MBA Marketing – The Great Schlep Case Study Analysis – Media Generations Theory

MBA Marketing – The Great Schlep Case Study Analysis – Media Generations Theory

The Great Schlep Case Study Analysis/Media Generations Theory
Material*** Please use The Great Schlep case study video and Media Generations Theory document to answer the questions that are presented in this assessment:
The Great Schlep case study video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-c3ImbC2BBk
Media Generations Theory was developed by Professors Martin Block and Don Schultz
File attached
Goal: to demonstrate your knowledge of four key concepts.
1. Media Generations Theory
2. Network Theory
3. Paid, Owned, and Earned Media
4. Media Economics: “I pay, you pay, or someone else pays.”

Q1
Media Generations Theory was developed by Professors Martin Block and Don Schultz. This important theory helps to explain how different generations relate to different forms of media. Please select all the statements below that accurately describe Block/Schultz’s theory of Media Generations. Once you have correctly completed this question, you will have a comprehensive definition of Media Generations.

According to Block/Scultz Media Generations are, “…simply groups of people, who, having been exposed to certain types of media, have created groups and affiliations that they carry with them through their lives.” In the text, they also suggest that we are shaped by the state of the media in our “Teen” years.

Media Generations align with traditional generations that are defined by the interval of time between parents and the birth of their offspring.

Once a Media Generation becomes an “Immigrant” into a new media technology, all members of that Media Generation will assimilate to new media to the same degree.

Given the rate at which new media technologies are emerging, the time span of a Media Generation is getting shorter.

If you apply Media Generations to the idea of media “immigrants” and media “natives”, we are all “immigrants” into new media technologies once we pass our Teen years.

If you apply Media Generations to the idea of media “immigrants” and media “natives” we are all natives to new media technologies once we pass our Teen years.

Block/Schultz are able to apply generational theory to “Media Generations” because a generation is a “… cohort of people born into and shaped by the events, trends, and technology of their time…”

Q2
Please select the statement below that accurately reflects which Media Generation(s) were part of the target audience strategy of The Great Schlep case study.

Both the Grandparents (elderly Jewish voters) and the Grandchildren (the Schleppers) were part of the target audience strategy.

Only the Grandchildren can be considered a part of the target audience strategy because the media was targeted to them.

Only the Grandparents were part of the strategy because they were the audience that ultimately had to be convinced to vote for Obama.

Since this was a viral media campaign, there was no intended target audience. Anyone who saw the video could respond.

Q3 Short answers:
Please list the name(s) of the Media Generations (labels from Block/Schultz) that were evident in the Great Schlep case study.
Q4
The Great Schlep case study demonstrates how a media channel strategy can fit the media consumption preferences of Media Generations. Please select all the statements below that accurately describe the media consumption tendencies of the Media Generation(s) that were part of the case.

The Media Generations that fit the age of the grandparents tend to receive their news and information mainly from traditional mass media such as television, and newspapers.

The Grandchildren can now only be reached in Digital Media. Media consumption data suggests they no longer consume traditional mass media such as television.

The media generations that make up the grandchildren can be considered digital natives. This could explain why the Great Schlep built its media hub in digital media to engage with them.

The case study was flawed in suggesting the use of email to reach grandparents because the data presented by Block/Schultz suggest that grandparents do not frequently use email.

Q5
Please select the statement below that accurately identifies the most influential media channel according to Media Influence research shared by Block/Schultz and why this finding is so instrumental to the Great Schlep case.

According to media influence research conducted by Block/Schultz, “Word of Mouth” is consistently the most influential channel. This plays a significant role in the case as the JCER relied on the Word-of-Mouth of grandchildren to influence the grandparents (elderly Jewish voters).

According to Block/Schultz, television is the most influential, and this is why the smear campaign calling Obama a Muslim had such a significant impact on the elderly Jewish voters.

According to media influence research, all forms of digital media are most influential and that’s why it was used to target the grandchildren.

Media influence is highly personal, and the research suggests that there are no consistent correlations that can be drawn beyond an individual’s media preference.

Q6 summary:
Please consider your responses to questions one through four above and write a brief (no more than 250 word) summary/ explanation of how Media Generations Theory can be used to describe the strategy behind the Great Schlep case study.
Q7
Network Theory can be used to explain the structure of nearly every system both in nature and made by man. And the media are no different. Albert Lazlo Barabassi has shared with us that both the Internet (the structure of computers and routers) and the World Wide Web (the organizing principles of all the content on the Internet) follow the rules of a Scale-Free Network. And, recently the Pew Center mapped networked audiences to Twitter. It is clear that both the physical structure of the media and the relationships among audiences to the media can be explained by Network Theory. This question will enable you to build a full definition of network theory based upon the curriculum presented by Barabassi (see lecture video) and Katz (see White Paper in the CoursePack). From the list of statements below, please select all that are correct reflections of Network Theory and its application to the media. By the end of this question, you will have constructed an Executive Summary of our course learning related to the application of Network Theory to media audience understanding.

According to the Katz White Paper, a social network consists of a set of actors (“nodes”) and the relations (“ties” or “edges”) between these actors (Wasserman & Faust, 1994)

Network researchers have distinguished between strong ties (such as family and friends) and weak ties (such as acquaintances) (Granovetter, 1973, 1982).

Strong ties are particularly valuable when an individual seeks socioemotional support and often entail a high level of trust. Weak ties are more valuable when individuals are seeking diverse or unique information from someone outside their regular frequent contacts

In a Scale-Free network, many small Nodes are held together by a few Hubs.

According to the “Small Worlds” principle, there are short pathways between any two Nodes.

Scale-free networks have Robustness. They are highly resilient when it comes to random errors in the network, but they are quite fragile when the Hubs are attacked.

Hubs benefit from preferential attachment: meaning, we prefer to connect to Nodes with many existing connections.

Communities exist within networks based upon patterns of similar behavior.

Networks are dynamic. Because of this constant change, a Node (although being a newer entrant into the network) can overtake an existing Hub if it has what Barabasi refers to as “Fitness”.

The media ecosystem is an example of a Random network because of the Audience Autonomy phenomenon described by Napoli.

Scale-free networks follow a bell curve distribution. Meaning, most nodes in the network have the same number of links. Whereas random networks follow power laws meaning, a few nodes have a high number of links while many nodes have only a few links.

Random networks are more resilient to failure than Scale-Free networks.

Network science can be used to study audiences, but not the structure of the media, themselves.

Q8
Using concepts from both Katz and Barabasi, please argue why Sarah Silverman is so important to the Great Schlep case study.

Because Sarah Silverman had fitness and preferential attachment (Barabasi). She was popular among young Jewish voters and they were likely view content from her (vs some other random spokesperson)

Sarah Silverman had workflow ties (Katz) with other young celebrities who could help to spread the word.

Sarah Silverman also had workflow ties (Katz) with late night talk show hosts in the mass media which enabled her to connect to a larger hub and spread the word.

All of these statements are correct.

Q9
The diagram below is missing arrows to illustrate the proper flows of information across the Great Schlep network. Please select all the statements below that accurately reflect both the placement and the direction of the arrows:

There should be an arrow originating from Sarah Silverman (her video) to the community of young Jewish Voters

There should be an arrow originating from the community of young Jewish Voters back to the Great Schlep online media hub

There should be an arrow originating from Sarah Silverman and connecting the elderly Jewish Voters in Florida

There should be three arrows that originate from the community of young Jewish voters and connect to the community of elderly Jewish voters in Florida: 1. Calls 2. Visits 3. Emails

There should be three arrows that originate from the elderly Jewish Voters in Florida that connect back to the community of young Jewish voters: 1. Calls 2. Visits 3. Emails

There should be an arrow originating from the elderly Jewish voters in Florida to Sarah Silverman and the Great Schlep online media hub.

While not necessarily implied, it is possible that members within the community of young Jewish voters started forming links to each other on the basis of “Homophily”..”Members are likely to create communication ties with other group members who they deem to be similar”. (Katz)

Q10
Would you call the network map of the Great Schlep case study a random network or a scale-free network?

The network was random because each relationship between the grandchild and the grandparent was isolated and not connected to a larger group.

The network was random because you could not predict whether the Sarah Silverman video would go viral. The number of links that would ultimately form in the network was “random.”

The network was Scale-Free because it relied on a few hubs to help spread the message and then the majority of the network information flow was among communities (neighborhoods) of smaller Nodes.

There is not enough information in the network map to determine whether the network was random or scale-free.

Q11
According to Barabasi’s description of the strength of networks, which statement below best reflects the vulnerabilities of the network:

If you removed the Great Schlep media hub, the network would be at risk of breaking apart.

If you removed individual Grandchildren/Grandparents from the network, the network would be at risk of breaking apart.

If you removed a specific late night talk show or news outlet from the mass media coverage of The Great Schlep, the network would be at risk of breaking apart.

All of these conditions pose an equal risk to the stability of the network.

Q12
Based upon your understanding of the Great Schlep case study, what is wrong with this network map?

There’s nothing wrong with this map. Some young Jewish voters were inspired by seeing the Great Schlep advertising campaign in mass media and joined the movement.

It implies that the Great Schlep was a paid advertising campaign that was placed on mass media in order to reach young Jewish voters. In reality, while Sarah Silverman did appear in mass media and the Great Schlep overall was covered on mass media, it was not a paid media campaign. Rather, it was featured as press coverage (Earned Media).

The flow of calls, emails, visits is going the wrong way. The flows were from the grandparents to the grandchildren.

The advertising campaign took place on digital media as opposed to traditional mass media.

Q13
Based upon Barabasi’s description of networks, how typical or atypical would you say the Great Schlep network map was?

It was atypical because it’s rare to see hubs in digital media networks

It was typical as most networks are bound together by a few large hubs and many smaller nodes

It was atypical to see more than one “neighborhood” in a network

It was atypical because the main communication should have come directly from mass media and not someone like Sarah Silverman who did not have formal authority.

