Net addiction for marketeers
p2pnet.net News:- Stories and reports centering on web addiction aren’t new.
Last year, the BBC carried a piece about a German effort to get children – "self-confessed addicts who use the web and computer games for up to six hours a day to escape boredom" – outside and into the sunshine.
The year before, "Forget those after work cocktails that gradually become more of a necessity than a social pleasure," said an internetnews.com story. "Forget that extra half pack of cigarettes that gets smoked during the day to alleviate stress from an overdue report or a hotheaded boss. America’s favorite pastime for the 21st century, Web surfing, is now being pinpointed as the one of the most highly addictive activities to scourge the modern workplace."
The Center for On-Line Addiction claims to be the first treatment clinic and training institute to specialize in cyber-disorders such as cybersex addiction, cyberaffairs, problem day trading, compulsive online shopping and gambling, and childhood Internet addiction.
Stories on how seriously reliant people – especially youngsters – can become on the Net go back well into the mid-90s.
So is there market potential?
"Yahoo and OMD today unveiled the findings of an Internet Deprivation Study examining consumers’ media habits and their emotional connection towards the Internet," says WebProNews.
"All participants in the qualitative portion of the study found living without the Internet more difficult than they expected, and in some cases impossible, because the tools and services the Internet offers were firmly ingrained in their daily lives," says the story, going on:
"Participants found that many daily activities were impacted and impaired, including booking travel, checking sports scores, communicating with friends and family, and paying bills. Nearly half the respondents in a complementary quantitative study indicated they could not go without the Internet for more than two weeks and the median time respondents could go without being online is five days.
"The detailed findings of this Internet Deprivation Study will be discussed in-depth today at a Yahoo/OMD joint event for marketers at The Harvard Club as part of New York’s Advertising Week."
OMD is OMD Digital which says, "Committed to delivering insights into all aspects of the digital world, OMD Digital produces online brand research and uses proprietary tools like OMD Snapshots and OMD Popshots, which measure the clicks in the consumer‘s heads, as well as their mouse. The team have been researching the ‘brand‘ effects, in addition to clickstream data, of digital advertising for well over 3 years."
And you know Yahoo!
"This study demonstrates that a disconnection from this networked channel can create a buzz worthy of ‘The Sopranos’ on a Monday morning," Sean Finnegan, director, OMD Digital is quoted as saying, going on:
"OMD is already implementing the insights gleaned from this simple yet non-intuitive study into our Checkmate planning process, enabling the brands that we represent to further capitalize on their audience’s use of new media."
The survey findings provide, "additional insights to marketers that the Internet offers multiple entry points into a consumer’s day, giving them a unique opportunity to tailor how they reach consumers," says WebProNews, adding:
"The multiple touch points indicate the need to communicate the right message to them based on a time they will be most receptive to that message."
Is that anything like finding the best times and ways to get alcoholics to buy more booze, one wonders?
