BUSINESSES need to build around a mobile-first strategy in engaging the most influential consumers in key Asia-Pacific markets, including the Philippines, global market research firm Ipsos said.
The Ipsos Global Influentials survey, which studied the media usage habits of the top 20% of the world’s population in terms of wealth, showed a major shift to digital among the Asia-Pacific’s biggest earners and top executives.
Ipsos calls this category of consumer the “influentials,” a cluster that controls over 90% of global wealth.
“There are several markets in the APAC, including Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and particularly Indonesia, who demonstrate high engagement with mobile for activities like reading news or magazine content and watching video on devices other than TV sets,” Matthias Gitschel, director for audience measurement at Ipsos UK, said during the virtual launch of the survey late Tuesday.
“This reinforces the importance of mobile-first strategies for reaching consumers in these markets.”
The Asia-Pacific influentials market spend an average of three hours surfing the web, Mr. Gitschel said.
In particular, they spend 89 minutes on average visiting websites on a mobile device, 87 minutes visiting websites on a computer, and 86 minutes using social media.
“In terms of social media engagement, we see the Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia standing out with significant higher usage compared to the other upper APAC markets and even the global average. This highlights the importance of social media marketing for reaching consumers in these markets.”
According to the survey, 28% of APAC influentials rely on social media to stay updated on lifestyle and fashion, followed by magazines and newspapers (15%), and websites (15%).
APAC influentials also use social media for entertainment news (28%), travel and tourism (25%), sports (17%), news and current affairs (15%), and business, finance, and economy information (12%), Ipsos said.
Meanwhile, TV remains the top news source for sports (30%) and news & current affairs (24%) in the region.
The most used mobile applications by APAC influentials are for shopping (58%), social networking (55%), music (52%), and mobile wallets/payments (52%).
Instagram and Facebook were the top social networking apps used by APAC influentials when the survey was conducted, at 50% and 43%, respectively.
“Facebook’s dominance in social media has seemingly come to an end, as the younger generations choose Instagram over Facebook,” Mr. Gitschel said.
Filipino influentials spend about $19,938 on travel annually, according to Ipsos.
Outside the region, the top destinations that APAC influentials are expected to visit were the US (11%), UK (10%), Germany (9%), Switzerland (9%), and Canada (7%).’
APAC influentials were most interested in vacations centered on shopping (49%), theme parks (44%), beach activities (40%), or escapes from the city (40%).
With 45% of APAC influentials booking their travels on a smartphone, Booking.com (32%) and Agoda (29%) were the top sites used for travel, Ipsos said.
The Ipsos Global Influentials survey aims to “provide a total understanding of the most powerful people in terms of wealth, demographics, aspirations and attitudes… and how [we can] engage them with an abundant information on their media behaviors,” Annie Chan, managing director at Ipsos Hong Kong, said.
Of the 90,000 individuals surveyed between June to October 2024, 16,000 were senior company officials. — Beatriz Marie D. Cruz