Q14
Would The Great Schlep case study have the same impact if Mass Media were removed from the Network Map?

Yes, because only the Strong Ties between the Grandparents and the Grandchildren could build the trust required to offset the negative smear campaign that Obama was a Muslim. The mass media coverage didn’t drive the outcome of the case

Yes, because by definition this is a viral marketing campaign and the only media to go “viral” was the Sarah Silverman video.

Yes, because according to media consumption data in Media Generations (Block/Schultz) the Grandchildren spend the majority of their time interacting with digital media. Therefore, the Great Schlep digital media hub was most important for driving the outcomes.

No, although the communication tie may not have been as valuable as the word-of-mouth communication between a grandchild and their grandparent, mass media linked to many more voters across the US to spread the message. Without the information flows from mass media, the Great Schlep campaign would have been much more limited in its scope and impact.

Q15
Why are the Bloggers so important to the Great Schlep case study?

Each blogger served as a Node within the network that, based upon their Fitness, could link their community of followers to the Great Schlep movement. The bloggers served as important information Flows on behalf of the Great Schlep movement.

Not all Nodes within a network are directly linked. We cannot assume that every “Schlepper” was directly linked to Sarah Silverman. The bloggers helped to expand the links in the network.

Both statements are true.

Neither statement is true.

Q16
At the beginning of the Great Schlep case study, we learn that there was a smear campaign suggesting that Obama was a Muslim. Why was this so damaging?

Because according to research presented in the Katz paper on “Network Theory” weak, external ties work best for bringing information from the external environment into a group. While elderly Jewish voters may have weak ties with the mass media, these mass media are powerful influences in the flow of information.

Because according to research presented in the Katz paper on “Network Theory” strong external ties work best for bringing information into a group. The ties between mass media and the elderly Jewish voters can be considered strong ties.

Because according to research presented in the Katz paper on “Network Theory” negative information will travel through a network faster than positive information.

Because according to research presented in the Katz paper on “Network Theory” mass media was required to spread the sentiment among the community of elderly Jewish voters. There are no other ties that bind them together.

Q17
Please select all the statements below that accurately assign the correct network term to various actors and information flows in The Great Schlep case study.

The mass media can be considered an important hub that helped to distribute information to voters both in Florida and across the US whom, otherwise, may not have been exposed to The Great Schlep movement

The Grandchildren “The Schleppers” in this case would be referred to as a Hub in network terms

The Great Schlep online media (including the Sarah Silverman video) can be considered a hub as many young voters ultimately connected to it to receive information

The Calls, Emails, Visits are referred to as “Flows”

The Grandparents in Florida would be referred to as a Hub in network terms.

Elderly Jewish voters in Florida can be referred to as a Community or a Neighborhood

Information flows (Katz) can only occur in one direction. Information flowed from The Great Schlep to the Grandchildren, but there is no return movement from the Grandchildren back to the Great Schlep hub.

Two hubs cannot co-exist according to Barabasi’s definition of a Scale-Free network. Mass media, therefore, cannot be considered part of the network map of this case.

We would characterize the ties between Grandchildren and their Grandparents as “Strong Ties”.

Q18
Please select all the statements below that accurately describe the network map that you were able to construct in the question, above. This will provide an essay response to how The Great Schlep demonstrates the principles of network theory and how the case actually unfolded across time/platform/network neighborhood.

The smear campaign that Obama was a Muslim was incredibly damaging because it flowed from mass media hubs that linked to many elderly voters.

Sarah Silverman was an interesting and important choice to launch the Schlep because she had what Barabasi refers to as ‘Fitness’. She was linked not only to her fans but also to the mass media.

The Great Schlep media evolved into an important Hub as more young voters linked to it.

There were two very important communities in this case: the community of young Jewish voters and the community of the Grandparents. And, throughout the case, we saw that each community was bound by either: common beliefs, formal relationships, and/or even proximity.

The strong ties between the grandchildren and their grandparents were important for overcoming the fear that was caused by the smear campaign in the mass media.

Mass media exposures in the form of news coverage provided another important form of word of mouth to help sway large numbers of elderly voters.

By studying the network map, we can assume that the Great Schlep case would have had the same impact in the marketplace if mass media were removed from the case.

This case demonstrates how viral marketing is truly “random” given the properties of the Great Schlep network.

Sarah Silverman’s influence was only among those Nodes in the network that she had directly linked to.

This case suggests that information flows can occur only through one single form of media: either a call, an email, or a visit. It is impossible for network flows to occur across multiple channels.

Q19
Please select all the correct statements below in order to construct a fully complete and accurate definition of Paid Media, Owned Media and Earned Media.

When discussing the differences between Paid Media, Owned Media and Earned Media we can distill the distinctions down to one core theme: who controls the platform? You (the marketer) or someone else (either a media company or the audience directly)

In it’s most simple terms, Paid Media refers to media platforms that are advertiser-supported. Meaning, advertisers “pay” the media company for access to either time or space on the platform in order to access the media company’s audience.

Owned media simply refers to any media platform that falls under the control of the marketer. Any brand-controlled (owned) touch point with a customer that enables the distribution and sharing of content and/or conversations can be considered owned media

Earned media can only be generated by conversations among the audience in social network platforms.

Earned media is best described as the conversations that a marketer earns from others—either from consumers themselves or from the media.

The concept of paid/owned/earned media is only relevant to digital media.

It’s important to acknowledge that earned media can occur on paid media channels, on the brand’s owned media channels, and also on social media channels.

Brands can build owned media destinations within broader social network platforms such as Facebook, YouTube and Instagram

Coverage of brand activities from the mainstream press cannot be considered earned media.

The paid, owned, and earned riddle is easily solvable. Quite simply, marketers should pay as little as they can, own as much of the brand experience as possible, and earn favorable brand mentions.

Q20
Please match the various elements of the case to their proper classification among: Paid, Owned, and Earned Media. If a listed element is not relevant to the case, fee free to select that option.
Choose from one of the four for each: 1. Paid Media, 2. Owned Media. 3. Not Relevant To This Case. 4. Earned Media.
Sarah Silverman’s video encouraging young Jewish voters to “Schlep” down to Florida

Sarah Silverman’s appearance on late night television

The Great Schlep online media Hub

Calls, Emails, Visits from the Grandchildren to their Grandparents

The Great Schlep Facebook Page

Mentions from Bloggers

Great Schlep Mention on Morning Talk Show (The View)

CNN’s news coverage of The Great Schlep

Q21
According to research from Block/Schultz, which of the forms of media: Paid, Owned, or Earned would be considered the most influential? Please be sure to select the response that offers both the right classification of media across paid, owned, and earned and also the right rationale for its ability to influence the outcome of the case. Hint: your response should match Block/Schultz’s research presented in Chapter Six (Figure 47) of Media Generations.

In line with Block/Schultz’s media influence data, “Earned” media was most influential. The case organizers knew this insight and that’s why they set up a media ecosystem to inspire the Grandchildren to appeal to their Grandparents via word of mouth. In addition, the “earned” media coverage of the story lent more credibility in mass media than a typical paid advertising campaign.

Paid media was most influential as Sarah Silverman was a paid spokesperson for the JCER and without her there was no call to action.

Digital media across Paid, Owned, and Earned was most influential as it housed all the information that was required to galvanize and inspire the grandchildren.

Owned Media was most influential because it gave the JCER “free” media exposure to attract the grandchildren.

Q22
How will cases such as The Great Schlep impact the principles of Media Economics as we have discussed in the course? Please select the statements below that are plausible arguments. You should select statements on both sides of the issue so long as how they are stated is accurate to both the case study and the principles of Media Economics.

Some would argue that cases such as The Great Schlep will have limited impact on Media Economics as this case was the exception rather than the rule. You cannot predict that branded content on a marketer’s Owned media will go viral. In order to guarantee specific levels of audience reach, most marketers will still need to pay to reach audiences on Paid media platforms. It’s too risky to count on Earned media both in terms of press mentions and word of mouth.

Some would argue that if marketers can build robust experiences on their Owned media platforms, they won’t have to spend as much money on Paid media advertising. For those media companies that rely on advertising to fund their enterprises, they will have to shift the financial burden onto either audiences or to distributors.

Cases such as The Great Schlep will have no bearing on the media economy because we can expect that consumers will pick up the revenue shortfalls that media companies may experience from reductions in paid advertising support.

Cases such as The Great Schlep will have no bearing on Media Economics because the Great Schlep Owned Media did not accept advertising.

Cases such as The Great Schlep can actually add more costs to media companies as they now have to cover these stories as “news”. It’s a double loss to a media company: first, they are losing ad revenue from marketers who can create content on their Owned platforms. Then, if the movement is newsworthy, the media enterprise has to invest time and resources to cover it as news.

Cases such as The Great Schlep will not have any affect on the media economy as this was a Paid media campaign and the media companies made money off of it.

As audiences spend more time on Owned media platforms, media companies have to compete with not only other media companies, but a marketer’s Owned media for the time and attention of audiences. This could have great implications on the audience product that is a key component of the dual product marketplace.

This question is flawed because we are comparing Apples and Oranges. A marketer’s owned media does not compete with traditional media companies in the media economy.

Q23
Please select all the statements below that accurately reflect how the various revenue models as described by Epps could potentially be affected by cases such as The Great Schlep.

Any revenue model that relies on advertiser support would be in jeopardy if more marketers shift resources from paid media into their owned media.

Some subscription models still incorporate advertising. If advertising revenue declines, we would expect that subscription prices for consumers would have to rise to compensate for the shortfall.

Micro-Transaction models are less prone to these influences because the consumer directly pays for modular bits of content

Metered models are less prone to these influences as consumers are paying directly for the amount of media they consume.

Content licensing and syndication may be influenced if distributors rely on ad revenues to help recoup their initial investments. Those distributors who earn revenue solely on subscriber fees won’t be affected to the same degree.

