The average time spent online appears to be leveling off at a steady rate of 12 hours per week according to data recently released as part of Forrester Research’s annual survey of 40,000 consumers’ self-reported media habits. Despite the plateau, the trend says less about people reaching their web-surfing limits and more about their savviness with medium as they’ve learned to maximize their time online, visiting fewer sites and utilizing the available tools better. This also points to the fact that the internet has grown up so to speak, thanks to smarter searches and faster connection speeds.
Ad Age interviewed Forrester Analyst Jackie Rousseau-Anderson on the heels of the report and I felt this was the most important takeaway:
Ad Age: You talk about the internet as an extension of the offline world. What do you mean by that and what lessons should Ad Age readers take from it?Jackie Rousseau-Anderson: People’s use of the internet is an extension of who they are offline. The interests they pursue offline will be what they seek online as well. Marketers should approach online consumers from a holistic approach. Instead of thinking of just eyeballs looking at a computer screen, marketers need to understand the complete individual they’re targeting. What do they like to do offline? What gets them jazzed? How do they look for information? What kind of media do they like?
By looking at the complete consumer, cross-channel messaging will be more effective. Since consumers don’t like in online and offline silos, effective messaging will reach them across multiple points. In order to create these effective messages marketers need to understand their consumers across digital and non-digital channels.
Also interesting to note that traditional media channels like TV and newspapers haven’t seen as big a drop-off as one might expect.
Or in my case, 12 hours per day.
