Britain on The Move

Britain on the Move; a study into the experience of how the everyday journey can help advertisers to target their messages more sharply.

Routine journeys people make every day are often overlooked or dismissed as wasted time between the many other events that make up the day. Yet these journeys are experiences in their own right. Overlooking their importance in peoples' lives is a mistake, and for advertisers, a wasted opportunity. Working with the Future Foundation, CBS Outdoor developed a methodology that gathered existing data and then used primary quantitative research of over 1,800 British consumers. The result is an extremely valuable insight into travel trends, travel patterns and perceptions on journey experiences in Britain today.

Research findings

Travel trends

• From the IPA Touchpoints Hub Survey, we know that the amount of time spent outdoors has increased by 50% over the last decade.
  
• Women as a proportion of all managers, has increased threefold between 1995 and 2005. Now occupying a third of all management positions, such women have high disposable incomes and travel for longer than ever. Clearly a very attractive audience to advertisers who can be reached effectively whilst on the move.

Travel patterns

• The average British adult spends more than 80 minutes per day travelling
  
• The average Londoner travels for over 100 minutes per day
  
• Managers and other professional occupations average 96 minutes per day

The experience of travel

• Tube users overwhelmingly feel calm when travelling 
  
• The purpose of your journey and who you are travelling with has the greatest impact on your emotional state

Technology on the move

• 21% of the population agreed that “electronic gadgets such as mobile phones, PDAs  and laptops have made my journey to work more productive”
  
• The contribution to the UK economy made by people working when they are travelling amounts to a staggering £9 billion per annum

The environment and travel

• Consumers nearly always choose to use public transport due to practicalities rather than as a moral statement. However advertisers should be interested that public transport users still feel proud of their environmental credentials and advertisers can use this to their advantage. 
  
• Young people are 29% more likely than average adult to believe travelling by public transport is more environmentally friendly than by cars. A positive story for the future of public transport usage.

Segmentation of traveller types

• It will surprise no-one that attitudes to travel in Britain are fragmented and the Britain on the Move study segmented travellers into 5 distinct clusters. 
  
• One such group namely “Eco cultural capitalists” are heavy public transport users. They are well off and tend to live in metropolitan areas – thus owning new technology and are exposed to more media. They also read more than the average Briton and have learnt how to fill their journey time on public transport productively. If this “me time” was taken away from them, they would undoubtedly miss it.

The uniqueness of everyday journeys

• 50% of 16-34 year olds expect to be entertained when they are travelling.
  
• The end of ‘dead time’ is a key finding from this study. Travelling for leisure, household management and commuting will increasingly be filled with entertainment and messages. The nature of travel, both in terms of variety and experience, elevates journeys to significant events in their own right.