This suggests that the entire media economy would evolve into a marketing loss model.

Freemium models would not be at risk as consumers are already paying for the majority of the content in this model.

Advertising wasn’t nearly as profitable as revenue from consumers directly. Therefore, as long as you can shift the cost burden onto consumer-funded models there is no concern.

Q24
Based upon the correct responses to the Media Economics questions listed above, please describe in your own words how cases such as The Great Schlep will impact traditional media companies and how they will make money. While there is no right or wrong pov, your opinion should be supported by correct statements from the questions above. You should be able to answer this question in under 250 words.

Media Generations: Media Allocation in a Consumer-Controlled Marketplace
by Martin P. Block, Ph.D., Don E. Schultz, Ph.D. &
ISBN 978-0-9819415-1-6

For the most part, those decisions are driven by an internal cost-benefit analysis, which consumers have learned and internalized over time.
These internal media selection algorithms that consumers have developed over time-about media, media forms and media ben­ efits-drive their media selections. In other words, they use personal experience to make most of their media decisions, although there are likely some external influences as well. Thus, we argue that over time, as they have experienced media and media forms, consumers have devel­ oped strong, internal media usage patterns. We believe these patterns have resulted in the development of what we call “media generations.” Those are simply groups of people, who, having been exposed to certain types of media, have created groups and affiliations that they carry with them through their lives. Further, based on the SIMM data, we have been able to identify and measure those media generations. Thus, a new calculus for the media planner moves from traditional static measures, such as age, sex, income and lifestyle, to a totally new range of consumer behavioral measures – media generations.
In this chapter, we discuss this new concept and provide evidence of not only the existence of the various media generations we have identified, but also provide methods and ways in which this new in­ formation might be used in developing more effective media programs and schedules.

You Are What You Grew Up With

The media have traditionally used age as a way of describing their audiences, for example, adults 18-49 or teens or the over-65 group. These age groupings, while useful in terms of counting noses or pairs of eyeballs, are not very useful in the abstract. It is only when they are considered in the historical context in which these groups exist that they become worthwhile for planning and allocation approaches. The 25-year-old adult living today exists in a radically different world than a 25-year-old adult living in 1970, 1980 or even 1990.

At a minimum, media technology is different. In the 1970s, there were only three television networks; in the 1980s, cable was rapidly expanding viewing choices; and in the 1990s, the digital revolution was beginning. The political climate has changed, as have societal values. Fads have come and gone. Cultures have evolved. What was taboo only a few years ago is now de rigueur. So, age groups need to be put in their historical context, to be understood and relevant to media planners.
One way to do this is to consider the sociological concept of a gen­ eration. A generation has been traditionally defined as the interval of time between the birth of parents and their offspring. The typical span of time in the U.S. has been around 30 years. Arguably, it is getting longer as the median age of mothers continues to rise. However, con­ sidering a generation as a cohort of people born into and shaped by the events, trends and technology of their time, the time span should likely be shortened. For example, considering the current rate of technologi­ cal change, ten years is a long time, and thirty years is almost a lifetime in terms of technology and changes in the overall environment.

Radio as an Example

Almost no one alive today in the U.S. can remember a time when there was no commercial radio. Radio throughout its history, with minor exceptions such as National Public Radio (NPR), has been an almost entirely advertiser-supported medium. As such, it has naturally linked itself to changing consumer tastes and preferences. Thus, the historical development of commercial radio provides special insights into the development of all media and marketing communication.
Radio faced a strong competitive threat in the mid-twentieth century from an emerging medium, television. That threat forced radio programming to move away from drama to music and talk in order to continue to attract and hold audiences.
Radio also has experienced dramatic changes in its own competi­
tive structure with the introduction of Frequency Modulation (FM),

and even technological change with FM stereo. Radio is also caught up in the digital age with the advent of Web and satellite radio.
Radio also has a retail component with the traditional remote broadcast and growing in-store radio activities. It also has the advan­ tage of both local and national advertising rates.
Much can be learned about how consumers take in, accept and use radio from an examination of radio formats. In the 1930s, radio was dominated by dramatic productions and serials such as 1he 7hin Man, Boston Blackie and the like. Those were followed by comedies such as Amos’n’Andy, and dramas such as Gunsmoke-and even variety programs such as Arthur Gocifrey’s Talent Scouts. These formats either

be applied to all forms of media and marketing communication. The problem then becomes one of defining the age cohorts.

FIGURE 7: TIMELINE OF CONTEMPORARY Music FORMATS

News/Talk
Top40 Country Urban A/C AOR
Oldies HotA/C SoftA/C Classic Rock New A/C Jazz
Classical Nostalgia

migrated to television or ceased production as radio morphed into a more individualized media form.
Early 1950s radio was dominated by ‘middle-of-the-road'(MOR) programming, which consisted of both talk and music. Country music was beginning to attract an audience, but it wasn’t until rock and roll and the Top 40 format appeared that things began to change.
In the 1960s, partly because of the introduction of FM, differing radio formats began to proliferate. The timeline of contemporary mu­

ews/Talk
, Top 40
:country Urban A/C AOR
Oldies otA/C ftA/C assic Rock
ewA/C Jazz
, Classical
;’ Nostalgia

News/Talk
Top 40 Country Urban A/C AOR
Oldies HotA/C SoftA/C Classic Rock NewA/C Jazz
Classical Nostalgia Mexican Latino Christian
Classic Hits (70’s) Alternative Rock Rhythmic Oldies

Mexican
Latino Christian
Classic Hits (70’s) Alternative Rock Rhythmic Oldies
Sports BO’s Hits Classic Country
Urban A/C Urban Oldies Rhythnic A/C Modern A/C
Spanish Spanish Religious Spanish Tropical
Tejano Gospel Children’s Radio

sic formats (Figure 7) illustrates how quickly those changes developed. Not only was the audience fragmenting, as increasingly narrow new formats emerged, but the first ‘oldie’ format appeared. By the time 1990s arrived, oldie formats existed across multiple time spans, includ­ ing the 1970s and 1980s.
From the SIMM data, it appears the old radio adage that: “you listen to the music that was popular when you were growing up” is true.

1960

980 1990
I Compact Disk (CD)
Sony Walkman

2000 2008
iPod
S ! e io MP3 Player HD Radio

Source: RemergeMedia.com

Those that were teens in the 1960s, continue to listen to the same rock and roll formats and artists throughout the rest of their lives. Simply go to any Kiss or Rolling Stones concert and verify how audiences remain loyal to their earlier idols.
This leads to the concept of media generations. Consumers of dif­ ferent age cohorts use media in the way they did while they were grow­ ing up. The radio age generation or cohort concept, can, we believe,

Using the American Generation Typology

Strauss and Howe in their book Generations, published in 1991, tell the history of America as a succession of generational biographies from the colonial period through the present. The authors identify a pattern in each of these generations. Each can be seen as belonging to one of four archetypes that repeat sequentially. Every living generation,

therefore, shows a remarkable parallel in character with generations of the same type throughout history. The book plots a recurring cycle of spiritual awakenings and secular crises in American history-from the founding colonials through the present day.
In 1997, Strauss and Howe published 1he Fourth Turning, which expanded on Generations. The book proposes that modern history moves in cycles, each one lasting approximately the length of a long human life (about 80-years), and each composed of four eras, or “turn­ ings.” Anaiyzing primarily the period from the end of World War II until today, they describe the general persona of each living genera­ tion-from the thoughtful Silent Generation (born before 1945), to the values-obsessed Baby Boomers (born between 1946 and 1964), and on to the pragmatic Thirteenth Generation (the thirteenth since the
U.S. became a nation, born 1965 to 1980 or so), to the newest proactive Millennial Generation (born after 1980). According to Strauss and Howe, the Millennials could emerge as the next great generation.

American Generational Archetypes

Strauss and Howe expand their interpretation of the generations by giving them archetypical names. The generations come in four differ­ ent archetypes: Prophet, Nomad, Hero and Artist.
Prophets are values-driven, moralistic, focused on self and willing to fight for what they believe. They grow up as increasingly indulged children, come of age as the young crusaders, enter midlife as mor­ alistic leaders and enter elderhood as wise leaders. The Boomers are an example of a Prophet generation.
Nomads are diverse, adventurous and cynical about institutions. They grow up as the as protected children, come of age as alienated young adults, become pragmatic midlife leaders and enter elderhood as tough elders. The Thirteenth Generation (Generation X) and the Lost Generation are examples of Nomad generations.

Heroes are conventional, powerful and institutionally driven, with a profound trust in authority. They grow up as protected children, come of age as team-working units, become energetic and hubristic midlifers and become powerful elders. The G.I. Generation that fought World War II is an example of a Hero generation. Millennials are expected to emerge as the next generation of this example.
Artists are subtle, indecisive, emotional and compromising. They grow up as the over-protected children, come of age as the sensi­ tive young adults, rebel as indecisive midlife leaders and become empathic elders. The Silent Generation is an example of an Artist
generation.

FIGURE 8: RECENT GENERATIONS AND THEIR ARCHETYPES

Source: Strauss and Howe, The Fourth Turning, page 83.

