UK Digital Market Overview May 2014

Your monthly snapshot of digital audience trends

Here is a brief summary of some of the key topics covered in this report:

The Total Digital Population (TDP) remained static at 48.2m people, with access via mobile devices increasing +12% month-on-month.

• PC remained the dominant access device, however we continue to see shifting user behaviour in favour of portable devices.
• Interestingly, March data demonstrates that exclusive access from non-PC devices accounted for 6.0% of the TDP.
• This data underscores that publishers, agencies and advertisers need to ensure they have a multi-platform strategy that reaches their audiences across the platforms that are most relevant to them.

March’s audience in focus were those age 55+. Their online activity perhaps plays to expectations with the Home and Travel categories featured strongly, but unexpectedly Gambling sites rank highly among this group.

• Lifestyle, Home Furnishing and Consumer Goods represent a third of the group’s top 10 category interests with B&Q’s DIY.com, Homebase and IKEA all featured strongly. Home maintenance interests are prevalent with Screwfix, while QVC appeared among Consumer Goods interest.
• In the Gambling category, the National Lottery is by far the dominant destination, but the presence of William Hill, Ladbrokes and Coral, all reaching around half a million users, suggests this isn’t just about lotteries and sweepstakes.
• Within Hotels/Resorts and Travel-Information great faith is placed in peer reviews with TripAdvisor being a top destination site and accommodation sites such as LateRooms also doing well.
• Other site destinations of note include Johnston Press suggesting a keen interest in local area news and i-CD’s 192.com directory site reflecting interest in local products and services

The mobile/tablet exclusive audience continued to grow and in some cases was the significant driver for the category.

• Amazon(+13%), Facebook (+21%) and Wikimedia (+13%) all demonstrate mobile/tablet-specific growth month-on-month.
• In the featured ‘Coupon’ sector, year-on-year comparison highlights a doubling of access from mobile/tablet only, whilst PC access dropped from 76% to 57%. This could reflect last minute or location targeted deals which are most relevant to users at certain times and locations where PC access isn’t practical.

In YouTube Partner channels the top three maintained their positions (Vevo, Warner Music and ZEFR), with Maker and Full Screen rounding out the top five. BroadbandTV moved into the top 10, as Warner vfp fell outside of this month’s ranking.