New research released Monday (1/11) by groupM finds that more than half of its respondents believe it is important to be equipped with the latest technology.
An even greater percentage of respondents think that either they or a family member should be the only ones with access to health and fitness tracker data — an interesting privacy concern that media may wish to take note of when seeking to build their consumer databases based on opt-out criteria some may not be aware of.
The study of 1,000 consumers conducted by GroupM’s LIVE Panel in December 2020 concludes that 54.3% of respondents believe it’s important that they have the freshest tech products — now.
But the privacy concerns over what some tech is capable of sharing weighs high.
Nearly 82% of respondents believe that either they or a family member should be the only ones with access to health and fitness tracker data.
The responses are part of a survey on consumer attitudes toward technology across six general categories: attitudes toward technology, information sharing and privacy, virtual reality-based devices and services, smart appliances, mobile devices and digital services, such as visual search, streaming audio and streaming video.
Of the 54.3% of respondents that agree with the statement, “It’s important my household is equipped with the latest technology,” men, younger people and higher-income households all “completely agree” with a much higher propensity than other groups.
With respect to information sharing and privacy for health and fitness trackers, only 6.9% of respondents believe the company who made the device or software should have access.
That’s a sign that opt-out user agreements that take advantage of consumer use of a streaming app, or any other social or streaming media product tied to a radio or TV station, presents a potential problem. Yes, radio and TV stations have a big opportunity to collect information for the sales and marketing teams, and create databases rich with consumer details. But … how much detail can be assign to a user, even if “consent” has been given by not opting out of an app’s use?
The study did query on streaming audio services, and there is precious little insights to glean from groupM’s research: with respect to streaming audio use and importance, the responses were significantly higher for females than males regarding YouTube Music (49.1% to 42.4%), Pandora (53.4% to 39.7%) and local online radio station (19.6% to 15.4%).
The takeaway here: radio still has a long way to go in the digital sphere.
And, as it seeks to grow its presence via smart speakers and smartphone apps, it must take care in the level of user today it can fairly glean before a potential backlash occurs.
“New technologies change the ways in which consumers engage with brands and introduce new ways to drive long-term growth,” said Brian Wieser, GroupM’s Global President of Business Intelligence. “Exploring the contours of new technology adoption laid out in this research is critical for marketers to better understand how to allocate their resources in 2021 and beyond.”
