Multitasking Putting Pressure On Marketers In Search Of Greater Advertising ROI.

Time was, about a year or two ago, when advertisers’ biggest obstacle to increase ROI was consumers’ simultaneous consumption of media. The latest Simultaneous Media Survey (SIMM VI) of 14,000 consumers from BIGresearch details a new hurdle for advertisers — multitasking, the engagement in other non-media activities while consuming media and the numbers are large.

“The complexities of everyday life seem to be increasing and as a result consumers are multitasking as a way of coping,” said Joe Pilotta, VP of Research, BIGresearch.

The 25-34 year olds are most likely to engage in multi-tasking when using electronic media (TV, Radio, Internet) with almost 70% saying they do so regularly or occasionally. The 55+ age group multitasks the least but like the 25-34 year olds are most likely to do so when using electronic media, 60% say they multitask regularly or occasionally using TV.

Overall the percent of people 18+ who say they multitask while using various media’s are:

Online – 69.3%

Newspaper – 40.9%

Magazine – 40.2%

Radio – 69.0%

TV – 68.1%

Mail -49.5%

“It’s apparent that multitasking and simultaneous media consumption creates competition for the same time and space [sic] attention. Media may be relegated to the background when consumers multitask e.g. talking on the phone. When they simultaneously consume media, one of the media can morph into the background and back to the foreground intermittently. That is why understanding which media have the greatest influence on purchasing various merchandise categories becomes a key determinant for marketing ROI in today’s complex media environment,” said Pilotta.

For more information at http://www.bigresearch.com