• Mediaweek, Wednesday, September 3, 2008 10:30 AM

A new study from Ipsos Mendelsohn finds that as the rich get richer, they surf the Web more. Affluents, defined as those who earn more than $100,000 per year, are "highly wired" Mediaweek says, with almost all owning and using a desktop, laptop and cell phone, according to the survey. The group represents about 20% of U.S. households and goes online an average of 26 times per week using a computer, and 17.6 times via mobile devices.

In all, affluents spend 23.4 hours per week online, but that figure rises to 27.4 hours among those who earn more than $250,000 per year. The difference between the rich and the super-rich is even more defined in mobile device usage. Whereas 40% of affluents use hand-held devices to access the Web, that figure rises to 57% of those earnings $250,000 or more.

Ipsos President Bob Shullman tells Mediaweek the findings could have a particularly big impact on luxury goods advertisers interested in mobile marketing. "If you want to experiment (with mobile,) they should probably be doing it much more in the affluent space, because these people are already doing it," Shullman said. "These people are much higher up the learning curve."

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