Buzz report bonanza - two new reports available

It's been a while since I've updated and there are two new free Harris Buzz reports available to download.

Buzz#10 - the November 2011 report is available here
Buzz#9 - the October 2011 reports is available here

Here's a summary of all the news stories and the brands we've measured in these two reports:

As always, get in touch if you want to know more. My contact details are on the right-hand pane.

Sneak preview of Buzz#9 - Star Wars Blu-ray

Buzz#9 from Harris Interactive is now underway and will be released in a couple of weeks. See here for all the previous Buzz reports.

Here's a sneak preview of what we're going to cover in this research. As always we look at the awareness, excitement and discussion buzz of all these things using a nationally representative sample of GB consumers aged 16-64.

• Star Wars films released on Blu-ray
• Steve Jobs resigns as CEO of Apple
• Yahoo! boss is fired and company is put up for sale
• Microsoft unveils Windows 8 operating system for PCs and tablets
• HP to cease making PC/tablets to focus on software
• Google buy Motorola’s mobile division for $12.5bn
• BT ordered to block pirate sites
• BlackBerry to launch music service
• Big Brother re-launched on Channel Five
• Legal battle with Apple prevents Samsung selling its Galaxy tablets and smartphone
• Deus Ex: Human Revolution video game
• Gears of War 3 video game
• FA Cup match to be screened on Facebook

I'll post some findings when they're ready as well as posting a link to the full free report.

eBook reader, Kindle research - the democratic device

The latest Fast Forward report from Harris Interactive, the 9th edition, shows a substantial increase in ownership of eBook reader devices. Click here to download the full free report.

One of the things that distinguishes the eBook reader from other consumer electronic devices is how fairly distributed the incidence the ownership is across the age span in the country. If democratic is defined as being characterised by social equality, then the eBook reader is indeed one of the most democratic portable devices around today. This in fairly sharp contrast to the smartphone and tablet, as highlighted in an earlier post.

The data below shows a full profile of current ownership.

See how evenly the ownership profile is distributed by sex and age. Just as many 55+ year olds claim to own an eBook reader as 16-24s (and there are many more of the former in the general population).

If you want to know more, just get in touch - contact details on right-hand pane.

Mobile entertainment - the inexorable rise

It's been a full year since we published a new wave of our Fast Forward tracking report. This is the 9th edition with now over 2 years of tracking data.

The full report from Harris is free and click here to download it.

Fast Forward is a tracker of the UK public's entertainment habits, mobile entertainment habits, content piracy and device ownership. All data is based on nationally representative samples using the Harris Poll.  I'll post some other stories later, but in this post I'll focus on mobile entertainment.

The graph below shows how much more we are using our smartphones and other mobiles for entertainment and social networking.

Bear in mind the blue bar is a measure right now in August 2011 and the prior one is 12 months ago, so we should certainly expect to see significant gains in mobile entertainment usage as more and more of the general public acquire smartphones.


I've plucked out a few choice activities to show the same data in a way that really brings the uplifts to life:

Myspace research - news of sale hurts consumer brand sentiment

In the latest Harris Buzz report (the 8th edition) we took a new look at the Brand Buzz for Myspace, which is interesting given its recent sale and all the media coverage that went with it.

We see a dramatic decline in consumer Brand Buzz for the brand since that coverage - it's now just 20% of the level seen earlier this year.

Check out the full free report here.

News of the sale focused media attention on the Myspace brand with inevitable comparisons with the success of Facebook and Twitter. The story is all too clear from the ComScore/Reuters reporting below:

Harry Potter tops all-time list of Buzz excitement

The latest Harris Buzz report is available - click here and as usual it is free to download the full report.

In this edition (the 8th edition) we look at the public's awareness and buzz for the latest tech, media and entertainment news, including the newest Harry Potter film, the furore over phone hacking and the release of Google+.

The excitement for the last installment in the Harry Potter series tops our all-time list of excitement. The full all-time list ranked by excitement is shown below - and see the full report for the full story.

Get in touch if you want more details - contact details on the right-hand pane.

25% of US Netflix users using Wii to stream video

Some interesting data from Nielsen here showing which platforms Netflix and Hulu users in the States are using to stream video. 25% of Netflix users are using the Wii, which being SD only, is probably more a facet of its higher household penetration compared to other platforms.

It does show, at the same time, for Netflix, which appears more of a living room activity than Hulu, that the dominance of using a PC/laptop for streaming is diminishing and we are getting closer to that seamless living room, sofa and remote experience like, well, normal TV.

