What Women Want From the Web

From Social Times:

Women make 85% of all brand purchase decisions, so it’s important for marketers to know what they want online, where they go looking for it and what ads they notice. Rich-media solution provider Unicast announced the results of a national survey and it appears, above all else, this summer American women want to connect.

When provided with a list of Web activity options, 95% of women polled selected at least one of the activities. 76% said they plan to go online to keep in touch with family or friends using one or more of the myriad of communication tools and social media platforms available. Whether looking at world events or happenings a bit closer to home, a large number of those surveyed viewed the Internet as their connection to the latest news.

With so many reporting going online for sharing, it comes as no surprise that 60% report they will be using social networks such as Facebook. Those platforms do lag behind search engines and the survey indicates the social web will be used about the same as the shopping web.

Other report findings include:

• Women age 18-24 are more inclined to use the Internet for a greater number of activities. This age group is also more receptive to online advertising in various formats, particularly in localized information, surveys, social media formats and exclusive downloadable content.
• The most popular ad content is for sales and discount codes – 46% of women notice these, followed by creating/submitting an entry to win a prize – 31%. About one in four women notice an ad with localized information, like area movie listings.
• Women notice ads for items in which they’re already interested – 56% of women planning to look up entertainment options this summer have noticed an entertainment ad in the past month and 46% of women planning to research travel have noticed a travel ad.
• Women with children in the home tend to do more activities online than those without children, including listen to music (62% vs. 42%), watch TV or movies (56% vs. 46%) and look up entertainment options (60% vs. 40%).
• Women that visit blogs notice online advertising far more than overall respondents, but this is a small group with just 13% of women planning to visit a blog this summer.

“As more women integrate digital channels into their daily routine and subsequent spending power shifts online this summer, Unicast has also seen an increase of interest from advertisers to develop richer, engaging and more in-depth content online to drive sales with this demographic,” Bryan Hjelm, VP of Product & Marketing for Unicast. “While entertainment, food & beverage, and health/beauty advertisements continue to build awareness within this group, marketers that focus on targeting and optimizing creative elements within their advertisements to include sales incentives, quizzes, social media and local content will realize higher engagement metrics across female audiences.”

Unicast’s “What Women Want From the Web Report” Summer 2010 was conducted May 27-28 by the polling company™, inc. The online survey queried 1,062 Americans age 18+. The report analyzes the responses of the 516 women queried.

Unicast is a provider of online interactive rich media and video advertising technology for publishers, brands and agencies.