The rise of the empowered consumer: - Consumers have more choice due to technology and can filter out irrelevant messages. - They constantly demand more and express dissatisfaction quickly. - Marketers are challenged to embrace this consumer empowerment through honest and relevant messaging across devices, transparency, and bringing digital strategies to scale.

1. The rise of the
empowered consumer
How consumers are becoming
more powerful and what to do
about it?
April 2012
Source: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-
8A6t3KbfgWA/T1oI8UG1c4I/AAAAAAAAFEc/4a73b7jmCN0/s1600/shopping.jpg

2. In essence, there are 3 key Empowered consumer
by MediaCom Lithuania, Apr 2012
factors that are challenging
marketers in 2012:
1. Because of technology,
consumers have more choice
and are fragmented, thus
traditional media is less
powerful
2. Consumers have the
opportunity to filter out
irrelevant messages
3. Consumers will constantly
demand more and express
dissatisfaction quickly when
they don’t get what they want Picture retrieved from MediaCom image library
2

3. Empowered consumer
by MediaCom Lithuania, Apr 2012
Consumption has been a way to
display social status for long time.
What’s the mechanism nowadays?
3

4. Status updates Empowered consumer
by MediaCom Lithuania, Apr 2012
Things you own or do can communicate
person’s status (preferably – rising).
• Traditional boundaries of social
classes are fading – instead
people are searching for new
reference groups, which results in
more fragmented crowds
• There is a huge shift from physical
status symbols to digital ones
• Smartphones enable to instantly
show of one’s consumption to the
whole digital society
• As a result, the platforms and
tools that help the possessions
look perfect online are very
popular
4

5. Status updates (cont’d) Empowered consumer
by MediaCom Lithuania, Apr 2012
Advertising industry needs to embrace this
new need to communicate status.
Source: http://www.glamour.com/sex-love-
life/blogs/smitten/2012/02/27/0227-man-on-laptop-sm.jpg
• Every piece of information (on signs, ads, products, buildings, etc.) might be
linked to further content via QR codes, augmented reality, Apps, etc.
• Social platforms, especially Facebook, have become a diary of status
symbols – all content, relevant to the person, can be gathered by like button
• People can integrate themselves into campaigns or imaginary brand sphere
• Online it is easy to position a product/brand as a person, and when people
start perceiving brands as live personalities, with character, empathy, and
even flaws, those brands who will manage to give the meaning, support,
and foster the community will be much appreciated and trusted.
5

6. Empowered consumer
by MediaCom Lithuania, Apr 2012
The digital revolution is not only for
young people - the changes of
media consumption are present
across all demographic groups.
6

7. Changing media habits Empowered consumer
by MediaCom Lithuania, Apr 2012
Some facts from US market:
Smartphones • Older and female audience are the
fastest growing segments of digital
users
• Smartphone penetration will reach
Multi-tasking 44% of mobile users in 2012
• Around 75% of TV viewers are now
multi-tasking while watching it
• Video-on-demand consumption will
Digital usage reach 71% of internet users in 2012
Of course, it will take a while until we see such numbers in
Lithuanian market; however, the trend is clear: messages are not
longer split by media type, but by the form: video, audio, text, and
image. The best way is to put the consumer at the center of your
strategy and build communications around them: the choice of
channels should be a secondary focus.
7

8. Empowered consumer
Internet statistics in by MediaCom Lithuania, Apr 2012
Lithuania
% of age group using internet
The usage of internet has been growing
rapidly for several years. Basically all 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
100
people aged 15-29 use it. In age segment 99
of 50-59 more than half of people are using 99 9394
80
internet, while the usage in 60-74 group is 8081
74
60
even 22%, according to the most recent
56
data. The device ownership percentage 40 52
45
also follows the same upward trend over
the years. Mobile internet is still quite new 20
22
17
and mostly popular among people under 0
40; however, mobile internet usage will 15 - 19 20 - 29 30 - 39 40 - 49 50 - 59 60 - 74
expand severely in the near future. Data Source: TNS LT, Galileo
% of age group who use mobile internet in 2012 % of age group having a PC, laptop, or tablet
2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
100 100
9495 92
80 80 87 8483
78
60 52% 60 70
42% 59
53
40 40
22%
14% 20 31
20 25
6%
2%
0 0
15 - 19 20 - 29 30 - 39 40 - 49 50 - 59 60 - 74 15 - 19 20 - 29 30 - 39 40 - 49 50 - 59 60 - 74
Data Source: TNS LT, Galileo
Data Source: TNS LT, Galileo
8

9. Empowered consumer
TV-on-demand & social by MediaCom Lithuania, Apr 2012
media in Lithuania
Male Female
• Online TV platforms are becoming more and more
popular as people appreciate the possibility to Sex 43,3 56,7
watch good quality broadcasting, less add-
0% 25% 50% 75% 100%
cluttered TV programs when it’s convenient for
them
A7-14 A15-24 A25-34
• Advertising in online TV platforms can generate
A35-44 A45-54 A55+
lots of clicks and high reach in a short period of
time. For example, currently the most popular TV3 Age 17,1 30,4 21,3 15,9 10,2 5,2
Play website had 327,000 unique monthly visitors
(Dec 2011 – Feb 2012) 0% 25% 50% 75% 100%
• The demographic break-down shows that 31,3% of
all TV3 Play viewers are older than 35
Village Town City 3 biggest cities (Vilnius, Kaunas, Klaipėda)
Area 10,1 9,8 35,2 45,1
0% 25%
Period: Oct 2011 – Jan 2012, TV3
50% 75% 100%
9

