• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, May 14, 2008

Scarborough Research has identified the nation's most digital-savvy cities. The national survey identified 18 different high-tech consumer behaviors and purchasing patterns; it segmented the population based on the propensity to engage in these behaviors, identifying a cohort of just 6% as "digital-savvy" consumers.

This, in turn, allowed the company to identify the most digital-savvy cities, meaning the cities with the highest concentration of such consumers.

Leading the way were Austin, Texas, Las Vegas, Nevada, and Sacramento and San Diego in California. All four cities had a higher-than average concentration of digital-savvy consumers: 12% in Austin and 10% each in the other three cities. That compares with 9% in Washington, D.C., 8% in New York City and 7% in Los Angeles. Farther down the totem pole were Charleston and Wichita, at 3% each, and Green Bay, Michigan, with a lowly 1%.

The 18 consumer behaviors and patterns observed by Scarborough fell into three main categories: items owned by the household, including PDAs, DVRs, satellite radio subscriptions, voiceover IP (VoIP), MP3 players and HDTV sets; ways of using the Internet, including online banking and bill payment, reading or contributing to blogs, gaming, IM-ing, downloading podcasts, listening to audio, and watching online video; and cell-phone features used, including downloading ringtones, using mobile email, messaging, streaming video, and other Internet features.

One of the correlated characteristics of digital-savvy consumers identified by Scarborough is their interest in luxury consumption.

According to findings, they are 56% more likely than average to own or lease a luxury vehicle; 175% more likely to spend over $500 on business clothing in the past year; and 49% more likely to own a second home. Fifty-four percent of the cohort spent over $500 online during the past year, with 35% spending over $1,000.