Millennials Paving the Way for Future Media Habits, Deloitte Survey Finds

Deloitte have recently released their 2016 Media Consumer Survey, which takes an in-depth look into our quickly evolving media consumption habits. It’s a snapshot of consumer interaction with media, entertainment, technology, and information.

Thousands of consumers from the USA, Australia, and Norway, across four different generations – Millennials (aged 14-26; 27-32), Xers (33-49), Boomers (50-68), and the Silents (69+) – provided self-reported data for the survey.

Millennials have a history of being technological trendsetters, and here they’ve certainly proved to be leading the way in shaping the media consumption behaviours of people from all age groups. Lo and behold: The Millennial Effect.

Social Media

Millennials are at the forefront when it comes to social media usage, with 84% aged 27-32 and 77% aged 14-26 using social networks daily. It’s a significant lead when compared to the overall average of 67% of people who use social media every day.

The fastest rise in social media usage is seen in the Boomer and Silent generations, but Millennials are proving to be just as quick at moving on to something new. Niki Alcorn of Deloitte tells us that “92% of survey respondents are on Facebook. But as all age groups converge at this destination, Millennials are heading to newer, more mobile and image focused networks, such as Instagram and Snapchat”.

News Sources

Gen Y is also leading the way for news sources, with 29% of them using social media as their primary source, compared to just 12% of respondents from other generations. The amount of survey respondents who head to social media first to source their news has seen an increase of 9% since last year, almost doubling the statistic. It seems like a small number, but it’s bigger than the one used to describe our alternative news-searching habits, such as online and print.

Advertising

The increasing presence of social media in our lives is telling us more about our responses to advertising, too. A figure that’s staying pretty stable is the 75% of us that would say that our purchase decisions are primarily influenced by word of mouth. Its digital social media equivalent is definitely making a mark, though, with 58% of respondents reporting the strong influence of social media reviews from friends. Just short of this, 55% said that television advertisements are still getting us good.

SVOD

Millennials are certainly leading the way to subscription video on demand services (Netflix, anyone?), with 35% of them compared with just 14% of other respondents reporting to have subscribed. They’re also the biggest bingers (surprise, surprise) with 74% of Millennials and only 50% of older generations having trouble tearing their eyes away from the screen.

Entertainment

If you had asked us who would win in the battle of the internet vs TV, we wouldn’t have been able to guess. It turns out you may as well flip a coin because using the internet is on par with watching TV as our favourite entertainment activity. Of course, Gen Y (32% of them) more often look for their television content on streaming services than through live programming as compared to other age groups (16%). As for the device we use to watch the content, the old telly-box is still our go-to.

You can access the full Deloitte Media Consumer Survey 2016, along with the related infograph and video here.