Report

NPR and EDISON RESEARCH have released new research from the Smart Audio Report 2018 that indicates that "smart speaker" owners are beginning to show distinct characteristics as the devices become mainstream.

In the SPRING 2018 edition, the report shows that while "first adopters" use the devices in more sophisticated ways, like for home security and controlling other devices, newer users (the “early mainstream”) use the devices for a wider range of activities like to order food, make calls, get traffic reports, do shopping, and help free up family and social time, with 38% hoping to reduce screen time with phones and tablets, 47% using smart speakers with other members of their household most of the time, and 33% with children in the home saying they talk to their smart speaker during mealtime. Among "early mainstream" users, 29% said time spent with smart speakers is replacing time spent with TV, and 28% listened to a podcast in the last week.

Other research results showed that 81% of smart speaker owners are open to using skills from brands. In addition, the respondents preferred host-read spots on podcasts, product endorsements, and public radio underwriting announcements over other advertising formats. And 37% of all smart speaker owners listened to at least two hours of news on their devices in the previous week, a significant development in that 73% said "news and current affairs" is the spoken-word topic they would be most interested in listening to on a smart speaker.



“Voice-activated tools have become part of our daily lives and are bringing dramatic changes to consumer behavior,” said NPR CMO MEG GOLDTHWAITE. “As the research shows, smart speaker owners are turning off their TVs and closing down their laptops to spend more time listening to news, music, podcasts and books -- fueling the demand for more audio content.”

“As people build daily habits with their smart speakers, there is an opportunity for brands to be a part of people’s routines in an entirely new way,” said NPR sales subsidiary NATIONAL PUBLIC MEDIA President/CEO GINA GARRUBBO. “We are thrilled to be working with forward-looking brands to experiment in this new space, and data from the Smart Audio Report continues to inform us, our sponsors and the industry as best practices for user-centered experiences on smart speakers emerge.”

“In homes that have had smart speakers for at least a year, they are now the number one device for consuming audio. This has profound ramifications for anyone in media and advertising. For millions of Americans, smart speakers are truly the new radio,” said EDISON RESEARCH SVP TOM WEBSTER.



Find out more at npr.org/smartaudio.

« see more Net News