Ipsos Mendelsohn: Use mobile to target rich

The well off spend more time online than those with average and lower incomes, according to a new survey from Ipsos Mendelsohn, and the richer they get the more time they spend online.

by Helen Leggatt

It’s perhaps not surprising that the rich have more time, and money, to spend on hi-tech gadgetry. They put it to good use to support their luxury lifestyles. Booking travel and theatre tickets while keeping contact with the nanny and the office are all chores the rich can do online and via their mobile devices.

Ipsos Mendelsohn recently released findings of their annual Affluent Survey, distributed to over 23 million households across the U.S. which shows that the rich are connecting to the Internet more than the rest of the population.

The data shows that in affluent households across the U.S., where the head of house earns $100,000 or more a year, almost a day (23.4 hours) per week is spent online. That figure rises to 27.4 hours among those earning upwards of quarter of a million per year.

The use of mobile devices was found to be elevated in affluent households – 40% among earners of $100,000 plus rising to 57% among those earning in excess of $250,000.

"If you want to experiment [with mobile], they should probably be doing it much more in the affluent space, because these people are already doing it," said Bob Shullman, president, Ipsos Mendelsohn. "These people are much higher up the learning curve."