network 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% Wave 1 Sep 06 Wave 2 Jun 07 Wave 3 Mar 08 Figure 1: “Social Media adoption over time (Waves 1 – 3)” Global Average Source: Universal McCann Social Media Tracker – Power to the People 13 The rise of social media The scale of this revolution is demonstrated by Figures 2 and 3, which show the extent of content that social network users and bloggers are uploading. It is clear that social media has become a platform for directly sharing opinion and thoughts; 34% of social network users are sharing opinions on music, 31% are writing a blog inside their profile and almost 10% have promoted a brand. cont. They are also sharing content; 55% are sharing photos, 22% are uploading videos and 23% are uploading applications, all of which project opinions and endorse brands if included. What I do with my social network profile Monica, Spain Install applications 23.3% Promote a brand 9.8% Glen, UK Favourite / currently listened to music 33.6% Hugh, Canada Write a blog 30.8% Upload photos 55.1% Upload videos 21.9% % added to your social network page Figure 2: “What do you do with your social network profile?” Social Network Users, Global Average. Source: Universal McCann Social Media Tracker – Power to the People 15 The rise of social media Bloggers are also very active in terms of sharing opinions and recommendations; 32% have shared recommended websites, 29% their favourite music and 28% opinions on products and brands. This is a massive volume of opinion that is fuelling the new influence landscape. cont. What do I post on my blog? Upload music 20% Opinions on products and brands 28% Have you seen the new Universal McCann website? Check it out www.universalmccann.com Recommended websites 32% Videos 24% Stories from other blogs 23% Favourite/ currently listened to music 29% Photos 50% Widgets 14% Spyros – Greece % posted to your blog Federico – Panama Figure 3: “When writing a blog, which of the following do you post?” Blog writers only, Global Average. Source: Universal McCann Social Media Tracker – Power to the People 17 Digital friends Since its inception as a closed academic and military network the web has had a major impact on the way its users communicate and the nature of the social contacts they maintain. In 2008, 1.5bn people are online and the impact of the internet has spread into the way we interact and communicate as a society. Figure 4 shows the penetration of different communications platforms; email is universally used and instant messenger is adopted by more than 80% of users world-wide. This has moved billions of personal interactions into the virtual and written word, where it is much easier to spread influence and communication is much more frequent and casual. What is interesting is the extent to which social media is beginning to rival its more established equivalents, with nearly 58% having joined a social network. But more importantly, as Figure 5 shows, these users are communicating in new ways, with 66% using them to stay in contact with existing friends, 42% using them to meet new people and 18% for dating. It is extending our definition of friendship and is a fundamental shift towards a virtual communications platform. Dating 18.3% How I use social networks Stay in contact with existing friends 58% How I communicate online Email 99% Instant messenger 81.6% VOIP 51.3% Social network 58% Figure 4: “Thinking about the Internet, which of the following have you done?”, Global Average. Source: Universal McCann Social Media Tracker – Power to the People Figure 5: “What do you do with your social networking profile?”, Global Average. Source: Universal McCann Social Media Tracker – Power to the People Meet new friends 42% 19 Digital friends cont. our friend networks to include new people and old friends we would have previously lost contact with. The global impact is not geographically uniform and there are large distinctions by country, with fast-growing emerging internet markets leading the way, such as the Philippines, Mexico and India. In these countries social platforms have been enthusiastically embraced among web users, thanks to a multitude of factors including low cost of entry, less competition from traditional media, a poor legacy of fixed line communications and a younger and relatively more affluent profile. This has driven enthusiasm for these platforms as social channels. There are also large distinctions in developed internet markets, 58% of South Korea web users and 66% in Italy see blogging as a platform for socialising compared to 26% in the UK and 24% in the US. These are differences that reflect broader patterns of adoption of social media and cultural differences in role of the web in life. The key factor is that the social web is increasingly adopted as a core social platform by hundreds of millions of users worldwide. This dramatically affects the exposure to channels of influence and the nature of the social groups we maintain. The rise of social platforms has created important new channels for peer to peer interaction. Figure 6 and Figure 7 show the global response to the statements, “blogging is important to socialise with friends” and “I use social networks to meet new people”, which indicate the social impact of both these platforms. Both are now perceived as important platforms for socialising with friends, pushing more of our interactions into the virtual world and expanding Blogging is important to socialise with friends % % % 36 % % % .2 .3 .8 % % % .8 .1 Use social networks to meet new people % 24 % % % % .1 .8 % .7 % .8 % .7 % 75 % .8 75 di Ph In ilip a pi ne s 79 % % .7 69 73 ic ex M o Pa il az ki st an .5 % % % % 24 14 57 % 32 % % % .2 30 % % % .6 46 .6 % % .2 % % .5 53 .3 73 .8 .9 % .7 bl % % 58 a re Ko Ch in a ic % % ic % % .3 % % .3 % % .9 .2 38 .7 .4 % .1 44 .4 .4 .2 17 46 .7 .5 28 42 .6 pu % 21 67 pu .6 .8 27 % % .1 s a s .9 .8 27 25 nd 44 nd .1 % nd 24 nd .5 ng 72 32 % .2 33 39 .2 re ng % s 64 39 46 27 32 35 43 48 48 .9 27 .2 58 % 34 Re 37 61 60 .3 Ko 47 70 Ko rla 42 an lia an lia Ko rla .8 % la .8 ry ar ry 65 da ce ria an ce 52 an da ar er pi an ce 25 24 28 29 nd ria ga ce he nm ga nd o n n er ia h n ia y ra st h ic he nm ra n rm wa il wa h a ilip na rm ke itz n g ec pa ee ke ss n g a na itz an ss ec az m pa ee m an on in ki st st un ex ut la ly Sw un on di et ai st et S ai Ru Ta i Au De ly la Ge Ro Ca So ut st h y Tu r Tu r Ta i Sw Ru Pa De Au Au Ge Ro Ita Ch Ph Ca Po Br Sp Au So Sp Cz Gr Ja In Fr N U U H H M 100 100 % Agree 0 Figure 6: Agree with the statement “Blogging is important to socialise with friends” % Agree 0 Figure 7: Agree with the statement “I use social networks to meet new people” U H Po Cz Ita Gr Ja Fr N U H Br K K S 63 ne Re k y ia la ia k y .6 % % bl
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