• by Masha Geller , April 30, 2003

Here's something we can all hold over traditional advertisers' heads. According to the latest data from BIGresearch, nearly 24% of men and 30% of women in the US regularly go online while they are watching TV, compared to just 8.2% and 10.1%, respectively, who read a newspaper while watching TV.

The latest Simultaneous Media Survey shows that over 68% of consumers say they regularly or occasionally simultaneously use various forms of media as they strive to find enough time to read, listen, watch, or surf all the options available.

In November of last year, BIGresearch released a similar study, which showed that 50% of the population was engaging in simultaneous media usage.

"Today's competitive but slow growing markets are forcing more marketers to do more with less. And when it comes to marketing/advertising, more executives expect higher returns on their expenditures. Unfortunately, the outdated media planning models developed for a mass marketing economy populated with few media options no longer work in today's world. As a result, most marketing programs fail, and the average return on investment is about 1.5%," said Dr. Joe Pilotta, VP Research of BIGresearch and one of the study's authors.

"Understanding simultaneous media usage will help marketers to understand the potential erosion of impact an advertisement may have as a result of the intermittent engagements that various consumer groups have with a particular medium at any point in time. SIMM usage, when not understood, creates much of the 'slippage' in marketing campaigns, which adversely affects return on investment," said Pilotta.

Study co-author Dr. Don Schultz, added that present media planning tools may not just be inaccurate, but "given these simultaneous media studies, they may be downright wrong."