Nielsen Dives Into Smart Speaker Ad Potential

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It’s been a busy week for Nielsen, which today launches a quarterly consumer tracking survey that dives into the emerging devices and services that are shaping how people are consuming media, as well as the consumer perceptions behind them. This includes smart speakers, and other new platforms for consuming content and advertising.


Introducing the Nielsen MediaTech Trender, a quarterly consumer tracking survey that focuses on perceptions of emerging devices and services that are shaping media use today.

The survey, conducted among 2,000 U.S consumers aged 13+, aims to uncover opinion and sentiment around nascent and ascending technologies — including smart speakers, Virtual Reality (VR) and other new platforms for consuming content and advertising.

“In taking the pulse of consumer sentiment toward existing or emerging technology, Nielsen will be able to help uncover the often-nuanced consumer decisioning that can either drive success through adoption or leave some forms of new electronic devices or platforms struggling to gain market appeal,” Nielsen says. “By gauging this sentiment in a trended fashion, Nielsen’s MediaTech Trender will ultimately be able to offer to marketers and device manufacturers, as well as both media buyers and sellers, an advanced look at
what technologies may be poised for success and which of these may be waning—helping them plan for the future and potentially drive efficiencies in their media mix.”

What are some of the key MediaTech Trender insights Nielsen has to share?

● In Q1 2018 64% of adult smartphone users viewed video within a social networking site/app at least once a day, while 46% of tablet users did so. For younger adults
(18-34 year olds), these percentages are even higher—at 72% and 57%, respectively.

● In Q2 2018, household ownership of smart speakers reached 24%, up from
22% in the previous quarter.

● Of those who have a smart speaker, four out of 10 have more than one. The living room is the most popular location (63%) followed by the bedroom (35%) and kitchen (28%).

● While smart speakers offer a plethora of capabilities, listening to audio is paramount: music is the most popular activity on a smart speaker, with 90% of users saying they use it in a typical week. Search functions for real-time information (like current temperature) as well as factual information (like historical facts) were the next most popular.

Syncing capabilities to smart speakers enables the device to be a hub of connectivity.

Mobile phones are the most likely device to be synced with a smart speaker (32%), while audio streaming (53%) and shopping apps (52%) are the most likely synced apps.

Users display a number of positive sentiments toward smart speaker devices, with most showing the potential to further their use and reach. The study shows that smart speaker users would like to discover and use more capabilities of smart speakers (75%) and would recommend them or purchase them as a gift to friends/family (72%).

Lastly, multicultural consumers “are taking charge when it comes to audio streaming services and smart speakers.”

In Q1 2018, compared to the national average (43%), Black (52%), Hispanic (45%) and Asian American (55%) consumers have over indexed with their interest in using or subscribing to a streaming service.