Wave 6 – Coming shortly

Our November set of data will shortly be released to clients in the online tool, with IMS, Telmar and custom projects delivered in January 2012. We are currently working through data checking, processing and data tool integration and we aim to release on the 19^th of December, just in time for your Christmas data needs.

There are a number of new developments in the data set as well as an increase in sample in all four BRIC markets. If you can’t wait to get your hands on Wave 6 data now, here are some of key trends emerging:

Growing Market Differentiation Update: We have seen a growing localisation and increasing differences between countries as consumer driven social platforms have enabled users to evolve the internet without barriers, infrastructure or investment. Global social platforms have enabled anyone to gain a localised internet experience, community and content. We look further to see if this is continuing.

Packaged Internet Update: Mobile, tablets and apps are the fastest growing aspect of consumer technology, and we expect GWI 6 to reveal these shifts in ever more detail. This underlines the increasing pointlessness of only collecting data on PC, browser based activities and underpins, why we use a survey methodology. We are collecting data on a number questions that are particularly interesting to us. Firstly, will consumer intention to switch to tablets and smartphones identified in Waves 4 and 5 begin to be seen in purchasing behaviour? We have no doubt that the TV will remain the primary screen in the household, but will content be increasingly delivered via the internet? Finally, is tablet and mobile behaviour starting to differentiate, and what does this mean for app developers and brands alike?

High Tech = Less Social? One area of surprise in our data, is often the dominance in social media adoption by low tech, lower income markets. There are many reasons for this (as explored here), but one key area is the confusion between “in home” or “big ticket price” technology and social media. At its most extreme is Japan, the land of uber high-tech robots, is also a laggard in the adoption of social media. We will explore the link, or lack of link, in the coming GWI 6 trends deck.

Death of Digital: One theme we’re exploring in detail is how the lines between digitised and non-digitised content and experiences are disappearing in terms of the way consumers behave on and offline. The compartmentalism of the Internet as “digital” is increasingly irrelevant. As we move forward, the “Internet of Things” will further drive this term into irrelevance as every objects, events and people become data points, all connected through the Internet.

Google+ Impact: Google announced on October 13th that Google+ had surpassed the 40 million subscriber mark but how many of these users actually actively engaged? We test the reality of the market and look at whether it’s impacting behaviour or usage of rival services.

Facebook Fatigue Update: While we’ve seen ongoing falls in user participation, when we published this before, we saw some rebuttals (even from Facebook), that it was a seasonal trend. However, we believe this is a longer term one that is consistent with the changing way that consumers utilise social media. New non-summer data from GWI 6 should verify the trend.

Mobile OS War: The latest update from the iOS5, Android and Windows Phone mobile wars. What consumer segments choose what? Which countries prefer Android? And, of course, the all important: Why?

As we move into 2012, there are a number of very exciting expansions and changes that will offer more insight than ever:

• 11 new markets
• New opportunities for brand data / custom data
• Further re-contact opportunities with groups and web cams being added to surveys
• A new research timeline, that reflects core deliver periods for clients
• The launch of GWI omnibus, to enable a further number of brands to integrate into the research programme
• A new tablet optimised social platform to access the data

More details to come very soon