Sneak preview of Buzz#8 - incl HP TouchPad, Murdoch news & Harry Potter

Here's a sneak preview of what we're covering in our August Harris Buzz report. All prior reports can be downloaded for free - click here.

Tablet research - new Buzz report includes a tablet round-up

Click here to download the latest Harris Buzz report. Now in its 7th edition, like all prior Buzz reports, it looks at UK consumers' buzz for the latest devices and launches in entertainment and technology.

This new edition is a tablet special - including iPad 2, Motorola Xoom, PlayBook, HTC Flyer and Samsung Galaxy Tab.

But there is much more than tablets. We have a first look at the new handheld gaming platform, Sony Vita, plus a first look at the buzz for Nintendo's Wii U. We also look at the Apple iCloud announcement and a range of top video games, including LA Noire, Portal 2 and Fable III.

See the post immediately below for a full list of everything covered in the latest edition.

Hope you find it interesting. If you want more detail, feel free to contact me - details on right-hand pane.

Tablet research - Tablet special Buzz coming soon in early July

A quick post to alert you to the July edition of Harris Buzz. This will be a free report to download and I'll post a link on this blog for you to download.

The July edition of Harris Buzz is a bit of a tablet special. We have reprises of all the major competitors to iPad and iPad 2, both of which we covered in previous editions of Buzz and you can download any of the previous reports here.

In the July Buzz edition we will be looking at:

LA Noire video game

Portal 2 video game

Fable III video game

HTC Flyer tablet device

Motorola Xoom tablet device

Blackberry Playbook tablet device

Samsung Galaxy Tab tablet device

Nintendo 3DS

Orange/Barclaycard launch “pay-with-mobile” Quick Tap payment service

Twitter users warned over super-injunction infringements

Apple announce iCloud music streaming and online media storage service

Nintendo unveil new “Wii U” console (follow-up to Wii)

Sony unveil new “Playstation Vita” handheld gaming device (follow-up to PSP)

The report should be available to download for free next week.

Get in touch if you have any queries - my contact details are on the right-hand pane.

iPad research, tablet research, portable devices - share the barcode

Share the barcode to the new infographic of our consumer research into iPads, tablets, smartphones and other portable devices (and click here for the full report).

Device research, entertainment research - June Harris Buzz report out now

Time for another Harris Buzz report. Harris Buzz measures the buzz for the latest devices, launches and news in entertainment, media and technology.

We like free so the full report is available to download for, well, free - click here to download this report (pdf).

Interviewing for this edition was conducted in late May 2011, with a base of 1,344 respondents, weighted to be representative of national demographics, so it really is a view of the general public.

In this edition we look at the general public's buzz for:

• 3D TV sets

• Blinkbox (online video-on-demand service)

• Firefox 4 web browser launched

• Google launch Chromebook laptops

• Google launch cloud-based music service

• Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) web browser launched

• iPhone/iPad secretly tracking owner’s location

• Microsoft buy internet phone firm Skype

• Nokia E7 smartphone

• Sony Playstation online accounts hacked

• Star Wars films on Blu-ray announced for September launch

• Vevo (online music video service) launched

• Wii 2 (follow-up to Wii console) announced (pre-E3)

Please note that the "Wii 2" news is not the official E3 announcement, but the announcement a week or so earlier that they would showcase their follow-up console, unveiled as "Wii U", at E3. We'll be looking at the buzz of Wii U in the upcoming Buzz in a couple of weeks time.

How do these new set of launches and news items fare against all the other items we've covered in Buzz? Let's first look at awareness and familiarity - shown below is the full ranking. Rows highlighted in pale green are those new items listed above.

-CLICK ON THE IMAGE BELOW FOR THE CLEAREST VIEW-

We see 3 in 4 UK respondents aware of the Sony network hack and we see a massive increase in the awareness of 3D TV sets, the latter I'll blog about in a separate post later.

We don't just cover awareness in Harris Buzz. Let's now look at discussion buzz, the degree to which people are talking about these launches and news stories.

-CLICK ON THE IMAGE BELOW FOR THE CLEAREST VIEW-

That's a lot of people taling about the Sony network hack! And we see momentum gaining too for 3D TV sets from our tracking from last year.

And finally, let's look at excitement levels.

