Hulu Knows the Secret of Digital Fluency

If there is one longstanding bias that permeates the media industry, it is that older adults are techno-phobic. We’ve written long analyses as to why that is not so but the overall prejudice still exists … until now. Hulu has just released the second phase of a study that examines digital fluency by consumer segmentation that transcends age.  

What Hulu has found, according to Julie DeTraglia, Hulu’s Head of Research, is that the actual enjoyment of technology is a better indicator of digital fluency than age. She defines digital fluency as, “comfort with technology and a willingness to interact that way with all types of categories and brands.”

The Journey to Understanding

“We really didn’t set out to do this specific type of study,” she explained. Previously, “we did a generational study where we concentrated on the differences in television behavior between Gen X, Gen Y and Gen Z,” and saw differences in television behavior. The intent was to simply do a follow-up to that study, folding in other types of behaviors across other categories, attitudes towards advertising and brand relationships. But, “as we started brainstorming, we realized that it is not just Gen Z that has changed. Everybody has changed,” and this change has occurred across all generations.

What she found was that people of all ages changed behaviors and attitudes, becoming more digitally fluent as opportunities for convenience became available. Her example was Uber; “We were taught from childhood never to get into a car with a stranger. But now we are doing it all the time,” she noted, because of the convenience of on-demand car service.

The Big Takeaway

“So we tried to understand what that journey is and how people identified themselves and the identity they had around technology,” she stated. That study was released last year at Advertising Week. Hulu studied digital behavior and identity and found that the consumer spectrum was segmented in a way that age was essentially a non-issue. According to DeTraglia, “The one thing that moves people across the spectrum is the enjoyment, happiness and inspiration they get from technology,” and this parses out relatively equally across age ranges.

“The more digitally fluent people use technology often and derive a lot of happiness with their digital connections,” she explained, “People in the middle use technology to make their lives easier but they are not necessarily getting joy from it. Then there are those people who we call minimalists who use technology because it’s the way they can get things done, but they don’t really love it.” But, “one of our biggest insights was that age is not a factor,” she confided. Just as many young people as older described themselves as minimalists on the digital spectrum - 19% of Gen Z compared to 16% of Boomers. But why?

“It could be that Gen Z is interpreting the questions differently than older generations,” she posited. “Or maybe they are just a little more overwhelmed by it,” since they are so immersed, for example, in social media that is ‘on’ all the time.

In the second phase of the study, just released in time for this year’s Advertising Week, segmentations were created around motivations and behaviors and “that is where we saw the segmentations flatten out a bit. Most people define themselves a somewhere in the middle, but when you do a segmentation, there were just about equal percentages of all of the segments,” from low to high. DeTraglia noted that technology prompts behavioral change. Take for example streaming video. One might start in the living room, then move into the bedroom and then onto a computer or tablet. Once content becomes available on smart TV’s Hulu saw that consumers transitioned back to the living room.  That then leads to more comfort with technology and can lead to transactions and shopping.

Conclusions

What DeTraglia saw in this brand study phase, was that advertisers should adjust their creative so there is differentiation between the digital fluency segments. “It is no longer one-size-fits-all,” she explained. “Truly digitally fluent people should get different ads,” according to the viewing environment and platform.

“Hulu has worked hard to come up with ad products that can work in different ways, depending on what your needs are. For those who are more digitally fluent, they want messaging that is more personalized. They want to interact with the creative. They want more personal connection and control and relevance,” whereas other less fluent groups just want to be informed with messaging that remains clear. Advertisers, take note.