• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, May 15, 2007

Road Warriors Accumulate Tech Toys

Scarborough Research, in a recent report analysis, finds that people who spend the most time on the road are more tech savvy than the average consumer,  have a wide variety of personal and household technologies, and value portability. They are 17 percent more likely than the average consumer to have a cell phone, 40 percent more likely to have a PDA in their household, and 21 percent more likely to have an MP3 player in their household.

This consumer group also has a wide variety of home entertainment technologies:  

• They are 23 percent more likely to have HDTV
• 15 percent more likely to have a DVD player
• 20 percent more likely to have purchased 10 or more DVDs during the past year
• 23 percent more likely to have a video game system in their household,
• 13 percent more likely to have a digital video recorder such as TiVo

The country's top road travelers are 48 percent more likely than the average consumer to have spent $1,000 or more online during the past year

• 17 percent more likely to have broadband
• 28 percent more likely to have spent 20 hours or more online weekly

The Top Road Travelers:

• Are more affluent (35 percent more likely to have an annual household income of $100,000+)
• Own more expensive homes (11 percent more likely to have a home with a market value of $500k plus),
• Are more educated (20 percent more likely to have a college degree or advanced degree).

"Top Road Travelers" is defined as the 20% of US adults who traveled the most miles "in a car, van, truck, or bus either as a driver or passenger" in the past 7 days.

"This analysis demonstrates a very simple but compelling point: the more time consumers spend on the road, the more likely they are to have the latest media and information technology devices-- MP3 players, DVRs, PDAs, and HDTV," said Carol Edwards, vice president, Out-Of-Home Media Services, Scarborough Research and Arbitron Inc. "Apple made this connection when they launched the now-iconic iPod campaign, of which out-of-home media was a key component. The research suggests that other personal and entertainment technology brands could benefit from the medium." 

Top Road Travelers Tech Habits and Demographics
Category	Index for Top Road Travelers
Spent $1,000+ online, past year	148 (eg: Top Road Travelers are 48% more likely than the average consumer to have spent $1,000+ online during the past year)
PDA*	140
Annual household income $100,000+	135
Spend 20+ hours online weekly	128
Video Game System*	123
HDTV*	123
MP3*	121
College degree or more	120
Purchased 10+ DVDs past year*	120
Broadband connection at home	117
Cellular/Wireless Phone Subscription	117
DVD Player*	115
DVR* (such as TiVo)	113
Home value $500,000+	111
* Household measurements
Source: Scarborough Research, May 2007

For more information, please visit Scarborough here.