10. Facebook statistics in Lithuania Empowered consumer
by MediaCom Lithuania, Apr 2012
• Total Facebook users (2012 04): 1,047,820
• Penetration of population is 32% and penetration of the online population – 48% (similar to the
European average);
• 51% of users are younger than 25 years old. However, 21% of all users are older than 35, and 9% are
older than 45
Users by gender Users by age
1%
6% 2% 9% 13-15
9% 16-17
12%
18-24
male
46% 25-34
54% 35-44
female
45-54
28% 33%
55-64
65+
Source: Socialbrakers Source: Socialbakers
# TOP Pages Fans PTA* # TOP Brands Fans PTA*
1. Radijo stotis M-1 183,692 12,148 1. Charlie Pizza 122,784 4,745
2. Lietuva 164,076 1,355 2. Grupinis.lt 109,346 2,566
3. Lietuviška muzika! 139,870 1,178 3. Vulcan.lt 83,251 568
4. Dienos anekdotas :) 137,536 12,478 4. Pigu.lt maunasi kelnes 82,371 1,586
5. Official Robert Burneika 127,705 10,478 5. Celerauto 75,852 27,990
6. Charlie Pizza 122,784 4,745 6. Ežys 70,497 530
Pirk.lt - Spalvingam
7. Grupinis.lt 109,346 2,566 7. gyvenimui 70,466 1,497
8. Linas Kleiza 99,078 1,229 8. Omnitel 62,088 782
9. Vulcan.lt 83,251 568 9. Bacardi 55,637 0
10. Pigu.lt maunasi kelnes 82,371 1,586 10. auto.plius.lt 51,670 337
*PTA – People talking about

11. Empowered consumer
by MediaCom Lithuania, Apr 2012
“My internet does not look the same
way yours does” – how to use it for
your products?
11

12. The filters which form the Empowered consumer
by MediaCom Lithuania, Apr 2012
internet for each of us:
Social network timeline might be the
1st layer
toughest spam filter that exists. You can
“unsubscribe”, “hide”, “uncircle” the posts
or persons you are not interested in or find
them annoying
“The filter
Ability to organize your contacts into
certain lists creates the hierarchies of
bubble”*
2nd layer
relevance: the content posted by “best
friends” might get very different attention
than by “opinion leaders” or “old
It is important to work
classmates” your way around those
filters in order to keep
Google and other search engines show
your message “in the
3rd layer
subjective search results that are bubble”
produced by algorithms with each users
search and browsing history, social media
profiles, etc.
*named as such by Eli Parisen
12

13. Digital persuasion Empowered consumer
by MediaCom Lithuania, Apr 2012
Persuasion profiles - traditional sales psychology,
updated for the digital age:
• Based on an understanding of our Reciprocity (connection)
psychology rather than the
relevance of a previously purchased
or viewed item. Scarcity
• A step beyond online behavioral
targeting in that they detail not what
we have been looking at but rather Authority
what messages we are likely to
respond to.
• There are numerous ways in which Commitment & consistency
these traditional sales techniques
can be applied in e-commerce for
each customer individually: small Consensus
gifts (reciprocity), wishlist
(commitment), best-seller tags
Liking
(consensus), etc.
13

14. Empowered consumer
by MediaCom Lithuania, Apr 2012
In short, advertisers who want to
embrace all the changes that come
with the empowerment of
consumers, should:
14

15. 6 essential actions for Empowered consumer
by MediaCom Lithuania, Apr 2012
advertisers
1. Be honest and talk 2. Deliver relevant
to the consumers messages
4. Be transparent and
3. Device a device-
respect the
neutral strategy
consumer’s data
6. Think about how to
5. Love mobile bring scale to digital
empowerement
15

16. Credits Empowered consumer
by MediaCom Lithuania, Apr 2012
For more detailed information and full articles please take a
look at the MediaCom’s media industry magazine Blink,
published quarterly, and recent White paper, summarizing
MediaCom’s webcasts:
Blink, #4 2011
(http://www.mediacom.com/en/news--
insights/blink/issues/edition-4-2011.aspx)
The Insider, the White paper
(http://www.mediacom.com/media/2200734/
white_paper_4_empowered_consumer.pdf)
16

17. Empowered consumer
by MediaCom Lithuania, Apr 2012
Good luck!
Prepared by Agnė Pranulytė
Research developer at MediaCom
E-mail: agne@mediacom.lt
Office: +370-5-260-8463
Fax: +370-5-260-8247
UAB Trendmark,
Islandijos g. 1/Vilniaus g. 31,
LT-01401 Vilnius, Lithuania
@Facebook: MediaCom Lithuania
www.mediacom.com
Photo by Justina Palinavičiūtė
17