• by Wayne Friedman , June 16, 2010

Las Vegas, NV - New data about consumer activities in and around media consumption was released today by the Council for Research Excellence and presented at Nielsen's Consumer 360 conference here.

CRE, The Nielsen Company's funded effort independently produced with industry media research executives, found that nearly two-thirds of consumers listen to radio and nearly half are watching TV minutes before shopping. These were some of the findings from its Video Consumer Mapping survey.

The study says 62% of shoppers were listening to the radio an average of 14 minutes prior to shopping, with 90% of shoppers in cars five minutes on average, before shopping. Nearly half of shoppers -- 48% -- viewed TV, and 36% watched a commercial within 42 minutes prior to shopping.

In regard to more mobile media, only 17% were engaged with their mobile phones while shopping; 16% of those mobile users were watching live TV; 7% are watching some other form of video.

Non-traditional phone activities -- DVD viewing, Web usage, mobile messaging, game playing, or any other software use -- occupied around 3% of a consumer's time while shopping.

The study also looked at multitasking of media with non-electronic activities. It said 86% of adults engage in media while eating meals, and that 62% consume media while preparing meals. Just looking at women users, mixing media and household chores resulted in a 57% combined rate; meal preparation and media was at 66%, and exercise/sports/hobbies, 54%.

Multitasking with other individuals when viewing video was also examined. More than two-thirds (69%) of all TV viewing occurred without the presence of anyone else in the room at the same time. Thirty-one percent of viewing happened in a "social setting." Most of this shared viewing happened in prime time and weekend afternoon dayparts.