CALGARY – Canadians like hockey, Facebook, and playing the lottery, while Americans like football, MySpace, and text messaging. And both are heavy users of the Internet.
These are some of the findings from a recent Ipsos study that investigated the behaviors, lifestyles and habits of American and Canadian young adults ages 18-34, the emerging market of young consumers.
When asked about their leisure activity time, respondents in both countries reported nearly an identical amount of time spent on the Internet each week. Americans reported being “actively connected to the Internet” an average of 28 hours per week; Canadians reported being connected one hour less over the same time frame.
On a daily average, Americans in the age group watch about an hour more television per day than Canadians. On weekdays, Americans reported watching an average of 5.9 hours per day, Canadians watched 4.8 hours. On weekends, Americans watched an average of 5.5 hours, Canadians watched 4.6.
A marked cultural difference was noted in text messaging. Americans sent and received an average of 129.6 text messages per week, which is nearly double the Canadian average of 78.7 messages per week.
Both groups enjoy online social networking, but do so differently. Canadians in the age group are big on Facebook with 81% having registered a profile, compared to only 57% in the U.S. But Americans are more into MySpace – 54% have registered compared to 23% in Canada.
“What this is telling us is that young adults in North America are really plugged into their friends and technologies, but there are differences between Americans and Canadians in how and what they use,” said senior research manager Samantha McAra, in a statement. “There are opportunities here for marketers to reach out to the emerging market through these media, as long as they understand how they are being used and who is using them.”
The Ipsos study was conducted on-line between May 20 and June 3, 2009. A national sample of 1,069 U.S. adults and 1177 Canadian adults aged 18-34 answered this online survey. Weighting was then employed to balance demographics and ensure that the sample’s composition reflects that of the U.S. 18-34 year old population and the Canadian 18-34 year old population according to census data in both countries.
