Simultaneous media usage: a critical consumer orientation to media planning

TLDR

Simultaneous media exposures, driven by multitasking consumers, are common in today’s media marketplace and undermine existing measurement systems that assume isolated environments. This study investigates the incidence of simultaneous media usage among U.S. consumers and challenges media management to rethink evaluation methods for the 21st century. The authors surveyed 12,322 respondents via an online network. Simultaneous media usage occurs in a substantial portion of the U.S.

Abstract

Abstract This research study is the third in a series of surveys exploring the incidence of simultaneous media usage among a national sample of US consumers. The research is based on 12,322 respondents who were sampled via an online network. The findings show that simultaneous media usage, ie multiple exposures to various media forms at a single point in time for the same media consumer, occurs in and among a substantial portion of the US media population. The existence of simultaneous media exposures, created by multi‐tasking consumers, is a fact in today's media marketplace. The existence of simultaneous media exposures undermines most current media measurement systems as they are defined as isolated environments. Thus, the challenge of this paper is for media management to rethink how media evaluations should be rethought for the 21st century. Copyright © 2004 Henry Stewart Publications Ltd.