Tablet, smartphone ads a hit in Europe

BERLIN: Tablet and smartphone users in Europe are more responsive to advertising than their US counterparts, a study has shown.

According to research from Nielsen, the insights provider, 29% of tablet owners across Germany, Italy, the UK and US had made an online purchase via a PC after being exposed to ads on their slate.

Figures here peaked at 32% among the German and Italian panels, falling to 27% for the UK and just 23% for the US.

The average total on this metric reached 27% for marketing messages on smartphones, with Germany leading on 34%. The UK posted 28%, Italy yielded 27% and the US was on 20%.

Another 10% of tablet subscribers had both seen ads and purchased a product through this device, and 8% of the smartphone audience did the same.

Italy led in each of these areas, logging 13% and 12% respectively, while the US also remained at the rear in the two categories, registering 8% and 4% in turn.

When it came to seeing ads on a tablet and buying in store, the four-market average was 17%, and the gap between the featured countries stood at 16% for the US and 19% for Italy.

This divergence was wider when translating ad exposures on smartphones into bricks and mortar purchases, varying from 6% in the US to 18% in Italy, compared with the 13% average.

Elsewhere, the most consistent behaviours among tablet owners was searching for information after seeing an ad or clicking on it to view more details, both scoring over 20% in all the countries assessed.

By contrast, just 11% of US smartphone customers had pursued either of these activities. Less than a fifth of their UK peers made similar moves, whereas a quarter of Italians had engaged in this way.

Some 11% of consumers possessing gadgets such as the iPad and Kindle Fire had also requested a coupon having seen an ad, again bettering the 8% recorded for the smartphone population.

"Tablets clearly represent a new and very effective channel for advertisers to reach their target audience," René Bellack, of Nielsen's German telecoms practice, said.

"Even though there are interesting geographical differences in user reactions, the high potential of this channel for advertisers is beyond question."

Data sourced from Nielsen; additional content by Warc staff, 6 March 2012

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