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Roy Morgan Research - Video Gaming in Australia - Trends
1. TRENDS
a 5 year view
Roy Morgan Single Source: April 2006 – March 2011
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Hi, my name is Andrew Braun and I am the Director of Mobile, Internet and Technology at Roy Morgan Research. Today I am going to shed some insight into the trends in the gaming industry over the past 5 years. This information has come from market research collected from over 250,000 interviews of Australians aged 14+ over the past 5 years. Specifically, I am going to focus on some not-so-obvious demographics, young mothers and baby boomers. I will also look at some emerging markets in mobile gaming, online gaming, entertainment convergence and ecommerce.
Over the past 5 years to March 2011, we have seen moderate growth in the ownership of all platforms, however no growth in handheld consoles for the past 12 months. The desire for tablets has seen ownership for tablets reach 6% already.
58% of Australians are game players. This has grown 15%pts in the past 5 years. In the past 12 months, both PC and console gaming as a percentage of Australian’s has remained stable. Large growth has been seen in mobile gaming. This growth could be due to the recent popularity in smartphones. If so, it is not hard to imagine that gaming by mobile will continue to increase.
Also of interest, is the number of people that play games on multiple devices. PC and game console is the most popular choice, however this has declined slightly in the past 12 months. 9% of the population use all three devices to play games, this is most popular with teens aged between 16 and 19. The growth in multiple device playing is largely driven by the growth in mobile gaming.
Given the growth in mobile gaming, I am going to take you through the profile of a mobile gamer focusing on their: Demographics Shopping behaviour Technology adoption Gaming habits, and Media consumption.
Mobile gamers represent 20% of the population aged 14+, or 3.7 million people. A large proportion of them are teens, but did you know that 57% of them are aged between 25 and 49. This market is important as they are likely to be employed earn money and are comfortable spending it. Other key attributes of this group are that they are social, image conscious and fashionable; they have a positive outlook on the economy although 68% say they are spending less.
In terms of their shopping behaviour, they do like to shop, buy products because of a label, but 48% are bargain hunters. They shop more than the Australian average online When looking to buy home entertainment equipment, 40% use a catalogue for information and they are twice as likely than the Australian average to also use the internet. When buying home entertainment equipment, they typically shop in speciality stores.
Mobile Gamers are 3x more likely than the Australian average to be early adopters of technology. They are: 3 x more likely to update to the latest mobile phone 3 x more likely to buy the latest video games and 2x more likely to buy the latest computer equipment 40% of them go out of their way to learn about new technology, and 60% say computers and technology give them control over their life. Over half of them spend on average 2 hours a day on a broadband internet connection
This group typically started their life playing games on PCs and consoles, and this hasn’t abated. In fact, they are 5x more likely to play games on 3 devices than the Australian average.
In terms of Games consoles, Wii is the best performer in terms of penetration and growth (over the past 12 months). Mobile gamers are also twice as likely to purchase game console games than the Australian average.
MARKETING & ADVERTISING As we saw earlier, catalogues are an important media to advertise in, as is the internet. In terms of the web, this group is particularly interested in Technology, magazine, entertainment, dating and of course video and social media websites. Of the more traditional advertising media, TV and magazines are important. Although magazines maybe a short-term focus as it has seen declines over the past year, 28% of this audience read 5+ magazine issues per week. Of note, 32% of this group never read newspapers (and this is increasing).
The section of the presentation looks at two key not-so-obvious segments, young mothers online and baby boomers.
Traditionally men have dominated the gaming landscape, however over the past 5 years we have seen large growth in female gamers. We have seen the largest growth in women aged 24 to 34 years old.
This group of females is defined as: Being a mother Being aged between 24-34 Having accessed the internet in the last 4 weeks Of the group 24 to 34 years old, we have seen the largest growth in a segment we have called “Young Mothers online”, having grown 32%pts in the last 5 years and have almost the penetration of teens.
This segment represents 5% of the population aged 14+ or almost 1m people. These young mothers typically have 2 kids with an average age of 7 years old. The household income is just below average, a large proportion are paying of their home and they are not feeling financially stable, having cut down on their spending and being worried about interest. They are time poor and not very social, with 75% saying that there are not enough hours in a day.
Although they are worried about their finances, this group of females love to shop. They are 2x more likely to say they were born to shop, 2 x more likely to buy the latest fashion. This group tries to buy Australian, and 56% are bargain hunters. They are 73% more likely to shop online, although their mean spend is lower than the Australian average. This may have something to do with the tactile experience of bricks & mortar shopping which they enjoy so much.
