Tuesday, July 12, 2005
Let Me Have Your Undivided Attention
byWhat would all marketers like to have? For one thing, they would like to have their customers’ or prospects’ undivided attention. However, that seems to be a tall order these days. According to a new Simultaneous Media Usage Study, highlighted by the Center for Media Research, getting someone’s undivided attention is difficult.
The study, conducted by BIGresearch, polled over 12,000 random respondents that were representative of the Census 2000 population. It clearly shows that most people multitask when “consuming” media. In fact, 70 percent of 25-34 year olds say they simultaneously access one or more media on a regular or occasional basis. The 55+ age group multitasks the least, but even 60 percent of that group says they simultaneously use two or more media on a regular or occasional basis.
According to the study, 68.1 percent of people 18+ are using other media (Internet, radio, newspaper, magazines, etc.) while watching TV. The figure is 69.0 percent for radio and 69.3% for Internet users.
According to another report featured on the ClickZ Network, the average adult in the U.S. spent 300 minutes per week in 2004 simultaneously watching TV and being online. The study, conducted annually by Universal McCann, polled 6000 people about their media usage. This figure was almost double the amount from the same study conducted in 2001. It is also reasonable to assume that this multitasking will continue to grow as broadband and home wireless usage increases.
There are a number of implications from these studies. First, creativity in crafting a message that gets noticed goes far beyond just the message itself. It requires a real understanding about who the customer is; how to find the customer; how to get that consumer’s attention once you do find them in this simultaneous media environment; and also, how to generate measurable outcomes from the marketing activity. Sometimes people will see or hear something on offline media and follow-up with the next step in the buying process online. Sometimes, people will interact with a message online first, and then see offline advertising that supports what they have seen online. Creativity has been, and will continue to be, a vital differentiator in the competitive marketing process, but this new multitasking media environment requires that creativity be demonstrated across the full spectrum of marketing functions.
Another implication of these studies is that marketing has to account for this continuing media multitasking shift. People are no longer waiting passively around listening, viewing or reading one media to the exclusion of all others. In the book Time For Life, authors John Robinson and Geoffrey Godbey point out that radio has become almost exclusively a secondary activity...we listen to it while we are doing something else. Television is also going that route. CNN, HGTV, The Weather Channel et al. have become the ”Muzak” in many homes. Keep in mind that both radio and television are still a big part of people’s lives, but anybody who plans their marketing thinking they have the audience’s persistent attentiveness is wrong. It isn’t just typical media multitasking that is distracting people. Other culprits include homework, telephone, text messaging, cooking, etc.
In addition, smart marketers have to evaluate viewership, readership and listenership figures not only on the number of people that are accessing media, but also how “tuned in” the customer might be. Just because a TV is on or a newspaper is open, doesn’t mean there is a high degree of customer involvement with those or any other media. This also includes the Web now that broadband has made it an “always on” channel.
Most traditional media buying activities are often based on assumptions that are holdovers from a previous marketing era when there was a simple mass media landscape and no Internet. Reach/frequency models from a previous era assume you can discreetly analyze buys through software and audience participation research (Nielsen, Arbitron, etc). This software and the knowledge of experienced media buyers is still a powerful tool for planning good media buys, but it must be tempered with the fact that with media multitasking and the sheer volume of media alternatives that exist, a different dynamic for measuring media effectiveness is needed. It is also why more and more companies are finding ways to measure marketing effectiveness on the ROI (receiving end of marketing) rather than simply relying on media weight and efficiency (sending end of marketing) to gage success.
A final implication from the media multitasking studies has to do with follow-through. If, as the research shows, more and more people are online while they are reading magazines, watching TV or listening to radio, marketers need to be cognizant of the fact that people often do respond to offline advertising by immediately going online and researching something that is brought to their attention and interest. This is especially true of high involvement purchases: those that tend to involve the consumer more because of cost, importance, prestige, self-expression, risk, technical specs, emotions or consequences.
Is your online presence ready to close the sale that an offline message began? While offline media can still be extremely effective at creating “consideration” people are relying increasingly on word-of-mouth, third party experts and the Web for validation. Can you compete in the larger marketplace of the Web? Can you measure what is contributing to your marketing success?
In light of this extensive research, a rethinking of ways to engage the multitasking customer or prospect seems prudent.