Strauss and Howe believe that history shapes each generation depending on what phase of life it occupies as it encounters key

historical events. For example, a period of crisis will leave an im­ pression on children that will be different from the one it leaves on midlife leaders. The boundaries of each generation and the char­ acteristics of its members emerge because they share a common age and location in history. For instance, Strauss and Howe define the Boomer generation as anyone who doesn’t personally remember
\t\Torld War IL They are different from the Silent Generation be­ cause they have not shared the experience of childhood during a war. Thus, history creates the generations, and these in turn reproduce the cycle of history. As the protected children of a time without a crisis, such as World War II, they become moralistic, uncompromis­ ing crusaders as they age, and are most likely to provoke a new crisis when they grow to control the nation’s institutions. That pattern is shown in Figure 8.
The critical idea is that the experiences of childhood, especially the teenage years, impact the shape and the course of later life. This, we argue, is true of media usage and, thus, media consumption as well. That is, the way media and marketing communication are learned dur­ ing childhood determines the patterns for the rest of one’s life, even though new media and technologies appear. As will be seen in the SIMM data to follow, Boomers use the Internet, but they use it differ­ ently than do the Millennials who grew up with it.
The generations have been named and renamed by various authors over recent years. Multiple names are more common among the more recent generations. There is also some minor disagreement on when the various generations start and end. We use the following as the format for this text.
The Silent Generation, born between the two World Wars (1925-1945), is the one with most agreement. Members of this gen­ eration are now in their mid-sixties or older. The Baby Boomers, born between l 946 and 1964, are the generation born World War II, and represent the increased worldwide birth rate that occurred during that period. Baby Boomers, now in their mid-forties to early sixties,

were in their teen and college years during the 1960s, with its counter culture and the Vietnam war. The Boomers gave birth to what have become known as Generations X and Y.
The leading edge of the Thirteenth Generation is also referred to as Generation Jones, or sometimes Tweeners since they were born between the Boomers and Generation X. While the trailing edge is
commonly referred to as Generation X.This term was first popularized
in a novel by Douglas Coupland, Generation X• Tales for an Accelerated Culture (1991). Generation X is sometimes also referred to as Baby Busters. Most of this generation are children of Boomers and Silents. They grew up with video games, MTV and the end of the Cold War. They are now in their thirties and forties.
Whereas, the XY Cusp, the MTV Generation or the Boomerang Generation (born between l 975 and 1986), are now mostly in their late twenties. And Generation Y (Echo Boom, Internet Generation or Millennials) were born after 1980, although there is disagreement on the exact date.This generation is mostly in their twenties and late teens and grew up with the Internet. Sometimes, the younger portion of this group is referred to as Generation I, since the Internet has become such a part of their lives.

U.S. Media Generations
The generations described above can be matched to different styles of media consumption and usage, even though the media environment has changed and evolved across the media generations. For example, the Leading Baby Boomer Generation (born 1946-56) grew up during the expansion of over-the-air broadcast television and the traditional three networks. The most popular magazines were high circulation general interest publications such as Life, Look and 1he Saturday Evening Post. Radio was dominated by middle-of-the-road talk radio when the lead­ ing Boomers were children. Thus, it is easy to name this generation the Mass (Media) Generation.

Following the Mass Generation are the Trailing Boomers, that is, the children (born 1957-64) who grew up following

FIGURE 9: U.S. GENERATION SUMMARY

Sputnik and the space race. A good media name for this genera­ tion might be the Space Generation. Their common experience is the proliferation of media choices with FM radio, more maga­ zine titles and the growth of cable television. Figure 9 shows a
summary of the media generations we have created from the SIMM data.
Next is the Hippie Generation. These are the children (born 1965-74) that grew up during the counter-culture movement and the Vietnam War-the leading edge of Strauss and Howe’s Thirteenth Generation, or Generation Jones.
The trailing edge of the Thirteenth Generation (born 1975-87) is Generation X and its characteristic, in media terms, was the introduction and early acceptance of the personal computer. Thus, we have named this group the Computer Generation. Computer
communication, at least during the time this generation were

Media

Internet Generation

Traditional Names

Millennial Generation

Other Names

Generation y

Birth Years

1988-

Notable Events

Digital Globalization

children, was limited to proprietary networks such as Prodigy and CompuServe.

FIGURE 10: U.S. MEDIA HISTORY AND GENERATIONS

The last, and youngest generation, generally referred to as Millennials (born from 1988 onwards), grew up with the Internet. It’s easy to name this group the Internet Generation.
Figure 10 shows some historical highlights for each of the most recent media generations. The Mass Generation saw the advent of network television and the very beginnings of color broadcasting and cable television. The Space Generation saw sat­ ellite communication for the first time. The Hippie Generation had Woodstock and proliferating media forms. The Computer Generation has been dominated by the growth of the personal computer and computing. The Internet Generation has seen the
digital revolution and the beginnings and acceptance of social networking media.

Mass Generation
(Leading Boomers)

Space Hippie Computer Internet Generation Generation Generation Generation
(Trailing (Generation (Generation (Millennial) Boomers) Jones) X)

Mass Generation

Space Generation

Hippie Generation

Computer Generation

Internet Generation

Mass Generation

Space Generation

Hippie Generation

Computer Generation

Internet Generation

Chinese Media Generations

To this point, we have discussed only U.S. media generations.
BIGresearch is gathering similar SIMM-type data in China. This gives an initial perspective on how media consumption and, thus, me­ dia generations have developed in other countries and other cultures. We discuss the preliminary Chinese data now simply to illustrate the
point of cultural differences in the media generations and the various countries and cultures.
We use only the two most recent China Qyarterly data sets to
discuss the overall concept.
Historically, China has experienced different events from the
U.S. One of the key events was the Cultural Revolution. Therefore, we separate the data into the Chinese Pre-Cultural Revolution and Post-Cultural Revolution Generations. This division corresponds fairly closely to the U.S. Boomer and Thirteenth Generation boundary.

56 MEdiA Generations

In China, those that follow are referred to as Generation X (as in the U.S.). This roughly matches what we have termed the Computer Generation for the U.S. The youngest generation, Millennials, are perhaps the most similar to the U.S. generation of the same name. This generation can no doubt also be referred to as the Internet Generation in both the U.S. and China.
In other monographs and reports, we will detail the development
of the Chinese media generations and how those might be considered. For now, we believe it is clear that the media generations and, thus, media usage vary by country and by the form of media consumers use. Thus, we return to the discussion of the U.S. media generations.

pop. The youngest generations, Computer and Internet, continue with their preference for rock, but also add hip-hop and alterna-
tive radio formats.

FIGURE 12: RADIO FORMATS LISTENED TO BY MEDIA
GENERATION (Ihe numbers in the table are percentages.)

FIGURE 11: CHINESE GENERATIONS

Name Birth Years
Pre-Cultural Revolution 1951-1964
Post-Cultural Revolution 1965.:1973

Generation X

1974-1984

Millennial 1985-

U.S. Media Generation Characteristics
Consumption of the various radio formats, based on BIGresearch SIMM study results for the first half of 2008 (see Figure 12) vary predictably by media generation. The Silent Generation prefers oldies, country, talk, news and classical. Form and format pref­ erences begin to change among the Mass Generation, notably, the preference for oldies becomes much more pronounced. The Space and Hippie generations begin to prefer rock. The Hippie Generation expands their repertoire from just Top 40 to include

Source: BIGresearch

Demographically, the media segments show differences yond just age. The highest incomes, as shown in Figure 13, are enjoyed by the Mass, Space and Hippie generations, with an aver­ age household income at about $60,000. Income drops among the younger segments, as might be expected. Owninga home and being married both increase with age. Presence of children in the household under the age of 18 decreases among the Silent and Mass Generation, as would be expected. The proportion is

still high, however, among the Internet Generation as they are likely still living at home with siblings. The Silent Generation has the highest proportion of retired people, while the Internet Generation has the highest proportion of students. Professional occupations appear to be highest among the Hippie Generation. There are the most clerical workers among the Space and Hippie generations. Unemployment seems, as is typically the case, to the highest among the younger generations.

It is interesting that there is an array of interests and activities that are preferred at approximately the same level for all generations. Figure 14 shows the top ten similar activities, which include watching television, eating meals out, reading books, magazines and newspapers, travel and cooking.

FIGURE 14: ACTIVITIES WITH THE SMALLEST DIFFERENCES
BY MEDIA GENERATIONS (The numbers in the table are percentages.)

FIGURE 13: SELECT DEMOGRAPHICS BY MEDIA

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Eating Out 66 68 70 72 74 69 70

Source: BIGresearch

Read Books 60 62 61 60 56
56
59

Travel
52
52
49
50
50
40
50
Camp/Fish 24 29 32 33 37 32 32
AriyHopby 24
Golf 15 12 11 12 14 12 13

Source: BIGresearch

Figure 15 shows the top ten most dissimilar activities, or the activi­ ties that vary the most across segments. These may well explain why the observed differences between the media generations occur. Among the most different are the incidences of movies, e-mail, IM (instant messaging) and blogs, video games, active sports including team sports, swimming, tennis and gardening.

Media Generations

FIGURE 15: ACTIVITIES WITH THE GREATEST DIFFERENCES

2

Source: BIGresearch

Figure 16 shows the activities and interests that are associated with each media generation. \Vatching TV, for example, is the most commonly selected activity for every generation with the exception of the Internet group, the youngest in the sample. If we compare the average interest across all the items in the BIGresearch SIMM data, some thought-provoking insights begin to appear. Between the Silent and Hippie generations the average percent drops from about 37% to a low of 27%. Both the Computer and Internet gen­
erations are more interested in more things with averages at 40% or a little higher.

FIGURE 16: TOP ACTIVITY INTERESTS AND AVERAGE INTEREST LEVEL BY MEDIA GENERATIONS
(The numbers in the table are percentages.)

Silent Mass Space Hippie Computer Internet

j

Source: BIGresearch

62 MEdiA Generations Media Generations 63

Figure 17 shows health conditions by media generation. The Silent other types of alcohol. Fast food restaurant visits are highest Generation has the most health conditions, especially arthritis, high among the Hippie Generation.
blood pressure and high cholesterol. The younger segments have more
allergies, depression and insomnia. FIGURE 18: PURCHASE BEHAVIOR BY MEDIA GENERATIONS
(The numbers in the table are percentages.)