All women in this segment are connected to the internet and have used it in the last 4 weeks 1 in 3 young mothers online spend more than 2 hours on average per day on the internet. They are 3x more likely to visit lifestyle websites, such as shopping, maternity and entertainment websites. 60% conduct their banking online and communication via email and social networks is the most common form of online activity.
Given this group is time poor, raising children and less social, it is not surprising that that home entertainment is their major form of entertainment. TV and DVD viewing and gaming are two popular forms of home entertainment for this group. 73% have spent on average $48 in L7D, predominately on DVDs. Whilst, 22% have bought 3 console games in the L3M, more likely to be the latest video games.
Consoles and PCs are still the most popular, with Nintendo Wii and DS the most popular platforms. However, mobile gaming has seen the greatest growth over the past 5 years, with 14% of this group currently owning an iPhone.
MARKETING & ADVERTISING We know that the internet is a great way to advertise to this group, however traditional media is still important. 39% watch more than 3 hours of TV per day. 38 % read unaddressed mail and 52% use catalogues when searching for product information about home electronic items. Thus direct marketing is an important part of the advertising mix. Interestingly, 28% of young mothers online never read magazines. This is a growing trend.
When looking at the penetration of gaming amongst the different generations a few trends emerge. Generation Z or the current batch of teams haven’t exhibited much change over the past 5 years. This market is at saturation. The greatest change has been seen from Gen Y and Gen X. However, the Baby Boomer market has also seen noticeable increase in the past 5 years.
Although this group aren’t spending as much time gaming or as much money on it, they are an important group given: they represent 23% of Australian which is the same size as the Teen market they earn considerably more than the Australian average and typically have no kids so their disposable income is higher
TECHNOLOGY & GAMING PROFILE This group are not dependent upon technology like other segments, however they have exhibited a growing desire to use technology more and more. 1 in 4 spend on average 2 hours a day on the internet. 41% have bought something online in the last 3 months, spending over $100 more than the Australian average. 37% play video games, with 14% owning a Wii which is second to the PC (28%) in popularity.
MARKETING & ADVERTISING This segment are not heavy media consumers, however they can be reached online, via TV and through addressed mail. Newspapers is still important but declining, whilst 41% of this group never radio listen to the radio.
Now we are going to turn our focus to some emerging technologies and their impact on the gaming industry
Online gaming is growing in importance for the gaming industry. Today, 19% of the Australian population 14+ plays online games. This has grown 7% over the past 4 years. Much of this growth has come from PC and game consoles (over past 4 years), however with smartphones it is not hard to imagine that this will increase. In fact 7% of mobile gamers (see earlier segment profile) already play mobile online games.
Online gamers are more likely to be male and aged under 18. However online gamers span a large mix of ages. In terms of players of online games using a game console, 1 in 3 connect more than one time per week.
Another interesting trend for the industry is the convergence of gaming, the internet and TV technology, such as the T-Box.
If you consider that Telstra BigPond is used by 40% of Australian’s 14+ that have an internet connection at home; and they have one of the more popular gaming websites, and the roll-out of the T-Box and the promise of the NBN … it is not hard to imagine a future where gaming will be done via a complete Telstra infrastructure. And with the introduction of internet connected TVs the future gets even more complicated and competitive. On the other hand, given the low penetration rates of Foxtel, the opportunity exists for game consoles manufacturers, which exist in many Australian living rooms, becoming TV or IPTV providers. The opportunity is to provide cheaper, more interesting channels and content.
I am going to finally touch on the emerging trend of ecommerce.
The market is relatively mature as the % of Australians who have purchased a gaming device in the last 12 months has remained stable over the past 5 years.
Game console owners have increased the number of games they have purchased over the past 5 years, however their mean spend has remained relatively unchanged.
In fact, if you look at online spending by Australians in general, this has increased significantly in the last 5 years, both in terms of incidence and mean spend. Today 42% of Australians aged 14+ have purchased online spending over $550 in the last 3 months. We also see that no generation is immune, with all generations exhibiting growth in both incidence and mean spend. With the concern about sales to foreign websites, it is of interest to note that 42% of Australian’s say they buy from online retailers they know.
The key points that I would like you take from today are: Mobile gaming is not just for teens, focus on the 25 to 49 year olds who are early adopters (and have smart phones) Women gamers are growing, focus on those aged 25-34, especially young mothers. Advertise to them via online channels and direct marketing. Baby boomers are a large affluent market with disposable income. Ignore them at your peril.
Online gaming is growing. Mobile gaming is the one to watch especially with the high-take up of tablets and smartphones. Convergence is an opportunity and threat. You need to understand your competition and the landscape they operate in. Online retail is an opportunity for known retailers and brands, given people prefer to buy from retailers they know and trust.