African Americans Lead in Multi-tasking
By Joe Pilotta
Targeting African Americans? New data from BIGresearch shows African Americans are heavy multi-taskers.
Based on the Simultaneous Media Survey, of over 14,000 respondents, we find there are differences in the African American simultaneous media and multi-tasking behavior when compared to the total population, and among African Americans above and below $50,000 income per year.
The data is based on “regular behavior” (behavior done 70 percent of the time).
In response to the question, “When you go online, do you simultaneously watch TV?” approximately 44 percent of African Americans watch TV regularly when online, while 37 percent of the total population watch TV regularly while online.
African Americans engage in other activities regularly when online, other than reading the mail, watching TV, reading the newspaper, reading magazines, and listening to the radio, more than the total population. This graph indicates that, generally, African Americans regularly SIMM-task and multi-task more than the total population when they go online.
For marketers, this data may affect the buying and pricing of media when two or more media are occupying the same time and place.
While the “When you watch TV…” chart has comparable percentages to the “When you go online…” chart, there are differences. The difference points out which medium becomes foreground and which becomes background during simultaneous use. This raises the issue, not only of two or more media at the same time, but which media are foreground and background when reaching your audience.
Joe Pilotta is vice president of BIGresearch and a Professor at Ohio State University’s School of Communications. He holds two Ph.D.s from Ohio University (Communication Research) and from University of Toronto (Sociology), Canada. He is on the ARF committee on Long Term Advertising Effects, and on the WOMMA Standards and Metric Committee. He is also co-founder of the Center for Globalization, Guatemala.
BIGresearch is a consumer intelligence company which creates a syndicated product from the consumers’ point-of-view; their experiences, needs, wants and difficulties in the consumer arena. Our monthly survey allows over 8,000 consumers to speak to the National Retail Federation, Retail Marketing Association and the President’s Council of Economic Advisors. Our survey has been featured in numerous publications such as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and myriads of local and international newspapers, online, as well as personally featured on CNBC.