Steering away from spontaneity – Indians want quality online time!

We live extremely busy lives. When we’re awake, we’re online. Whether it’s to check email, look for information, pay bills, research, or even chat with family and friends, a lot of what we do is in the online world.

In order to be more time-efficient and organised, many of us are putting in more effort to plan our visits online. We are moving away from meaningless random surfing to better planned, and more focused surfing time – especially when it comes down to seeking information and communicating.

The recent Living with the Internet Study by Microsoft Advertising, MEC and Mindshare provides more insights:

What Indian internet users are doing online?

· 49% of time is spent communicating

· 35% of time is spent seeking information

· 22% of time is spent on entertainment activities

· 14% of time is spent creating content on digital spaces (updating status updates etc)

· 12% of time is spent making online transactions

Planning online visits, except when online shopping and engaging in creative activities:

· 81% of the time they spend reading the news, and looking for information is planned

· 81% of communication activities such as online chatting and social networking are planned

· 60% of the time spent downloading or streaming videos, playing games or listening to music is planned

· Updating blogs, profile pages, uploading photos, and online transactions are unplanned activities close to 50% of the time.

Battle: smartphones vs. laptops?

· Laptops and smartphones are just as popular with consumers when it comes to seeking information on-the-go (34% vs. 33%) and creating content (16% vs. 15%)

· Interestingly, except for online information seeking, laptops are used more often than smartphones during:

- Communication: laptop (51%) versus smartphone (46%)

- Entertainment: laptop (23%) versus smartphone (17%)

- Transaction: laptop (13%) versus smartphone (8%)

What this means for brands in India?

1. Brands must understand their target audience’s surfing habit and patterns; and realise where, how and when is the ideal time to best engage with their consumers.

2. Brand builders should be looking to put serious thought into media placement, messaging, content development and budget prioritisation.

a. Media placement: Brands must be market specific and use audience targeting tactics to pin-point their consumer base. They must surround their consumers.

b. Content development: Brands should look to feature owned assets on the most popular platforms as much as possible.

c. Budget allocation: As the research shows that transactions are not the primary motivating factor of internet usage, brands should look to avoid allocating substantial budgets towards developing content close to the point of sale.

 Many thanks,

Neville Taraporewalla , Director, Microsoft Advertising India