New Media Usage Growing Fastest Among 18-24 Year Olds.

When it comes to new media the 18-24 year old age group has cornered the market and complicated most marketing models advertisers use today. When marketers wonder what happened to 18-24 year olds usage of traditional media like TV, the answer is they are early adopters of new media according to just released information from BIGresearch’s newest Simultaneous Media Survey (SIMM VI) of over 14,000 consumers. New media studied in the survey included internet, picture phones, instant messaging, blogging, cell phones, MP3 players, satellite radio, text messaging, TiVo/Replay TV and web radio.

“The 18-24 year olds are digital nomads who have adopted new media more readily than any other age group,” said Joe Pilotta, PhD, BIGresearch’s VP of research. “Not only do they use new media more, they are influenced by it much more than any other age group, when it comes to making purchase decisions. Which says that they have integrated new media in their daily lives,” said Pilotta.

”The usage of new media among younger age groups creates a marketing dilemma for marketers who are wedded to traditional media. New media has an effect on traditional media, such as television, radio and magazines. However, its affect is counterintuitive; users of new media are using radio, magazines and newspapers more, while TV has suffered the overall negative effect. Some new media have more effect on the traditional media than others, e.g. blogging, IPOD/MP3 usage, and text messaging. Marketers and advertisers must now add new media to the media ecosystem as a whole and not bifurcate into traditional and digital media. Bifurcation will miss the possible synergistic effects implied by findings,” said Pilotta.

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