2012 Canadian Digital Trends
· BlueHat Marketing
When it comes to global digital trends, Canada’s profile is encouraging, if somewhat unique. Statistics collected by various research teams show that while Canada is behind in some areas, especially in the technical infrastructure and penetration rates, Canadians themselves are using the internet more than ever, and more than any other citizens in the world.
Here are some interesting facts about Canadian internet use from comScore’s 2012 Canada Digital Future in Focus report:
- Canadians spend more time on the internet on average than any other people in the world, about 45 hours a month. That’s about 7 more than Americans and 20 more than Germans.
- Smartphones now account for 45% of the mobile market. British Columbia is the province with the most smartphone use, at 51% (up 14% from last year).
- Canadians spend most of their time on smartphones looking at news and information sites, social networks and blogs.
Canada is 9 th in the world in broadband internet penetration . 72% of Canadian households have broadband internet. We are behind many countries in Europe (including all the Scandinavian countries) with South Korea in the top position. We are ahead of the U.S. however, who are in 12 th place overall.
One of the most common activities that Canadians perform online is watching videos . The total amount of video streamed is up by 58% this year, with Youtube alone accounting for about half of that number.
These facts point to the overall conclusion that more and more Canadians are spending huge amounts of time online, whether at home or on the go. The proportion of online time that smartphone use represents is growing as well.
On the other side of the coin, businesses are taking advantage of these facts by altering their approach to advertising. The rush right now is moving towards serving the smart device world. There’s one drawback to this however: on mobile platforms, companies can’t be as sure how and where a given ad is going to be displayed to a user out in the world.
This is counteracted by access to detailed measurements, which companies are focused on more than ever. Since everything can be tracked, data collected on users’ mobile behaviour is compiled and analyzed in the service of refining targeted marketing campaigns. The more time potential customers spend on smartphones out in the world, the more advertising has to be informed by constant data collection and measurement to be effective.
Staying on top of trends and measuring the effectiveness of marketing and ad campaigns is something the Blue Hat team specializes in. This approach is the basis of our approach to maximizing our clients’ ROI. With it, we become powerful online marketing partners for any business.
