The mobile world is evolving at a remarkable rate, and as a result it is important for advertisers to position themselves ahead of what is sure to become a media landscape dominated by the mobile user. The new whitepaper by Catalyst & groupM Next lends insight into the way the new mobile consumers is behaving in the Canadian market, and provides recommendations for a shift towards a more contextual type of thinking for advertisers.

1. Acting on the Evolution
of the
Canadian Smartphone User
March 2014
Authors:
Prabhakar Sundaram, Analytics Manager, GroupM Next
Jesse Wolfersberger, Director, Consumer Insights, GroupM Next
Matthew Jenkins, Marketing Coordinator, Catalyst Canada

2. The mobile revolution is complete –
55% of Canadians now own a
smartphone according to new
research from Catalyst, conducted
by GroupM Next.
For brands and marketers, the story of smartphone
growth is no longer about market penetration; it is about
where and how consumers use them.
A survey of 1,100 smartphone owners in Canada, both
English- and French-speaking, reveals the maturation
of smartphone behaviour in terms of the types of tasks
done in certain locations and their biggest frustrations
when using them.
Smartphones are used for all types of activities ranging
from low-involvement tasks, such as getting a quick look
at the weather or the score of a sports game, to using
Facebook or Twitter, to more involved activities such as
long-form content consumption, online transactions or
informative searches for high-involvement purchases.
What we’ve seen as a result of this research is the
emergence of three key browsing locations where
Canadians engage in these different tasks, all holding
equally important brand implications.
This research focuses on the three overarching locations –
“On the Go,” “At Home” and “At Work” – and the
specific activities aligning with these situations.
“Half of Canadian
smartphone owners
have owned one for at
least two years,
while 14% have owned
one for more than
five years”
The Three Smartphone Usage Locations
Smartphone Activities by Location
On the Go
• Social Media
• Weather
• Sports Scores
• Long-Form
Content Consumption
• Online Purchasing
• Information Search of
High Consideration
Purchases
• Email
• Stock Quotes
• Banking
At Home At Work
© Catalyst 2014
2Source: Catalyst Mobile Research

3. Perhaps the most complicated task in this list is finding
a new restaurant to try. Customers now have the
freedom to search for and retrieve information on the
go. This makes it more important than ever for a
marketer to have Web-based assets that are easily
found through a variety of different channels. This
goes beyond the restaurant industry alone to any
brand wanting to be in front of customers when
they are looking for related information.
If finding a restaurant is one of the top on-the-go
activities, certainly other task-oriented behaviours
could be as well – such as finding a store or a product.
Our research shows 70% of smartphone users have
used their smartphone to search for product-related
information while in a store. The significance of this
is evidenced in research conducted by Catalyst and
GroupM Next in 2013 (Retail Showrooming in Canada)
that shows Canadian shoppers would leave the store if
the in-store price was 10% higher than the price online.
Perhaps less expected is how often these consumers
search for product information in other places— 65%
while standing in line, 65% while eating and 60% during
commute. These are not simply generic searches
either; these are intent-driven, product-related searches
happening in locations most brands may not target.
Even beyond targeting these areas, brands need
to understand that as technology advances,
consumers will continue to demand more timely
and relevant communication.
When asked about the top frustrations users have with
on-the-go smartphone experiences, 26% indicated load
times, 23% mentioned bad mobile websites and 21%
indicated too much typing. This combines to 70% of
the frustration for people browsing on the go. Because
finding a new restaurant to try is the only commerce-
related task among the top five on-the-go activities,
the results also reveal that the restaurant industry
is the first to solve these common frustrations and
provide a positive, consistent user experience.
People who have owned a smartphone for two or
more years are 50% more likely to be frustrated by
a bad mobile website than people who have owned
a smartphone for less than two years. Smartphone
veterans have different expectations about what a
mobile experience should be, and are increasingly
frustrated when they have a bad one. This sentiment is
both a view of current smartphone veterans surveyed
for this research and a glimpse into the future of new
smartphone users. Today’s smartphone rookies will be
smartphone veterans in less than two years; therefore,
the importance of a seamless experience will be a
market-wide expectation in short order.
Top Smartphone Activities
While on the Go
% of consumers most often
using a smartphone to
accomplish these activities
Of those who use their
smartphone, % that do
it on the go
Get directions Find a new
restaurant to try
Check the weather Use Twitter Check score of
a sports game
53% 36% 55% 41% 39%81% 60% 40% 40% 36%
65% have used their smartphones
to search for product-related
information while standing in a line,
65% while eating and 60% during
their commute
On-the-go activities are done while traveling, shopping, eating,
or any other period without access to home or work computers. © Catalyst 2014
3Source: Catalyst Mobile Research

