Mobium National Survey Finds Most Business Professionals Media Multitask While Working

2004-03-31

Mobium Creative Group found that 40% to 83% of business professionals media multitask while doing things related to their work, effectively diluting the amount of attention spent on any one medium. Measured media multitasking includes reading a newspaper or trade publications, watching TV, listening to the radio, working online, reviewing printed work materials and reviewing on and offline messages.

“We found that simultaneous media use is pervasive among business people…from 88% who read magazines while watching TV, to 70% who listen to the radio while they’re on line doing job related things, to 56% who look at business publications while they’re on the Internet,” says Guy Gangi, partner, Mobium Creative group.

The Mobium survey found that in most media categories, business-to-business people multitask more than consumers when compared to the results of a simultaneous media use consumer study conducted by Agora/BIGresearch. Even more telling is the fact that more than 8 of 10 business people say they pay more attention to one medium than another while media multitasking.

“If people are paying attention to more than one thing, can they grasp any of it? One thing is clear: the simplistic “three-hit” media models that were developed in the days of the Edsel and perpetuated ever since have, in practical terms, gone the way of the Edsel. The real issue is figuring out how and when to use “background” media to direct and drive audiences to attended-to, “foreground” media — media where involvement in messages is more intense, interactive, relevant, immediate and, as a result, more compelling and memorable at a specific time,” says Gordon Hochhalter, partner, Mobium Creative Group.

Last time they used media simultaneously, business people said they paid the most attention to:

Online		41%
Newspapers		20%
TV		18%
Trade journals		5%
General business publications		5%
Radio		4%
Direct mail		4%
Sales literature		1%
Never use media simultaneously		2%

Complete results of this and other surveys can be found at: http://www.mobium.com/community/surveys/survey_6_result.asp

Marketing Out Loud: The Mobium Online Marketing Survey

Mobium Creative Group conducts bimonthly marketing surveys on topics that address grassroots issues important to business-to-business (b-to-b) branding, advertising and marketing professionals. Surveys are conducted thorough the Mobium website, which contains one of the industry’s largest aggregations of marketing and branding data.

About Mobium Creative Group

Mobium Creative Group is a full-service, integrated business branding and communications firm specializing in business-to-business integrated communications, branding, relationship marketing, interactive media, and information architecture. Clients include CNH, Oc&#eacute; North America, NEC-Mitsubishi, IFF, Hostway, RRD Logistics and RRD Direct.

Mobium is also know for its educational Web site, which is an interactive book that helps business marketers, communicators, brand builders and change agents, as well as its own employees, better define revolutionary paradigm shifts in business communications and explore ways to take advantage of them.

The company was named agency of the year in 2003 by the Business Marketing Association and recognized as one of the top three business-to-business agencies of its size in the country by Crain Communications’ BtoB magazine. Mobium is a division of Colle+McVoy who recently acquired the firm from R.R. Donnelley.