A study recently conducted by Survey.com on behalf of Forbes.com and GartnerG2 confirms yet again that the web is a great place to reach C-level executives (Chief Executive titles—CEO, CFO, CIO; plus
Owner/Partner). Based on 11,000 respondents, not only is the Internet a huge part of their work lives, they’re best reached early in the morning and actually click on ads, too.
Even though the
study was Forbes-commissioned and will undoubtedly go straight into the site’s media kit, the stats certainly pertain to the rest of us. For starters, more than half of C-level execs (53%) say they
access the Web before they go to work, while only 41% said they read a newspaper before going to work.
"These results reflect a now irrefutable truth - that the Web has become an integral part of a
senior executive's business day," said Jim Spanfeller, Forbes.com president and CEO. "That CEOs are logging onto the Web in the morning before reading a newspaper is proof that the Web truly is 'the
medium of choice' for senior business decision makers."
Notably, more of the C-level respondents (58%) do online research than use the Web to check their portfolio (33%). Only 11% delegate online
research to their assistants. What’s not surprising is that 82% of C-level executive respondents said they check their email before they start other work (only 6% said they have an assistant do it for
them).
As for ads, nearly half (48%) of C-level respondents say they "click on online ads" when they “see something of interest.” This one is sure to spark debate.
The 22-page study is available
in .pdf format on the Forbes website