FIGURE 17: HEALTH BY MEDIA GENERATIONS
(The numbers in the table are percentages.)

s&
& – §’,Q, $

Q:;’

!$’ <:;' ..g.; - s Q:;' Purchase Online: Cl., c, ;.$ Regularly 21.8 27.2 29.2 29.8 27.9 15.9 27.1 Occasionally 67.0 64.3 62.8 64.0 64.3 71.l 64.6 12.9 8.3 64.9 76.5 75.0 69.1 4.4 4.6 37 62 18 49 5 23 4 22 4 15 Source: BIGresearch Selected purchase behavior, shown in Figure 18, indicates high levels of online purchasing for all segments, although the Internet Generation reports a higher level of "occasionally pur­ chase online" compared with the others. Younger segments are more likely to purchase organic products, and the Hippie and Computer generations are most likely to purchase beer, wine or Source: BIGresearch Figure 19 shows that the younger segments are the ones buying and driving foreign cars. It is also interesting that both Computer and Internet generations report being more likely not to own a car. Figure 20 shows the Internet and Computer generations to be far more likely to download music or videos to an iPod or cell phone than are other groups. Yet, it seems that all generations do partici- pate in downloading music. FIGURE 19: CAR OWNERSHIP BY MEDIA GENERATION The SIMM data clearly shows that media generations do exist in (The numbers in the table are percentages.) the U.S. population and can be identified based on the media forms & they consume. Further, the SIMM data helps in understanding the •,}/ § V' types of products the generations consume and, thus, provides poten- (i.; & §9' . ,& c-, :$ cJ '-$ c' tial for predictive valuation going forward. The value of this data is that it provides media planners and buyers new ways to consider audiences when allocating media resources. It is another step in truly building customer-centric media plans. In Chapter 5, we begin to tie the various views of consum- ers together by understanding media usage and media influence on purchases. Source: BIGresearch FIGURE 20: DEVICE DOWNLOADED TO BY MEDIA GENERATION (11ie numbers in the table are percentages.) s& V' References Dou, \Venyu, Guangping Wang and Nan Zhou. "Generational and Regional Differences in Media Consumption Patterns of Chinese Generation X Consumers.'' journal of Advertising 35 (Summer 2006) 101-110. Strauss, vVilliam and Neil Howe. 7he Fourth Turning. Broadway Books, New York, 1998. Strauss, William and Neil Howe. Generations. William Morrow, New York, 1991. (ii.;:i & •.J: S, ,& c-, :if §' () '-$ PC 34.0 35;8 38.1 45.1 54.1 54.8 43.2 iPod 4.3 11.2 18.0 28.6 33.5 41.4 21.8 MP3 Player 3.4 7.4 12.1 19.5 23.0 29.1 14.9 Cell Phone 2.5 6.3 9.7 17.0 24.9 28.9 14.1 Mac 2.9 2.7 2..7 3.2 6.8 8,2 4.1 Source: BIGresearch 68 MEdiA Generations Media Measurement Today Media have traditionally been measured on the basis of their distribu­ tion, with consumption added, where possible, as an attempt to dem­ onstrate the medium's value. Most measures are attempts to illustrate consumer choice in a particular media category, for example, Channel 5 vs. Channel 7 or National Geographic vs. Atlantic. This typically has been referred to as intra-media comparison. In all cases, as above, current day measures involve primarily OTS or potential exposure. For example, if a magazine or newspaper is de­ livered to a home, the assumption is made that it was consumed (read) by some people for some period of time. Broadcast media is measured in the same way-if the set is on, it is assumed that someone is watch­ ing or listening. In other words, what is being measured is '(opportunity to consume" not actual consumption. Broadcast media have typically been measured according to their rating points (the percent of households viewing or listening, compared with the total market) within a specific time period (usually a quarter hour) or daypart. Thus, the idea is that Station A can be directly com­ pared with station B in terms of the potential audience it delivers in the specified time period. This is generally aggregated to longer time over the value of an exposure to a thirty-second television commercial compared with seeing a full-page advertisement in a magazine. Time Allocation as a New Media Measure Given the difficulties of determining who is reading, watching or listen- one way to make the media usage standard across all media categories is to measure the time spent with it by individuals, not by households exposed. Media usage, thus, becomes a time allocation proble . The premise is simple: consumers would allocate more time to media that are more attractive or of greater interest or provide greater value to them as individuals. Those media that have fewer consumer values would be allocated less time by those same individuals. Thus, reported time spent with each of the 31 media forms tracked in the SIMM studies becomes one of the key ingredients in understanding media consumption. Time budget studies have long been used to determine lifestyles and to make group comparisons, such as working and non-working women, or across different countries or regions. Media consumption, as reported by the audience, then, can be expressed as an average .num­ ber of minutes per day. Keeping in mind that there are 1440 minutes ina day (24 hours x 60 minutes per hour) the average could also be periods, such as a week, in the form of gross rating points (the sum of the ratings) for the time period. The ratings can be easily translated expressed as a percentage of the day. For examp1e,1•f someone 8 hours, that converts to 480 minutes, or 33% of the day. for into an OTS audience, either as a net unduplicated audience or reach, or as a duplicated or gross audience. The reach is generally divided into the gross audience to estimate average frequency (see Chapter 3). The print media audience is typically measured in terms of the households receiving the publication or the persons claiming to read it. Claiming to read has a number of measurement advantages, but, for the most part, they are designed to show, again, that one publication Measuring media consumption in minutes provides a uniform basis of comparison across all media categories. Obviously, media consumption changes across time periods. }or example, weekdays a e different from weekends, which allow for more discretionary media time. However, to keep the analysis simple, in the SIMM reports that follow weekdavs are averaged together with weekends. There is also the problem of simultaneous media consumption, has a larger audience (more people reading) than another publication. that isa, person consuming n:vo or more media at the same time. \Ve Because print media measures are quite different from broadcast me­ dia, it is difficult to directly compare them. A classic argument has will ignore that issue for the moment, but return to it later, as it isa key element in media consumption. The media categories included here are those that are measured through the BIGresearch SIMM studies. Media Consumption The most obvious question that arises is, are allmedia consumed in the same way? The answer, of course, is no-but, not always for the reasons that are commonly thought. We now look at individual media forms and discuss what we have learned from the SIMM data over the past six years. Television Television has historically been considered the dominant mass medium in the United States. As we will show in this section, a major argument about the level of that dominance can be made today. On average, the typical American spent 129.6 minutes per day watching TV, a little over two hours, during the first half of 2008. This based on the reports of a sample of 17,327 consumers who make up a representative sample of the entire U.S. population. Figure 21 shows the individual media usage trend, based on SIMM FIGURE 21: TV USAGE TREND (IN MINUTES) December June 2006 December June 2007 December June 2008 2005 2006 2007 Source: BIGresearch FIGURE 22: U.S. AVERAGE TV USAGE (ESTIMATES FOR Minutes per Day data, over the past three years, or six SIMM reporting periods. The period-to-period changes indicate some volatility in usage, moving from a high of 137.1 minutes in December 2006 to a low of 126.7 minutes in December 2005. Overall television usage in the U.S. is in­ creasing slightly, that is, at an average rate of 0.6% over the six SIMM data periods reported here. This has occurred despite the decline in consumption in the most recent period. There is disagreement over the amount of time consumers spend with television. Figure 22 shows the estimates of several sources for June 2005. This is the last time all of the measures could be compared at the same point in time. The BIGresearch estimate of 145.6 minutes BIGresearch Online self-reported recall (n=lS,000) American Time Use Survey* Time budget interview (n=13,000) ACNielsen People Meter (n=S,000) Middletm,vn II** Observation ( n=300) 145.6 154.8 259.2 266.0 Source: BIGresearch for June 2005 is considerably higher than that shown for December 2005 in Figure 21. As shown, there was a substantial drop in 2005. * Ball State University ** U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics The BIGresearch estimate is reasonably close to that of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics American Time Use Survey, which is 155 minutes. The estimate, however, is considerably below the Nielsen esti­ mate of nearly 260 minutes. This can be partly explained since Nielsen estimate of over four hours per day is for a household, whereas the BIGresearch estimate is for an individual. There are also some possible methodological biases inherent in the two measures, which we will not discuss at this point. Media Usage by Media Generation The figures above are all aggregated audiences. While that informa­ tion is useful for the media planner, the more important question is, "who are the people who are doing the watching," or "who are FIGURE 23: TELEVISION CONSUMPTION BY MEDIA GENERATIONS (JUNE 2008) Minutes per Day Silent 136.1 Mass 132.3 Space 130.5 Hippie 124.6 Computer 130.3 Internet 126.0 Total 129.6 Source: BIGresearch FIGURE 24: TV PROGRAMMING PREFERENCES BY MEDIA GENERATION (JUNE 2008) the media consumers and what do we know about them"? It is this granularity that becomes critical when selecting one media form 8""' & VJ - /2:-0:. & s§. $ § ,& ;..$' ;:.::; Differences are greater among the types of television programs consumed (reported watched) than the average minutes per day. This intra-media comparison is a key element in most media plans. Figure 24 shows some of the seemingly age-related skews observed. 