SHANGHAI – As smart speakers continue to infiltrate households across the world, China overtook the USA in early 2019 to become the leading global market for sales, with the wider range of options available in the PRC boosting growth. To help marketers gain a better understanding of this growing medium and its increasing role in the lives of Chinese consumers, OMD has released its latest infographic entitled, ‘2019: The Year of the Smart Speaker in China?’.
The marketing performance company’s latest study sheds light on the purchase motivators, consumer demographics, functionality and emerging consumer behaviours behind the rise of smart speakers in Chinese consumers’ homes, while exploring what’s next for the medium. The infographic reveals that Chinese consumers do not consider smart speakers as an additional device in the household, but rather an upgrade to multiple-device functionality. Additionally, while advertising is still new and limited on this medium, consumers are open to it if it is relevant to them.
Other interesting facts revealed by the infographic include:
- 33% of Chinese consumers own more than one device, with the most popular places for their usage being in the living room (69%) and the bedroom (57%)
- The most-used functions are listening to music (72%), serving as an alarm clock (58%), general information requests, such as weather and traffic (55%) and smart home appliance control (41%)
- 76% of consumers don’t mind advertising on smart speakers if the ad matches the content; 73% state if the ad matches their interests, and 58% if the ad is helpful in their shopping decision-making
Speaking on the infographic’s findings, Samantha Jahnke, OMD China’s Head of Digital, says: “It is important for marketers to understand how and why consumers are using smart speakers. The more we can understand, the better we can design advertising experiences that complement their experience versus disrupt it. Our research has proved that users are open to relevant advertising; we found that 76% of users did not mind and may pay attention to advertising that matched the content they were listening to, and 73% if it matched their interests. Brands should not rush out to aimlessly place ads on this new channel, focusing on the experience they will deliver and how it will be relevant to the listener instead.”
Sadhan Mishra, Managing Director of OMD Shanghai, comments: “At OMD, delivering a competitive edge for our clients is paramount, and as such, we are obsessively focused on what’s next. Smart speakers allow advertisers to deliver engaging, contextually relevant voice messages, tailored to the individual. This growing space presents the opportunity to be positively disruptive, provided we respect privacy and truly empathise with consumers.”
You can view OMD China’s infographic here.
About OMD:
OMD combines innovation, creativity, empathy and evidence to make Better decisions, faster on behalf of our clients so they can learn faster and act faster, create valued connections with customers, build profitable business outcomes and, ultimately, win the future. With more than 12,000 people working in over 100 countries, OMD is the world’s largest media network. Named Adweek’s Global Media Agency of the Year 2019, OMD is also currently ranked the world’s most effective media agency network in the Effie Effectiveness Index. OMD is an Omnicom Media Group agency and part of Omnicom Group. Omnicom Media Group is the media services division of Omnicom Group, Inc. (NYSE: OMC). For more information, please visit http://www.omd.com/.