4. % of consumers most often
using a smartphone to
accomplish these activities
Look for a new car
Book a flight
Pay a bill
Purchase products
Shop for products
79%
74%
73%
67%
63%
6%
5%
10%
6%
8%
Top Smartphone Activities
While at Home
At home, most people use laptops or tablets to
accomplish particular tasks, as less than 10% of
smartphone owners use smartphones as their primary
Internet access device while at home. However, those
who do use a smartphone at home are doing complex,
time-consuming activities, such as shopping for a new
car or booking a flight. As the table above indicates,
when high-involvement activities are being done on a
smartphone, they are being done at home.
Taking a closer look at these activities, one can conclude
these are mostly high-involvement tasks requiring a
fairly significant time investment and search for content.
For a marketer, there are huge opportunities to reach
this audience, particularly through content development
and optimization of existing Web properties. Sixty
percent of consumers say the first thing they do when
hearing about a new brand is conduct a search.
Considering time at home is most likely to coincide with
watching television, it is vital to have mobile search
support during television flights and
major events.
Unfortunately for brands, this research shows that
searching on a smartphone is not easy. Thirty-three
percent of respondents are not satisfied with searches
for product prices, and among other unsatisfactory
experiences: 30% are not satisfied with searches for
product reviews, 29% for local business information
and 25% for product features. In comparison, only
9% of customers say searching for news and weather
information is unsatisfying. Overall, consumers are
about twice as unhappy with brand queries as general
information queries. On the other hand, 58% of
consumers say they recognize search ads they see on
their smartphone, and of those consumers, 50% say
a search ad has helped them find the information they
were looking for. The combination of frustrating search
experiences and helpful search ads should be a call
to arms for search marketers to maximize clarity
and convenience in their search efforts, and help
consumers find what they are looking for.
58% of consumers say they
recognize search ads they
see on their smartphone, and
of those consumers, 50% say
a search ad has helped them
find the information they
were looking for.
© Catalyst 2014
4Source: Catalyst Mobile Research
Of those who use their
smartphone, % that do it
while at home

5. Top Smartphone Activities
While at Work
% of consumers most often
using a smartphone to
accomplish these activities
Of those who use their
smartphone, % that
do it at work
For many, smartphones are a key secondary device
used at work to check on important day-to-day updates.
Of the activities smartphones are used for at work,
reading emails and checking stock quotes occupy the
top positions, with a combined one-fifth of the audience
using their smartphones for these activities.
It is also important to look at the way people use their
smartphones to access this type of information. Unlike
at-home activities for which people mostly use a mobile
Web browser, at-work activities tend to steer through
applications. Sixty-nine percent of smartphone users
utilize an app rather than a Web browser to read emails,
58% use an app to check stock quotes, 70% use apps
to check bank accounts and 86% use the app for
Facebook. However, reading news is almost equally split
between app and Web. The latter may be a result of the
variety of ways people can consume news and the lack
of apps for some news outlets.
Checking real estate prices can be a daily activity when
searching for a new home, which makes it an ideal
use for an app. Consider Zillow, the U.S.-based online
real estate company which has thrived on placing an
emphasis on its mobile apps. Home owners spent more
than 5 billion minutes on Zillow’s apps and viewed
homes more than 2.5 billion times – up 150% from
2012. Zillow’s mobile traffic is twice the size of Trulia
and four times the size of Realtor.com due to its
investment in mobile apps, and its stock was up
nearly 200% in 2013 alone.
As a marketer, it is important to understand the user
experience driving the decision between using an app
versus a Web browser. For example, looking at the
finance-specific activity of checking bank accounts,
49% of respondents say they use an app because
of the ease of navigation compared to 29% who
consider mobile Web browsers to be easy to
navigate. Understanding smartphone usage factors
becomes important for marketers because it provides
the brand more opportunities and ways to engage
with their audience.
Also, looking specifically at apps, it becomes important
to understand the factors persuading people to
download or uninstall an app. “Being featured in the
app store” and “word-of-mouth” are the top factors
persuading smartphone users to download an app.
Looking at the reason behind an app being uninstalled,
half of smartphone users indicate the primary reason
being they don’t actually use the app anymore, followed
by 18% indicating poor functionality.
“Being featured in the app store”
and “Word-of-mouth” are the top
factors persuading smartphone
users to download an app.
Source: Catalyst Mobile Research 5
© Catalyst 2014
Read emails Check stock quotes Write emails Read the news Check bank accounts
30% 22% 16% 22% 23%21% 21% 15% 14% 12%

6. Successfully Connecting through the
Smartphone Experience
Smartphone usage has revolutionized how people
interact with brands and businesses. While what people
do on a smartphone and where they do it varies, for a
marketer, it all drills down to the mobile usage experience
of a consumer. When examining where people use their
smartphones, it becomes clear that location greatly
influences the type of task the consumers complete.
On-the-go smartphone activities need to be quick
and frictionless; while activities at home are slower,
more time-consuming tasks requiring in-depth, easily-
consumable content. At-work smartphone activities are
habitual and app-related. Knowing these tendencies can
help brands tailor mobile experiences to the consumer.
Brands and marketers cannot rest easy
until they validate their presence in all
forms of mobile media where consumers
look for information, and finding that
information becomes as easy as finding
tomorrow’s weather forecast.
Contact:
Kalin Kotzev
Digital Technologies Manager
kalin.kotzev@catalyst.ca
416-342-6698
With offices in Toronto and Montreal, Catalyst Canada (www.catalyst.ca) is the largest and most versatile provider of search marketing services in Canada,
providing paid and organic search, digital asset optimization, social media optimization and community management, and content strategy.
Catalyst, a pioneer in developing strategic digital marketing services since 1998, is renowned for search marketing excellence in servicing fortune 1000 brands.
With Canadian Headquarters in Toronto and offices in Montreal, Boston, New York, Chicago, and Seattle, our clients span B2B and B2C verticals, and cover
multiple industries. At Catalyst, we pride ourselves on being THE Search Innovator of the industry. Our service offerings include: search engine optimization (SEO),
paid search marketing, Social SEO, content strategy, digital asset optimization, mobile search, e-retail optimization, local search optimization, global search,
competitive reporting, and more. For more information about Catalyst, please visit the company’s website at www.catalyst.ca