One of the widely-held beliefs of modern marketing is that the Internet is cannibalizing time spent watching TV for a large set of consumers. These users are now watching their favorite shows on Hulu instead of network television and are getting their news from CNN.com instead of local news stations, thus reducing their TV time. Right?
Maybe not. The recently formed Nielsen TV/Internet Convergence Panel reported that many of the heaviest Internet users are also among the most frequent TV watchers. According to the panel, which measures both internet and TV usage among its members, the top fifth of Internet users spend an average of 250 minutes per day watching television – 30 minutes more than people who don't use the Internet at all. This implies that a subset of the population simply consumes media, period, and the addition of the Internet to their lifestyle did not necessarily cause any cannibalization. Interestingly, the panel also found that 31% of all in-home Internet usage takes place while the user is watching television – and 60% of panelists had at least one of these simultaneous sessions in the past month. That means quite a bit of the population is multi-tasking in their media consumption.
This information could be taken in multiple ways. On one hand, this is a problem – your audience is dividing their attention in multiple ways, making it less likely that they'll pay notice your ad. However, understanding how to utilize this consumer lifestyle could also create a real-life enactment of the Absolute Dream Marketing Scenario:
Joe, a typical 20-something heavy Internet user is sitting on his couch with his laptop, while watching television. A commercial comes on that catches his eye, and at the end of the advertisement a website address is given. His curiosity is piqued, and since he has a computer right there it's convenient for him to check it out. Now, Joe may go straight to the site by typing it into the navigational bar. If he's like a lot of users, he also might start at Google and search for it as a navigational query. In doing so, he would see a natural search listing as well as a paid ad, both of which would provide messaging that is consistent with the commercial he saw. He clicks through to the site, which is well-designed and creates a positive interaction with the brand. In fact, Joe likes it so much that he signs up for the brand's promotional emails, and eventually becomes a customer.
This scenario may seem a little too good to be true, but the idea is valid. Users are interacting with brands in a variety of mediums today, and a truly effective advertisers will leverage that knowledge to create a compelling user experience across all of them. And more than ever, it will be necessary to fully integrate online and offline marketing strategies, which is often easier said than done.
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Posted by: cheap jordans | February 15, 2011 at 06:05 PM