-CLICK ON THE IMAGE BELOW FOR THE CLEAREST VIEW-

I'll be posting more about 3D TV later. For now, I hope you like the latest data from Harris Buzz.

If you want to know more, just get in touch. My contact details are on the right-hand pane.

iPad 2 & Freeview HD lead for excitement - entertainment research, device research from Harris Buzz

The latest Harris Buzz report (the 5th edition) is now ready to download. Click here to download it (and all previous reports). They are all free to download in full.

In these reports you will see that iPad 2 and Freeview HD currently lead the consumer technologies that excite the British public.

Harris Buzz looks at the awareness and excitement of new releases and announcements in consumer technology, entertainment, media and telecoms.

In this post, I'm going to take you through the results from all five editions.

Firstly, let's look at the familiarity of everything we've covered to date in Buzz.

And here is the ranking from all five editions of Buzz for the level of excitement generated among the GB public online.

So, what do we see? Focusing on excitement levels generated, we see the awards ceremonies leading, fuelled by  exceptionally strong awareness, and Freeview HD and iPad 2 leading the list of consumer technologies.

Click here to download the full reports because this is just a selection of the measures in Harris Buzz.


Contact me if you want to know more - details on right-hand pane.

Entertainment research, device research - new Harris Buzz report released later this week

The 5th edition of the Harris Buzz series of reports will be released later this week. This is a free report looking at the familiarity and excitement of various new releases in the entertainment, technology and telecoms sector. Click here to download all four previous reports.

In the 5th edition, we look at: (alphabetically)

Amazon Cloud Player (music streaming service)

Charlie Sheen in the news

Crysis 2 video game

Google One Pass (app/media subscription service)

Homefront video game

iPad 2

Nokia partner with Microsoft to use Windows 7 Mobile platform

Qriocity (music streaming service from Sony)

Sex domain “.xxx” given approval for websites

Smart TV (internet-enabled TV sets or set-top box)

Sony Ericsson Xperia Play (the “Playstation” phone)

UK Radioplayer (online radio station streaming service)

Warner Brothers films available to watch via Facebook

And for Harris Brand Buzz, we look at: (alphabetically)

BlackBerry

Dell

EA Games

HP

Motorola

Nintendo

Playstation

Samsung

Skype

Sony

Sony Ericsson

T-Mobile

Xbox

I'll post a link to the report on this blog when it's ready. click here to download all previous editions in full.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact me - contact details on right-hand pane.

iPad research, device research - a digital divide or untapped market?

Here is another snippet from the Portable Devices research conducted by Harris and available free to download in its entirety here. Conducted in April 2011, the research looks at a the GB public's ownership, intentions, decisions and attitudes towards a range of portable devices, including tablets like the iPad, smartphones, laptops, eBook readers like Kindle and so on.

Here we look at device ownership by age, contrasting younger and older consumers.

We see, as we would expect, a much higher incidence of ownership among younger consumers for the latest gadgets, with the divide especially pronounced for smartphones. The key things to appreciate are there are substantially more older consumers than there are 16-24s, something that will exacerbate in our ageing population, plus a substantial proportion of older consumers have relatively high disposable incomes. Put together should tech companies, who arguably do more to target the under 35s, strive to tackle this potentially lucrative older market, the reward could be substantial.

This is just one clip from the full report, which is free to download in its entirety from here. See here for an earlier analysis of entertainment, work and leisure usage on different devices. And if you have any questions, feel free to get in touch - contact details on right-hand pane.

iPad research, tablet research, portable devices - major new free report

Click here to download a major new consumer research report into portable devices.

This is a large-scale study, interviewing over 2,000 members of the GB public online using the Harris Poll Omnibus.









We look at the choices people make between different portable devices (see earlier post) like tablets, smartphones, laptops, ebook readers and mini netbooks. Probably one of the most interesting areas we look at is anticipated usage of these different devices. We see just how attractive tablet devices like iPads and Xooms are for true multi-media usage, and especially so for video and gaming. This is underlined in the anticipated usage chart below.

The graph above underlines the potential of the tablet to deliver video and gaming content to a much higher degree than that seen for smartphones. Of course, there are and will continue to be many more smartphone users than tablet users, but the tablet device shows it to be the portable device for the fullest multi-media experience. As such the tablet device offers massive potential for content owners - see a summary of potential below:

The full report is 100+ pages of analysis and is free to download. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions - my contact details are on the right-hand pane.