42 45 28 38 24 36 29 32 22 30 24 30 19 26 27 25 13 25 22 23 18 22 29 20 Music video 6 9 15 18 24 26 16 NASCAR 12 12 12 11 10 8 11 Soap operas 7 9 12 12 12 10 11 Religious shows 11 10 11 10 8 7 10 Wrestling 3 4 5 8 10 10 7 Source: BIGresearch Clearly, if the media planner uses the media generations concept, some new insights and implications arise in terms of how media might be allocated. By a considerable margin, movies are the media content that is most widely consumed by all generations. Music videos are highly skewed toward the younger groups, as are reality shows. Thus, with the SIMM data, the planner can go beyond the basic demograph­ ics as reported by the syndicated audience measurement companies. Radio Radio measures have become quite complicated as a result of the ad­ dition of satellite and Web radio to the spectrum choices. Figure 25 shows the total radio consumption at 129.9 minutes a day. This shows that virtually the same amount of time was spent with radio in the U.S. in June 2008 as was spent with television. This is composed of 93.5 minutes of terrestrial radio, 22.0 minutes of satellite radio, and 14.4 minutes of Web radio. FIGURE 25: RADIO USAGE BY TYPE (IN MINUTES) As Figure 26 shows, consumption of radio as a medium is grow­ ing-attheaverage rate of 1.4% for the half-year period of this SIMM data. That is almost twice the growth rate of television viewing. The growth pattern of radio has been reasonably consistent during the time of the SIMM studies. FIGURE 26: \LL RADIO USAGE TREND (IN MINUTES) 140 120 100 80 60 40 140 ................................•. 20 .................................. 120 0 100 80 60 December June 2006 December June 2007 December June 2008 2005 2006 2007 Source: BIGresearch 40 20 0 December 2005 June 2006 December 2006 June 2007 December 2007 June 2008 As might be expected, there are major variations in how the vari­ ous forms of radio are consumed. Figure 27 shows radio consumption by media generations. Clearly, the new forms of radio broadcast are unevenly distributed with satellite appealing to the older groups and D Terrestrial Radio ra Satellite Radio DWeb Radio web radio to the younger. Source: BIGresearch FIGURE 27: RADIO CONSUMPTION BY MEDIA GENERATIONS (JUNE 2008) 130 Terrestrial Satellite Web All Radio 128 126 Mass 91.7 20.9 7.8 120.4 124 122 120 118 Internet 80.1 19.0 23.9 Internet 122.8 Source: BIGresearch 116 114 112 December June 2006 December June 2007 December June 2008 2005 2006 2007 Source: BIGresearch The Internet consists of a variety of marketing communication ac­ tivities including banner ads, pop-ups and Web sites. These are the media forms that are most often included when search and keyword marketing are considered. Figure 28 shows that an average 127.5 minutes per day was spent by consumers in June 2008 on Internet and Internet-related activities. Interestingly, in spite of the huge industry focus on these new forms of media, in the U.S., the trend is nearly flat. In fact, there was an average decrease per six-month interval of 0.1%. Figure 29 illustrates Internet by the various media gen- erations as gathered through the SIMM data. There is a clear "digital divide" between the Internet and Computer generations and the four older generations. While one would have logically expected this, the clarity of the division is striking. We can only assume this gap in usage will only grow in the future. This data clearly supports the concept of"digital natives" and "digi­ tal immigrants," where the Silent and Mass media generations have Internet consumption of only two-thirds or so of the Computer and Internet generations. FIGURE 29: INTERNET USAGE BY MEDIA GENERATIONS Minutes Silent 100.2 Mass 111.0 Space 122.7 Hippie 132.2 Computer 152.2 Internet 157.7 Total 127.5 Source: BIGresearch Figure 30 shows the reported online entertainment activities. Shopping is the most popular activity, followed by weather, movie news,TV news and viewing photos. The research category also includes hobbies, the visit video-sharing sites include YouTube and the virtual world category includes Second FIGURE 30: ONLINE ENTERTAINMENT ACTIVITIES (JUNE 2008) FIGURE 31: FACTOR ANALYSIS OF ONLINE ENTERTAINMENT & § 6.6 8• .§ :fJ f;,q_ 4' $ v Movie news 0.71 i:.c..' l:.c..'1:! cJ Source: BIGresearch \Vhile a visual inspection of the amount of time spent, as shown above, shows a wide variation in types of uses, Figure 31 presents the results of a factor analysis that reduces the twenty-five choices to six major groups. The first factor group includes news about movies, music and television along with celebrity gossip. We have labeled this group Music news 0.69 Celebrity gossip 0.62 TV news 0.53 Share stories with friends 0.68 View photos from friends 0.61 Get advice from friends 0.57 IM/chat 0.46 Visit video-sharing sites 0.43 Adult entertainment 0.56 Fantasy sports 0.52 Gambling 0.50 Video games 0.48 Online dating 0.40 Sports news & scores 0.70 Stock market/business news 0.64 Weather 0.47 Online auctions 0.70 Shopping 0.58 of content :Media. second group, labeled Friends, includes sharing Research/get ideas for hobbies 0.57 activities, IM and chat. 1he Fantasy group includes adult entertain­ ment, fantasy sports, gambling and video games. TI1e Facts group includes sports news, stock market and weather. Shopping speaks for itself. TI1e last group, Nostalgia, includes horoscopes, genealogy and looking for old friends and classmates. Horoscopes/astrology 0.56 Genealogy research 0.50 Locate old friends/classmates 0.45 Source: BIGresearch 80 MEdiA Generations Comparing these online entertainment activity groups to the media generations reveals how the same medium, the Internet, is used very differently. Figure 32 shows the media activity interest is high among both the Computer and Internet generations. What distinguishes the Internet Generation from the Computer Generation, though, is the farmer's greater interest in friend and fantasy activities. The Space Generation is near average on most activities. The .Mass Generation is most interested in shopping. The Silent Generation is most interested in facts and nostalgia and has the lowest interest in fantasy. FIGURE 32: ONLINE ENTERTAINMENT ACTIVITY FACTORS BY MEDIA GENERATIONS INDEX (JUNE 2008) subcategories. What is interesting is that all four categories have maintained their relative standing compared with each other for the past four years. FIGURE 33: DIGITAL USAGE BY TYPE (IN MINUTES) 250 200 150 Media Friends Fantasy Facts Shopping Nostalgia 100 Mass 88 86 79 111 107 104 100 Hippie 113 90 106 101 102 94 Computer 122 133 81 100 95 Internet 120 145 150 64 82 69 50 0 December June 2006 2005 Email December June 2007 2006 !iilM Blog December June 2008 2007 DGames Source: BIGresearch Digital Media Source: BIGresearch Figure 34 shows the total amount of time consumers spent with digital media decreasing by 1.4% over the three-year measur­ ing period (SIMM data is in six month increments). While this is still a very small decrease, what is interesting is that it is the Digital media in the SIMM studies are defined as e-mail, instant messaging (IM), blogs and video games. This media form rep­ resents the single largest category in terms of allocated time in all the SIMM reports. As shown, there was an average total of 220.3 minutes per day devoted to digital media by SIMM respon­ dents in June 2008. Figure 33 shows the composition of the four fastest decreasing category out of the 31 media forms studied in the SIMM file. This seems to illustrate that the category is still quite volatile. Most of the observed current decrease can be attributed to blogs and video game time. 82 MEdiA Generations FIGURE 34: ALL DIGITAL MEDIA USAGE TREND (IN MINUTES) Print Media 250 200 150 100 50 0 December June 2006 December June 2007 December June 2008 2005 2006 2007 Source: BIGresearch Figure 35 illustrates the digital media usage by the media generations. Because the three categories of print media seem to share common characteristics we have combined them for this discussion. Newspapers, as shown in Figure 36, represent the smallest of the media consumption categories with an average daily usage of 44.8 minutes. However, what is interesting-when one considers all the poor publicity newspapers have received over the past few years-is that, according to SIMM studies, newspapers showed a 1.71% growth rate in time allocated over the past six months. Figure 37 shows the newspaper preferences by media generations, based on the reported time spent, from the SIMM data. As can be seen, the preference for local dailies and weeklies, as indicated by the time spent with them, increases with age, with the Silent and Mass generations leading the way. It is interesting to note that the national It strongly reinforces the digital divide idea that has become so popular. The Computer and Internet generations spend nearly 300 min­ utes per day or more on digital media, or about five hours. This can be compared to the older generations who spend around 200 minutes per day-substantially less. The differences would be even more pro­ nounced, if e-mail were removed from the digital media category. newspapers have a different pattern, with USA Today and the Ula!! Street journal showing consistent consumption patterns across all the media generations. Of particular note is the increased consumption of the New York Tinies among the Internet Generation. FIGURE 35: DIGITAL MEDIA USAGE BY MEDIA GENERATIONS 48 (JUNE 2008) 47 46 45 44 43 42 41 40 39 38 Source: BIGresearch Source: BIGresearch FIGURE 37: NEWSPAPER PREFERENCES BY MEDIA GENERATION (JUNE 2008) iJ !$' & - § $ '-3- ' $ VJ # c.Y -$ New York Times 6 6 5 6 9 11 7 USA Today 12 12 11 10 10 10 11 Wall Street Journal 7 6 6 6 7 6 6 Local dailies 52 48 44 38 30 25 40 Weekly newspapers 32 29 27 24 17 15 25 Source: BIGresearch Magazines The three-year period for magazine consumption, measured by the reported amount of time spent with all titles, is shown in Figure 38. Most recently, magazine usage is growing at a rate of 1.38% per six­ month period. In the current SIMM period, June 2008, magazine consumption averaged 49.1 minutes per day. FIGURE 38: Figure 39 shows magazine usage, and, therefore, magazine preference by media generation. Several magazines such as Time, Newsweek, Good Housekeeping, and Reader's Digest clearly skew to­ ward the oldest generation-the Silents. Cosmopolitan skews toward the Internet Generation. Thus, we can see the power of the SIMM data, if it is used by the media planners and buyers to understand not just magazine circulation, but also consumer usage of the various magazine titles. FIGURE 39: ToP TEN MAGAZINE PREFERENCES BY MEDIA GENERATION (JUNE 2008) iJ !