Where are the most concentrated areas of digitally-savvy consumers in the US (that is, owning PDAs, DVRs, MP3 players and HDTVs, and using VoIP, blogs, mobile video, e-mail and text messaging)?

San Francisco, right?

No, no… Boston?

Ehm… anywhere with ridiculous real estate prices and office buildings overflowing with iPhones and geeky pretension?

Nope. According to a recent study by Scarborough Research: Austin.
(My social media guru/pal Paul would be so proud.)

Rounding out the top ten… Las Vegas, Sacramento, San Diego, Washington, Seattle, Phoenix, Chicago, New York and San Francisco.

According to the AdAge analysis of the study, the standard “digitally savvy” profile highlights male, 25-34, self-employed, affluent, physically active, sports fans, heavy international travelers.

With those traits catalogued, the top ten starts to make a bit more sense; but even when you take into account that they’re measuring concentration, not raw numbers, I’m still surprised that San Fran is so low… and that Boston didn’t even make the cut.

Wonder if they conducted the survey during SXSW…

[tags]The Web Outside, AdAge, Scarborough Research, Digitally Savvy Survey, Consumer Studies, Technology, Behavioral Study[tags]

I’ve been poking around for a tag cloud widget to toss in my sidebar for a while now, and finally found one with a quick and easy set-up and a smooth config into WordPress. Hello, Quintura!

They’re still in beta, but everything seems to be working well thus far. It’s not the slickest site ever, but it works seamlessly and delivers what it promises. Try out the search feature in The Web Outside cloud… There seems to be an intermittent bug which truncates the search field to one character, but a page refresh typically squashes it. No complaints for a beta. Thanks, guys.

[tags]The Web Outside, LocaModa, tag cloud, Quintura, WordPress, widgets, sidebar[/tags]

Thanks to Read/Write/Web, I found a cool new tool today called Trendpedia. Although it’s engaging enough just to play around with using brand names, authors, political candidates, whatever… I chose to compare digital signage and cell phones (I know… so entirely predictable).

Trendpedia is well done as it stands, but I’d love to see a function that allows me to explore points over overlap… The “blogospheric intersection,” if you will… (no? ok.) Otherwise, it’s pretty much just a nicely packaged Zeitgeist app (which, don’t get me wrong, is still extremely cool).

From the chart, it looks like digital signage could stand a bloggy boost from cell phones… Although this clearly must be taken in a broad sense (I promise that I won’t try to spew “mobile interactivity” all over a simple pie chart), it’s a nice visual conclusion that I certainly won’t argue with.

Check out the goods:

[tags]The Web Outside, cell phones, digital signage, Trendpedia, Read/Write/Web, beta releases, blogs, social media[/tags]

This is a squid.

***

And this is a Digital Signage Squidoo.

Somewhat similar… but with less cartilage, and more helpful links. Now if only these resources came with a side of calamari…

Anyone use Squidoo on a regular basis? I’ve happened upon it through random blog posts now and again, but have trouble making it a habit. I’m signing up for this particular feed today, so let’s hope my iGoogle can help keep it top of mind– seems like it could be a great resource if it’s updated with decent frequency.

[tags]The Web Outside, Squidoo, Digital Signage, Digital Signage Squidoo, OOH Networks[/tags]

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[tags]The Web Outside, shelfari, reading list, new media, media studies books[/tags]

A post over on MediaBuyerPlanner caught my eye this morning, as it recapped a newly-released digital signage study conducted by OTX (Online Testing eXchange) for SeeSaw Networks. The Digital Out-of-Home Media Awareness and Attitude Study, the first of its kind, provides a rich, comprehensive data set tracking audience response patterns to digital signage.

The study proves extremely encouraging for the entire OOH industry. A few key takeaways:

• Digital signage advertising was found to be more unique, interesting, and entertaining than on most other media (old and new); it is also considered less annoying than nearly all other media types (internet advertising was noted as being the most annoying).
• Awareness levels of digital signage are extraordinarily high. (62% awareness rate for adults; 75% awareness rate for the 18-24 demo.)
• Average number of different types of locations where digital signage is seen in a week is high… and growing. (6 unique location types for adults; 8 unique location types for the 18-24 set.)
• 63% of adults consider digital signage “attention-grabbing,” thereby topping the list. (Billboards and magazines were second and third, respectively).
• Digital signage is considered the most “interesting” form of advertising, beating out both TV and the internet.
• 73% of college students report using text messaging.
• 53% of total adults are likely to text a response to a compelling offer seen on digital signage.

The full study is available for snail mail delivery, and the condensed version is downloadable.

[tags]The Web Outside, text messaging, digital signage, audience studies, SeeSaw Networks, OTX, out-of-home media, MediaBuyerPlanner, Digital Out-of-Home Media Awareness and Attitude Study[/tags]

Since I devour my CoolHunting, YPulse, and Springwise feeds every morning before breakfast, I’m always on the prowl for a new trendwatching site.

Well, I’ve found one (and of course I’ll share).

Go take a spin through MTV Sticky (you’ll need to sign up and respond to an email invitation in order to poke around). MTV Sticky brings together a community of users devoted to finding the coolest new technologies, art, products, media, you name it. Better yet, it’s presented in a funky “sticky note” format, making for easy tracking and bookmarking. While it’s far from comprehensive, it’s a decent resource for keeping tabs on the latest media trends, especially since contributions are often made by end-users themselves.