Tablet research, iPad research, portable device research - coming soon

Just a heads up to let you know that next week I'll be posting a link to a major new report from Harris Interactive. With so many choices available for consumers, especially with the growing popularity of iPad and upcoming rivals, we felt it was time to conduct a deep market investigation of the portable devices market.

It looks at portable devices in the UK, using a robust, nationally representative sample of 16+ year olds. We look at tablets, smartphones, laptops and mini netbooks in great detail, as well as covering eBook readers and a range of other devices for benchmarking. We cover portable device ownership, purchase intentions, how choices are made between different devices, usage (work, leisure and entertainment), locations for usage (in the home and on-the-go), purchase channels and general engagement and attitudes towards portable devices. It's a deep investigation - the report will be free and 100+ of analysis.

Above is just a taster of the report. We asked the GB public what device out of a limited list they would like to have, imagining they owned none but had the money to buy. Shown is their first choice made and then the subsequent secondary choice of device.It shows while there is so much attention on tablets right now, the workhorse, multi-functional laptop gets a majority preference share. It also shows not much love for the 7-inch tablet form factor. Tablets are, however, ahead of mini netbooks for consumer preference, which seem like a buzz somewhat faded now. I'll post a link here when it's ready. If you want to know more in the interim, get in touch - contact details on right-hand pane.

Film research, Entertainment research: UK film consumption breakdown

Here is a fascinating snippet from our film audience research for the UK Film Council. Using a robust nationally representative sample of UK consumers using the Harris Poll omnibus, it shows a breakdown and share of volume consumption of UK film viewing by all available means, including the TV, cinema, digital, piracy and discs. It shows all of this by age and you can see how the share of volume changes as people get older.

We see clearly how younger people are more digital, including piracy, and as we get older there is more of a reliance on the traditional TV channels to satisfy our need for watching film. It's interesting to see how DVD remains relatively strong across all ages as a proportion of how we watch films.

There is much more (100+ pages) of analysis in the full report, which is free to download - click here to download it

Film audience research: download the full report

The full and free report on UK mainstream and diverse film audiences is now available to download. Commissioned by the UK Film Council, it's 100+ pages of quantitative and qualitative analysis on film audiences today. Click here to download it.

This report should be of interest to anyone interested in film and home entertainment audiences, diverse audiences and their portrayal in society.

Here is an overview of contents:

We hope you  find it interesting and stimulating. Click here to download it.

If you want to know more, my contact details are on the right-hand pane.

Film audience research: portrayal of diverse audiences

Our research for the UK Film Council received some great coverage in The Guardian on Saturday - Click here to read all about it.

The study looks in depth at the portrayal of diverse audiences in film today, taking in the views of the mainstream audience as well as diverse audiences themselves.

The report is launched on Monday and the full report is available for free to the general public. It's a comprehensive view of audiences and well worth a look for anyone interested in film, cinema, home entertainment, audiences and diversity. I will post a link to the report next week here.

Contact me if you want to know more - contact details on right hand pane.

Spotify research - large increase in awareness and buzz for Spotify

Here's another tidbit of insight from our latest Harris Buzz report.

We measured awareness and buzz of Spotify using a Harris Poll survey of 1,000+ GB consumers aged 16-64, weighted to be representative of national demographics. We measured in July 2010 and again in February 2011.

We see some very significant increases in awareness, familiarity and excitement.

Another factoid:  now nearly 9 in 10 16-24yr olds are aware of Spotify. In the full Harris Buzz report you'll see all of this and more, broken down by demographics.

Contact me if you want to know more - contact details on right-hand pane.

Entertainment research, device research - new Harris Buzz released next week

Just a heads up to say that the new Harris Buzz will be released next week. As usual it's a look at the awareness, familiarity, excitement and discussion buzz of new/recent tech and entertainment releases based on a Harris Poll survey of 1,000 GB nationally representative respondents. Fieldwork was conducted mid-February.

Here's what we've covered in this edition:

• Spotify (reprise for tracking)
• Windows 7 Mobile (reprise for tracking)
• Samsung Galaxy Tab
• Motorola Xoom tablet device
• Android-based tablet devices
• Nintendo 3DS (reprise for tracking)
• Sony NGP- portable gaming device (follow-up to PSP)
• 'The Daily' - paid-for digital newspaper for iPad
• Brits (UK music industry Awards)
• Baftas (UK film/TV academy awards)
• Oscars (US film Academy Awards)
• Rupert Murdoch's bid to take over BSkyB (Sky)

Some of the data for the three awards ceremonies has already been previewed in the prior post.