$' & r$. $ MAGAZINE USAGE TREND (IN MINUTES) Direct Mail Source: BIGresearch December June 2006 December June 2007 December June 2008 2005 2006 2007 Source: BIGresearch A very important media form, not commonly measured through traditional media analysis, is direct mail. For the most part, media planners and buyers have seldom considered the amount of consumer time or attention direct mail receives from consumers. Being primarily 86 MEdiA Generations response or results focused, that is, a sale or a movement toward a sale, direct has been hampered in the past by having a very limited view of how the medium competes in the overall media spectrum. SIMM data, however, provides an insight into direct mail that can and should be very helpful to media planners and buyers in developing integrated communication programs. Figure 40 shows the direct mail usage amounts from the SIMM studies. The current period average for direct mail is 56.3 minutes. Most interestingly, direct mail has been the fastest growing media consumption category over the past three years as measured by SIMM data. The consumption rate of direct mail has increased by 2.76%, dur­ ing the study time. FIGURE 40: DIRECT MAIL USAGE TREND (IN MINUTES) 44 ------------------------- ) December June 2006 December June 2007 December June 2008 2005 2006 2007 Source: BIGresearch All three print media categories-newspapers, magazines and di­ rect mail-show a similar pattern, that is, a drop-off in consumption among the Internet Generation. That is shown in Figure 41. Direct mail, however, increases slightly for the Mass, Space and Hippie generations. FIGURE 41: PRINT MEDIA USAGE BY MEDIA GENERATIONS Source: BIGresearch \Vith this view of the consumption of specific media forms related to the concept of media generations, we now turn to an overview of all media. Media Types The major media categories appear to fall into two groups, based upon the historical changes over the past three The Internet, digital media, magazines and TV all seem to the same characteristics of relatively low half-year-to-half-year growth and very low correlation coefficients (R2) with the number of months measured. A high cor­ relation would mean a linear trend in one direction or the other, i.e., up or down. Low correlation signifies volatility, or measurable up and down movement, in the usage levels from one study to another. It is this volatility which should be of interest to media planners and buyers. The media marketplace is certainly not static and assuming that media values are consistent could create major errors in media planning and buying. Figure 42 shows the summaries for the seven categories. shown, those categories-Internet, digital, magazines and all share low growth and high volatility. That would seem to mean that consumers are selecting those media forms because of current content or perceived content over time. For example, given the importance of newsstand sales of magazines, it is reasonable to assume the magazine is selected because of the content in that issue, for example, a "swimsuit edition" or other attractive content feature. We hypothesize that other media in this category are likely selected for the same reason, such as a favorite TV show or a well-known Web site. Thus, we have characterized these media forms as being primarily content oriented. Theother three categories - newspapers, radio and direct mail- all rely on a dependable stream of material. Radio is tuned to a particular frequency or station with the expectation that the media experience will have some benefit to the consumer. Similarly, a newspaper is chosen for its overall value rather than a particular news story. The mailbox fills with catalogs for those consumers who are mail shoppers. Here, we argue, the choice is based on the media channel, rather than on the specific content of the media form that is most critical. If our hypothesis is correct, it does much to explain why these media forms are less volatile because that is in their very nature. FIGURE 42: MEDIA USAGE TYPES (JUNE 2008) Min Max Current Percent R2 Content Media This type of analysis can be very helpful to media planners for it provides a new and different view of how media are used and, thus, how the marketer might improve the media plans going forward. Simultaneous Usage A major area of interest, which was alluded to earlier in this chap­ ter, is simultaneous media usage. That simply means consumers are multi-tasking during their media consumption activities. For example, they may be online, listening to or monitoring the television, flipping through a magazine and talking on a cell phone all at the same time, a not-unheard-of feat for most of today's teenagers. If all the media categories, reported in the consumption and usage section of the SIMM report are aggregated, the average total media consumption by person is 757.5 minutes, or 12.6 hours, per day. This clearly illustrates that for this type of media consumption to be possible, some of the media usage must be accomplished while the respondent is engaged in other media activities. While this simultaneous media usage is commonly recognized in advertising and marketing circles, it is totally ignored in the current media measures; television viewing is still estimated separately and independently, as is radio, and as are newspapers and magazines. In short, the industry is plagued with histori­ cal measurement approaches that have little or no relevance to Channel Media knows this. Yet, radio is still measured on the basis of intra-media Source: BIGresearch Monochronic vs. Polychronic Media Consumer Behavior Two concepts not often referenced in media planning are monochronic and polychronic information processing by media users. Qyite simply, these terms describe how people use their time and how they process information. People who are monochronic processors tend to use their time sequentially, that is, they do one thing, then another, in some sort of sequence. Polychronic processors, however, deal with informa­ tion and activities in parallel. Simply put, they multitask with media forms - listening to the radio while going through the direct mail and scanning e-mail, all simultaneously. The Silent and Mass generations were taught initially to read, a sequential activity, one word follow­ ing another, one page after another and one chapter after another. So, they tend to be monochronic information processors. Digital na­ tives-those whogrew up with television, computers, cell phones and the like- are generally polychronic processors. The relevance of these two concepts becomes quite clear when we start to look at simultane­ ous media consumption. Media planners, and certainly those who measure media distribu­ tion, seemingly have assumed that all mass media are consumed one at a time, that is, monochronically. That is clearly apparent in the way they identify and measure audience media involvement and activity. The inherent bias in the audience measurement systems is that people exposed to television programming- and, therefore, television com­ mercials-can or will do nothing else at that time. It is assumed that they are totally engaged with that single medium. Anyone who has ever watched television knows this is not right, yet, when it comes to media planning, we toss out all we know about how people behave and slavishly follow the measurement systems devised fifty or more years ago. At that time, single focused attention by individuals and perhaps even families may have occurred in some households but those days are long gone. The idea that a medium can be consumed polychronically, that is, in combination with other media forms is new in the media lexicon. Watching television, for example, is commonly accompanied with on­ line activity at the same time. That is clearly shown in the SIMM data that follows. This idea of simultaneous consumption of media-con­ suming more than one medium at the same time, polychronically-is still a relatively new area for traditional media planning. We first re­ ported and demonstrated this phenomenon in a paper presented at the ARF in 2002 and at the ARF Think Conference in 2003. It has since been demonstrated in SIMM studies and reported at three ESOMAR media planning and allocation conferences in Geneva, 2004, Montreal, 2005 and Shanghai, 2006. Thus, while simultaneous media consump­ tion by consumers is not a new idea and is widely recognized in the literature and in trade publications, it has been slow to develop in me­ dia planning and buying circles. Unfortunately, media planners have seemingly preferred to maintain the individual intra-media measures to which they are accustomed. In the SIMM studies, the most common media usage combination is going online, then turning on the TV and paying attention to both at the same time. Figure 43, which shows the most current SIMM studied figures, shows this polychronic behavior: 38% of respondents have gone online first and then engaged in television viewing. This is the sort of information that is missing from most media planning and buying approaches today. One of the key points of this simultane­ ous usage is that the SIMM data shows that when questioned about media behavior in the "other direction''-that is watching TV and then going online-only 26% of respondents report this behavior (also in Figure 43). 111is is a key finding from the SIMM studies. People clearly have a primary medium, which they are using, and a secondary medium to which they are also attending, for example, "I'm online, but I'm also monitoring television," or "I'm watching TV, but I'm also monitor­ ing the Web and my e-mail." Thus, consumers have created what we have termed "foreground" and "background" media for themselves. Importantly, only they know which is which during what period of time. This is an area that has been totally neglected in media plan­ ning and buying. SIMM studies are the only research technique that FIGURE 44: AVERAGE SIMULTANEOUS CONSUMPTION PERCENTAGE BY MEDIA GENERATION Percent Simultaneous enables the marketer to know and understand what is truly happening in the media marketplace. When you are online are you also watching TV? This generally ap­ pears in most charts when we are reporting Simultaneous Media Usage. Silent Mass Space Hippie Computer Internet 12.7 15.2 16.4 16.4 18.5 17.2 FIGURE 43: U.S. MEDIA FORMS USED TOGETHER (JUNE 2008) Primary Medium (Regularly only) Online TV Mags News Direct Cell Radio Online 26 6 8 10 14 17 TV 38 20 24 21 15 8 Mags 7 10 5 8 News 10 12 5 11 Direct 21 14 7 11 Radio 22 4 12 13 12 12 Source: BIGresearch Averaging the simultaneous media usage behavior across all media to facilitate relevant comparisons yields an overall average of 16.3% (as shown in Figure 44). Comparing this across media generations shows the Computer Generation with the highest rate of simultaneous consumption. The Internet Generation shows a small decrease prob­ ably because they watch less television. Of special note, is the much lower figure for the Silent Generation. Clearly, they have maintained their monochronic processing methods in which they were initially trained as children. From this, it is easy to see why traditional media measurement systems were developed in the mid-twentieth century. They made sense then, but they are totally obsolete now. Total 16.3 Source: BIGresearch With this view of how consumers actually use media, not how syn­ dicated services estimate their usage, we move to a totally new measure that becomes possible from SIMM data- media influence. References Schultz, Don E. and Joseph J. Pilotta "Developing the Foundation for a New Approach to Understanding How Media Advertising Works," 3rd Annual ESOMAR/ARF \i\Torld Audience Measurement Conference,June 13-18, 2004, Geneva. Pilotta,J.J., Schultz, D. E., Drenik, G. & Rist, P. (2004)."Simultaneous media usage: A critical consumer orientation to media planning." Journal of Consumer Behavior, Volume 3, Issue 3, 285-292. Schultz, Don E.,JosephJ. Pilotta and Martin P. Block,"Implementing a Media Consumption Model," 4th Annual ESOMAR/ ARF World Audience Measurement Conference,June 22-24, 2005, Montreal. Schultz, Don E., Joseph J. Pilotta and Martin P. Block, "Media Consumption and Purchasing," ESOMAR M3 Conference, June, 2006, Shanghai. Media Influence 97 This idea of engagement-or, more practically, media attention-is the one single measure that appears to be consistent across all media categories. As Figure 45 shows, most