European Affluents feeling confident financially and increasingly relying on digital media for information and entertainment.

In a recent study carried out by our US colleagues, we found that the Affluent – those living in the top 20% of households measured by income – were more insulated from economic downturns and faster to rebound than the rest of the population. They are, in other words, going to be a key target for advertisers once we emerge from lockdown and return to more normal times.

Here in Europe, data collected during lockdown found that six out of ten Affluents agreed that they still felt financially secure and will be in a strong position to weather the storm. As the most frequent flyers in the population, our survey also found that the majority (62%) of Affluents expected to fly again in the year ahead.

Like everybody, the Affluent have been consuming more media during lockdown. In our continuous survey of Affluent consumers in Europe#, we examined data collected between the end of February and the end of May in 21 countries.

For example, when compared with 2019, the average amount of time spent watching TV each day went up by 13%.

TV streaming and subscription services (such as Netflix, Disney+ and Apple TV) saw their daily Affluent audience grow by 24%. More Affluent were also watching TV catch-up services (+8.4%) and internet TV content (+ 14%) than were viewing in 2019.

In contrast, listening to the radio the traditional way, i.e. not online, declined 19% during the lockdown. But on the positive side, there has been a definite move towards listening to radio online. Online listening grew by 14%, with a quarter of all Affluents listening daily. Podcast listening was also up - one in ten listened to a podcast on any given day, which means a collective audience of 5.5 million Affluents across Europe.

Overall reading levels for print declined. On a typical day, the number of Affluents reading newspapers in print shrank by a fifth during the lockdown. Readership of printed magazines declined by 27%. But as with radio, there has been a definite move online for reading newspaper and magazines. Affluents spent around 21 minutes a day reading newspapers/magazines in digital format.

Gaming was up by a fifth during the pandemic crisis. And this seems set to continue; one in ten European Affluents is planning to buy a games console in the next 12 months.

# Now in its 25th year, the Ipsos Affluent Europe survey is published annually. The ‘lockdown’ data in this study was collected between end of February and end of May 2020 in 21 European countries from a total of 11,136 individuals. Universe size: 52,872. Please reference as: Ipsos Affluent Europe survey