Media in Mind survey conducted by IPG Mediabrands: Signs of ‘time-efficiency’ fatigue?!

Tokyo – 3rd February 2025

IPG Mediabrands Japan (CEO & Country Manager: Matt Ware, Headquarter: Minato-ku, Tokyo), the global media group of the Interpublic Group (IPG), has conducted “Media in Mind™: 2024 Survey” with Japanese 2,400 respondents between the ages of 15 and 74. The purpose of this survey is to uncover people’s usage behavior and attitudes towards media.

The Media in Mind™ Media Survey is IPG Mediabrands’ proprietary consumer survey that has been conducted annually since 2005. Evolutions in technology, communication, and people’s living environment, such as the emergence of various new digital devices, the widespread penetration of social media, and acceleration of digital transformation (DX) due to the Covid pandemic have greatly affected people’s media contact behavior and attitudes. The Media in Mind™ survey tracks the changes in people’s media usage annually from a fixed-point perspective. In the 2024 survey, it focused on gathering data to analyze consumer attitudes and behavioral changes following two years post-Covid pandemic.

Key findings from the survey are as follows:

1. No change but a slight drop in adoption rate of remote work/online-classes (more than once a month) from 24% (2023 Nov) to 23% (2024 Nov), establishing new ways of working for a certain segment.

Although adoption rate of working remotely and taking online-classes more than once a month was 24% in 2024. Although this indicates a 5 point drop from two years ago, it remained almost the same from last year, suggesting new ways of working has been established.

2. Decline in everyday behaviors people used to spend money/time on; yet same level maintained as the previous year for “Oshi-katsu”.

Compared to the previous year, people are now spending less time on everyday behaviors they used to. During the Covid pandemic, people had more time to spare for “sleep”, “cooking/housework” and “medical/health” but these in particular have all decreased. As for “Medical/health”, this has decreased as people’s lifestyles and health consciousness are now returning back to the pre-Covid levels. On the other hand, video streaming services and “Oshi-katsu” remain the same as last year.

People are also now spending less money on most of their everyday behaviors as well. In particular, drop in food-related and medical/health-related spend stand out. These could be impacted by people’s money-saving mindset stemming from rise in living cost, as well as due to the Covid pandemic starting to settle down. Yet, money spent for “Oshi-katsu” and “Event participation” remains the same as last year; the same trend for how people continue to spend time. It can be suggested that “Oshi-katsu” boom will likely continue as physical events have started to pick up together with the hybrid style of online-events, which make it easier for people to root for their “Oshi”.

3. Decline in the perception “Face-to-face communication is important”. This could be the result of no longer being restricted to face-to-face interactions.

In terms of perception, a decline was also observed for several items. Among these, “Face-to-face communication is important” has declined significantly from 75% (2022) to 66% (2024), a 9 point drop in the past 2 years. During the Covid pandemic, the more face-to-face communication was restricted, the more its importance was felt. However, now that the restrictions have been lifted, and with remote work and online classes becoming the norm, fewer people are recognizing the value of face-to-face interactions.

4. Decline in the perception “Want to use time as efficiently as possible”. Signs of “time-efficiency fatigue”?!

The perception related to time efficiency, “the desire to use time as efficiently as possible” has decreased from 71% (2022) to 62% (2024), a 9 point drop over the past 2 years. While remote work and online classes allowed for significant time efficiency by reducing commuting time, the decrease of this perception compared to 2 years ago may be due to the reduction in the adoption rate of remote work and online classes. However, when comparing to a year ago, as mentioned earlier, while the adoption rate of remote work and classes has remained almost unchanged, the perception of time efficiency has declined by 4 points. This suggests that the decline is not solely due to the decrease in physical remote work and classes, but rather that people have been chasing time efficiency which may have led to “time efficiency fatigue”.

These changes indicate a shift in lifestyles and values after the Covid pandemic. We must continue to closely monitor changes in consumer perception and behaviors and take appropriate measures.

Survey period: Nov 29th-Dec 2nd, 2024

Survey method: Internet survey

Survey conducted by: McCann Erickson Japan Inc./IPG Mediabrands Japan

Survey respondents: 2,400 internet users aged 15-74 living in Kanto and Kansai regions

Survey monitor provider: Cross Marketing Inc.

IPG Mediabrands in Japan is the Japanese office of IPG Mediabrands, established as the global media group of the Interpublic Group (NYSE: IPG) consisting of advertising companies such as McCann Erickson. Today, IPG Mediabrands has over 18,000 marketing communication experts in over 130 countries worldwide and operates a media investment amount of more than $47B. In addition to full service agencies UM, Initiative, Mediahub, the company also owns specialized business units such as MAGNA, KINESSO, ORION Holdings, Mediabrands Content Studio, and IPG Media Lab. In Japan, IPG Mediabrands has been the only foreign media group that offers both media planning and buying for its clients since the founding of McCann Erickson Hakuhodo (currently McCann Erickson) in December 1960.