consumers pay little attention to advertising. With 5% or less of the viewing audience paying full atten­ tion to what is occurring on the television screen, understanding media engagement becomes a major media decision point. Put another way, the media form becomes important when the consumer deems it important and considers it to be influential on their purchase decisions, not when the marketer invests the greatest amount of the advertising budget in it. FIGURE 45: PAYING ATTENTION TO TV COMMERCIALS? (JUNE 2008) Don't regularly or occasionally Percent Figure 46 shows the average percent of historical influences across twenty media and marketing communication categories. While there is some up and down movement, the patterns in the data have been relatively stable over the past three years. There are some differences, however, that merit further discussion. FIGURE 46: AVERAGE MEDIA INFLUENCES (PERCENTAGES) Blog IM Picture Phone lnstore Read Article FuUy ttend..corritnerc,ial Leave the room Talkwith others Mentally tune out Read magazine or book Go online 955 93.8 88.4 75.0 65.7 Source: BIGresearch Word-of-Mouth Cable 1V Web Radio Satellite Radio Outdoor Yellow Pages A more important measure is one developed by BIGresearch and measured through the SIMM data: how influential is the media form in helping you make decisions about what products or services to purchase. We argue this is a much more important view of the media than simply which ones the consumer likes or which ones they prefer. The primary importance in measuring media audiences to marketers is whether or not the product or service is seen or attended to, not whether or not the media form was enjoyed. Thus, for the past three years, SIMM data has included questions on the importance the media has on helping consumers make decisions about product purchasing. Internet Inserts Newspapers Magazines Coupons Email Direct 0.0 5.0 10.0 15.0 20.0 25.0 30.0 35.0 40.0 D Jun-06 Ill Jun-08 Source: BIGresearch Figure 47 shows the percentage of consumers that report the impact of various media communication activities on their purchase decisions. As shown, word of mouth is the media form consumers report has the greatest influence on their purchasing decisions with FIGURE 47: AVERAGE INFLUENCE BY MARKETING COMMUNICATION ACTIVITY (JUNE 2008) Percent just over 36% of the sample selecting it. The next two categories are "below-the-line" activities-coupons and inserts. While media planners may have some indirect influence on these forms of media, they are not considered "media" in many planning approaches. Thus, we begin to see the importance of viewing media and communica­ tion in a very broad way, not just the traditional forms of television, radio and magazines and even with the addition of the new digital media forms of Internet, mobile and the like. Perhaps a better term than media would be "brand contact points" as some writers have suggested. Near the bottom of the media forms that influence consumer's purchase decisions are categories such as texting and advertisements in video games at around 2%. These are low not because their impact is unimportant but because they currently have very low utilization. As usage of these new forms of media grow, their importance will likely grow as well. Note: The base in the media influence chart below is always the total sample from the SIMM studies, much like a television rating. Comparing the month-to-month growth rates over the past three years of SIMM data shows a somewhat different picture, however. Figure 48 shows blogs, coupons and in-store promotion growing in influence. Television is declining the most rapidly, at 4.7% every six months. So, while television audiences may be stable or ever growing, the impact of television in the key area of influence on purchase decisions seems to be declining rather dramatically. Word of mouth Coupon.s Inserts TV Newspapers Read an article In-store Direct mail Magazines Cable Radio Internet E-mail Product placement Outdoor Yellow Pages Blogs Satellite IM Web radio Text Games Picture phone 36.23 28.38 21.51 20.82 19.97 19.79 19.56 19.09 17.03 13.64 13.07 12.27 11.7 9.01 7.22 7.01 3.14 3.12 2.86 2.65 2.49 2.38 2.2 Source: BIGresearch FIGURE 48: AVERAGE 3-YEAR INFLUENCE GROWTH RATE BY MARKETING COMMUNICATION ACTIVITY (JUNE 2008) Percent Growth Rate Growing TV decline has been consistent over the past three years. The Internet, inserts and magazines have been up and down in the past three years showing rapid changes from one study period to another. FIGURE 49: AVERAGE 3-YEAR INFLUENCE VOLATILITY BY MARKETING COMMUNICATION ACTIVITY (JUNE 2008) R2 Read article 19.8 1.83 Steady IM 2.9 0.80 Inserts 21.5 0.45 Magazines 17.0 0.03 Outdoor 7.2 -0.70 Declining 0.80 0.77 0.75 0.73 0.72 0.71 In-store 19.6 0.70 Moderate Radio 13.1 0.61 Read an article 19.8 0.58 Blogs 3.1 0.55 Cable 13.6 0.53 Yellow Pages 7.0 0.50 Volatile It is also important to consider the relative pattern of change as shown in Figure 49. Coupons and TV are stable, also meaning that the Source: BIGresearch 102 MEdiA Generations Media Influence FIGURE 50: MEDIA CATEGORY INFLUENCE BY MEDIA One of the greatest advantages of the SIMM data is that it allows GENERATION (JUNE 2008) us to convert the data above for the entire population to the various & media generations that have been identified. Figure 50 shows the c... (i, • § ,-$' qJ' tive influence by media generations. Figure 51 shows the categories that are relatively high among each of the generations. Not only do the categories change, but also the number of categories. The Computer and Internet generations appear to be much easier to influence through the media forms they use and claim connections to a much wider variety of media, especially the digital ones, than do some of the other groups. As shown, only the Silent Generation say they are influenced more than average by the newspaper. Source: BIGresearch FIGURE 51: HIGH INFLUENCE CATEGORIES BY MEDIA GENERATIONS Silent Mass Space Hippie Computer Internet Newspaper Newspaper Inserts Satellite Text Text Inserts TV Coupons Games Games Read In-store Radio Web Blogs Radio IM Video Direct Video Web Radio Newspaper IM Blogs Satellite Outdoor Outdoor Satellite Internet Internet Placement Placement Cable Cable Radio Yellow Magazines Radio E-mail Magazines Yellow 104 MEdiA Generations What is most interesting about the table above is the wide variety of media that influence the Computer and Internet genera­ tions and the low number of media for the Silent and Mass groups. Clearly, media is becoming more important to younger consumers, but their attention is divided across a broad array of media forms. This provides more evidence of the need for inter-media compari­ sons rather than the intra-media comparisons, which have been the common rule. Figure 52 shows the differences by media generation based on a comparison of the influence of content- versus channel-oriented me­ dia and other approaches. Content media are the average of Internet, e-mail, IM, blogs, games, magazines, TV and cable. Channel media are the average of newspaper, radio, Web radio, satellite radio and di­ rect mail. Promotion is the average of coupons and inserts. The ratio compares the relative influence of the two types of media. This ad­ justs for the lower proneness to influence that occurs among the older generations. FIGURE 52: MEDIA TYPE INFLUENCE COMPARISON BY MEDIA GENERATION (JUNE 2008) s& "" q C' $ Source: BIGresearch It is clear that content-oriented media increase in importance among the younger generations. Older generations are more focused on channel media. Content media and channel media provide another alterna- tive method for media planners and buyers to consider media outlet in making decisions. It is this ability to develop multiple analytical methods that illustrates the value of SIMM data analysis, rather than sheer audience numbers or intra-media comparisons among television stations or magazine titles. SIMM data analysis moves the entire area of media planning, buying and measurement up to the strategic level in the organization rather than being simply an analytical exercise using standardized syndicated media studies. Of growing importance in today's retail-driven marketplace, where major chains control huge shares of overall consumer spending, is the impact and effect of in-store promotional activities. Figure 53 shows the relative influence of various retail promotions by media generation. The chart should be interpreted as providing a view of the percent of each media generation saying which retail activity influences them the most in terms of their purchasing decision. As shown below, the younger media generations appear to be much more responsive to in-store promotions than are the older ones, especially the Silent and Mass generations. \,Vhether this is the result of the younger media generations being much more active in the marketplace or whether there are other, more fundamental, reasons is not known. Suffice it to say, that the development of in-store pro­ motions is a much more complicated task today than simply saying, "Let's do an end-aisle," or "Let's lay down some floor graphics." The SIMM data does, however, start to provide greater insight into the impact and effect of in-store promotions than simply measuring the number who pass by the shelf-sticker or RFID tag in the store. 106 MEdiA Generations FIGURE 53: RETAIL THEATER INFLUENCE BY MEDIA Summary GENERATION (JUNE 2008) 8"" §& & • §' ..s$, This chapter has provided the basic elements ofhow the SIMM data can be used to provide more sophisticated approaches to media planning .y and buying. It demonstrates that media planners need more today than '-') :if cJ --$' Samples to home 15.7 25.3 31.4 31.6 30.4 23.2 27.6 Samples in store 17.0 23.7 28.2 28.0 30.0 31.2 26.5 Reading labels 23.1 24.8 24.3 20.7 20.3 18.1 22.4 Loyalty cards 15.2 20.5 21.4 21.7 21.2 14.4 20.2 Shelf coupons 12.2 16.9 20.7 20.5 21.1 13.2 18.6 Samples online 8.3 15.6 18.6 19.9 21.4 16.2 17.6 In-store flyers 12.7 16.7 19.0 18.0 17.4 13.4 16.9 Special displays 7.8 13.0 16.1 16.8 18.4 16.6 15.2 Coupons at register 8.5 10.0 ll.5 13.1 14.0 9.0 11.6 In-store events 5.4 9.6 11.1 12.6 14.1 15.4 11.4 Ads on shelves 4.6 8.0 11.1 11.5 11.9 8.2 9.8 In-store signage 4.1 8.0 9.9 10.4 12.1 9.0 9.4 Parking lot events 2.3 5.4 6.7 7.6 10.2 8.7 7.0 In-store television 1.2 2.8 3.8 5.0 8.2 10.3 4.9 In-store radio 1.1 2.8 3.7 4.9 7.2 8.4 4.5 Check-out ads 0.9 2.5 2.8 4.6 6.0 5.1 3.7 Information kiosks 1.1 2.5 3.0 3.5 5.1 5.5 3.4 Floor graphics 1.4 2.2 3.1 3.3 4.6 5.0 3.2 Shopping cart ads 0.5 1.8 2.3 3.1 4.4 4.6 2.8 Source: BIGresearch the simple intra-media analysis on which the industry has been built. Given the wide range of media alternatives, for example, thirty-one in the current SIMM database, it is clear that inter-media measures are much more critical. Further, the development of the media generations concept provides a unique approach to rethinking the entire media planning and buying methodology. In the next chapter, we take the next step in revising media planning and buying-how media might be allocated based on their influence on consumers.

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