I will post a link to the report when it is available on this blog next week, as well as some key highlights. Contact me if you want to know more - contact details on right-hand pane.

Entertainment research - Oscars research, Brits research, Baftas research

In the upcoming Harris Buzz report, the 4th edition, we will show the familiarity, discussion buzz and excitement of another dozen or so latest tech and entertainment releases. As we're now right into entertainment awards season, we thought we'd cover the buzz of four of the major awards ceremonies.

Harris Buzz uses the GB Harris Poll^TM online omnibus to survey 1,000+ respondents, weighted to be representative of national demographics. We measured four major entertainment awards in the latest edition of Harris Buzz:

1. Oscars (US film Academy Awards)
2.  Brits (UK music industry awards)
3. Baftas (UK film/television awards)
4. Golden Globes (US film/TV industry awards)

An important note is that we conducted the fieldwork for this study in mid-February (15^th-17^th February) rather than an extended period over the whole of the awards season. For reference and context, here are dates of the awards ceremonies:

Ceremony	Date hosted, chronologically
Golden Globes	16th January
Brits	15th February
Baftas	21st February
Oscars	27th February

Now onto the findings…

1 of 3: Name awareness and familiarity

In terms of being aware of the awards (being at least familiar with the name) there are no surprises to see that all of these awards are incredibly well known among the GB general public.

Ceremony	% aware of name
Golden Globes	97%
Brits	98%
Baftas	98%
Oscars	99%

When it comes to deeper familiarity, we see our own British ceremonies roughly on par with the Oscars, and the Golden Globes being less familiar.

Ceremony	% extremely or very familiar
Golden Globes	36%
Brits	46%
Baftas	46%
Oscars	49%

Here is a profile of deeper familiarity by age groups:

	% extremely or very familiar
	Golden Globes	Brits	Baftas	Oscars
Total GB	36%	46%	46%	49%
16-24s	44%	46%	47%	52%
25-34s	38%	57%	50%	50%
35-44s	30%	44%	43%	46%
45-54s	38%	46%	48%	57%
55-64s	33%	35%	43%	42%

Comment: Whilst the Oscars nudge ahead in terms of awareness and familiarity, our own British awards do extremely well to stand up roughly on par with the Academy Awards.

2 of 3: Discussion Buzz

Golden Globes aside, the ceremonies are not greatly differentiated by awareness and familiarity, nor would we expect them to be given their status, heritage and mass media coverage. But do they differ in the degree to which they get the Great British public talking? Discussion Buzz answers this question.

Ceremony	% Discussion Buzz
Golden Globes	31%
Brits	47%
Baftas	46%
Oscars	47%

Percentages above are of the whole GB national sample and not only among those familiar

	% Discussion Buzz
	Golden Globes	Brits	Baftas	Oscars
Total GB	31%	47%	46%	47%
16-24s	54%	64%	57%	59%
25-34s	34%	52%	44%	46%
35-44s	24%	48%	41%	40%
45-54s	29%	42%	48%	50%
55-64s	16%	31%	42%	42%

Comment: In terms of getting people talking, again we see our British ceremonies matching the Oscars for discussion buzz. The Brits in particular connect more strongly for discussion buzz than the Oscars for the under 45s.

 

3 of 3: Excitement

The final element of Harris Buzz is to understand excitement levels.

Ceremony	% Excited about…
Golden Globes	22%
Brits	30%
Baftas	31%
Oscars	32%

Percentages above are of the whole GB national sample and not only among those familiar

	% Excited about…
	Golden Globes	Brits	Baftas	Oscars
Total GB	22%	30%	31%	32%
16-24s	50%	55%	51%	57%
25-34s	26%	36%	36%	36%
35-44s	11%	24%	20%	22%
45-54s	15%	20%	28%	27%
55-64s	10%	15%	20%	21%

Comment: Again we see our British awards almost exactly matching the Oscars for excitement levels. Around 3 in 10 get excited about these awards and over 1 in 2 16-24 year olds. These awards and accompanying ceremonies are more than just a slap-on-the-back for popstars and luvvies. Our British ceremonies are national and international showcases for the best of British talent. And that our British awards stand up on a par with the Oscars is an achievement in itself.

The 4th edition of Harris Buzz will be released in the next couple of weeks. Contact me if you want to know more (details on right-hand pane).