• by Erik Sass , Staff Writer @eriksass1, October 21, 2011

Stop the presses!  It turns out mall-goers are disproportionately young and female -- or at least, the audience for mall-based digital out-of-home video networks is. That’s according to Nielsen’s Fourth Screen Network Audience Report, covering the second quarter of 2011, which measured audiences for three mall video ad networks in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Boston.

In the 18+ audience demo, mall video networks had a higher percentage of female viewers than any other location-based video ad network, at 57%. Meanwhile 55% of mall video ad network viewers fell within the 18-34 age range, with one out of five viewers in the 12-17 age range.

In keeping with their youthful profile, the audience for mall-based video ad networks is also more likely than members of the general population to watch video clips on a mobile device; plan on buying a smartphone in the next 12 months; have watched or downloaded movies on the Internet in the past 30 days; and have engaged in volunteer work in the past 12 months.

The audience for mall video networks is also more likely to spend money on big-ticket items, perhaps reflecting the presence of some well-heeled older adults in the mix. For example, Nielsen found that mall network viewers are more likely than average to plan on paying more than $30,000 for a new vehicle in the next 12 months; to have taken 10 or more domestic round-trip flights in the past 12 months; and have spent more than $1,000 online in the past 12 months.

While mall video network viewers in all four cities over-indexed across the board on all these measures, it’s interesting to note some regional variations. For example, while mall network viewers in LA scored a mobile video viewing index of 114, in Chicago they scored 140 and Boston 143. Meanwhile LA mall network viewers led the pack in online movie viewing, with an index of 126, compared to 120 for Boston, 115 for New York, and 105 for Chicago.

Nielsen On Location senior vice-president Paul Lindstrom noted: “Malls represent a shopper’s dream come true, and they might offer the same for advertisers. Not only is their audience unique from other location-based networks but also they are more likely to spend and engage across the board outside of the mall.”