Here at Lab42 we have been detailing the results of our innovation survey, which aimed to find out just how important innovation really is to the average consumer.Our research has shown that people are willing to pay significantly more for products they feel are innovative, and that generating new ideas and listening to customers are seen as the main drivers. But where do consumers see this innovation coming from?Silicon Valley was beaten, perhaps surprisingly, as the top US innovation spot by New York City.

When asked which places consumers considered the most innovative, 27.4% said the Big Apple beating Silicon Valley into second place with 22.6%. Los Angeles was third at 14.5%, with Seattle and Chicago filling out the top five with 6.7% and 4.2%, respectively. Rather than just one dominant centre of innovation, consumers now see innovation coming from pockets across the country, which is good news for businesses without a coveted (and expensive) Silicon Valley ZIP code.

This shift from West to East might also speak to a surprising ambivalence to the role of technology in innovation we found in our survey. When asked if technology is the most important factor driving innovation, although 16.4% strongly agree and 26.6% agree, more than a third (34.3%) are neutral about its importance and 66.3% agree that a company can be innovative without technology.

So as consumers are increasingly concluding that technology and innovation are not synonymous, brands will have to try more than technological showboating to set themselves apart.

Interested in learning more about Lab42’s research methodology and how it stacks up against traditional panels? Check out our Research on Research.