Millennials spend more hours on the internet each month then Television, Radio and Print combined!
Wondering where internet marketing is heading? I recently went to a music conference in Toronto and picked up an interesting handbook called ‘Millennials in the Digital Information Age’. It described and profiled ‘Millennials’ – those born between 1981-2001.
One of the more interesting facts I read included an itemized detail of media consumption amongst this age group. As of 2007, the way ‘Millennials’, spent their time was broken down like this:
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Medium
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Hours Spent (Weekly)
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Internet
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37.16 hours
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Television
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11.4 hours
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Radio
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4.1 hours
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|
Print
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2.9 hours
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Consider that just 15 years ago most people had never even accessed the internet and you understand the incredible shift in how the 25 and under age group spend their time!
Now consider how this 37.16 hours was spent and you will understand things even further:
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Internet Uses
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Hours Spent (Weekly)
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Communicating
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10.11 hours
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Studying/Working
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9.31 hours
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Social Network Sites (Facebook, Flickr)
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9.13 hours
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News/Entertainment
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8.61 hours
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Given this change in behavior here is a reasonable list of some of the trends over the last decade amongst this demographic illustrating the trend from traditional to internet marketing:
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18-25 Year Olds – Pre 1995
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18-25 Year Olds – 2007
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Net Result
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Used the Yellow Pages to find local business
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Uses search engines like Google, Yahoo! & MSN to find local business
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Importance of search engine exposure for revenue generation
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Communicated primarily via telephone
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Communicating by text messaging, MSN Messenger & online utilities such as Facebook & MySpace
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Opportunity for increased advertising exposure
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Went to library to research information
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Use internet, via search engines to gain information
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Increased access to more information, hence greater exposure to online advertising opportunity
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Social interaction – greater person to person socialization
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Greater internet communication on blogs, social sites, and dating websites
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Greater exposure to targeted advertising
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Exposure to traditional and largely unmeasurable advertising mediums through television, radio & print.
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Exposure to wide variety of targeted advertising that is measurable in many cases by impressions, clicks and conversions
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Greater measurability of advertising dollars
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Wondering which way the internet marketing industry is heading? Consider that some very traditional methods of media consumption seen in previous years, (watching television, listening to the radio, reading the newspaper, using the Yellow pages) are now being accessed on the internet. What does this mean? Wherever eyes go, so does advertising. Expect the continued rise of new media which includes new methods for advertising. This includes, podcasting, broadcasting, music, social networking, blogging, and the continued increase of the centralization of the world’s information.
Not bad learning for an afternoon spent in Toronto!
Yes Robert, New media’s niche facilities (podcasting, brooadcasting, blogging)has surpassed traditional methods of advertising. Internet media has gained such an unprecedented growth by itself and in the strength of user gain. The stats are not surprising – users naturally go for with the one that offers more opportunities.
This reminds me of my good ol’ days pre ’95 era.
Its true that more effort had to be put to make yourself known and also – to know about others.
With the advent of Internet as an uncoventional yet strong media force to make your presence known, its become a place to communicate (via messengers), store (blog) and share (via forums, social bookmarks and websites).
Truly, the emphasis is now on ‘emphatic and presence’ marketing in today’s world.
Great post DJ.
Hi DJ, what you’ve pointed is right; Online media contributes much more in revenues compared to other media — and the trend is only growing! The internet is a ‘go-getters’ medium, a medium that will continue to grow is this generation gets older. The only question is — what could this be growing into?
Your write up is an eye opener DJ. The internet has caught on with every segment of society at an alarming pace. Obviously it bodes well for internet marketing companies and everyone doing online business as Millennials grow older!
A vast reach and interactive nature of the internet gives an edge over other traditional advertising media. These stats reflect the importance today’s internet advertising scene. Youth always embraces and experiments with emerging technologies,as well as others. Nice article DJ:)
Hi Robert
One distressing note I find in this post is that the ratio of time spent on News / Entertainment practically equals that spent on Study/Work. Does this bode well for future generations? I wonder.
If the trend holds true for another decade or so, we may soon see the demise of advertising via radio and television. As it is, radio lacks listeners. As for TV ads, people just turn on there PVR and skip it as soon as an ad appears. Online advertising holds the future key and it certainly does for internet marketing companies. Very thoughtful.
The list also shows a trend where social interaction and greater person to person socialization is given up and replaced by greater internet communication on blogs and social sites. I feel this could signal a destabilizing effect on family relationships. But we have all been talking about this for a while now!
Though internet is a great advertising medium, the opportunities it paves, outweigh any other marketing medium. Almost all the advertising channels are free of charges (exceptions like PPC, paid listings). So we all can experiment and explore the medium to the nth level. What the most striking aspect of internet is every marketer worth his or her salt can find an alley of their on. Nice job DJ!! I love it!
People take to online advertising not merely for its growing ability to reach a wider mass and target a younger generation but also because it offers several avenues to measure the success of those marketing efforts. As such, offline marketing has no such measurement tools in place. This explains the increasing clout of online advertising
Hi DJ,
By these stats figures it seems that everyone wants to be on the Internet, and for good reason. It is safe to say it is the most important new method for conducting business in the last 50 years if not longer. Online media provides best business and people come and seek YOU out!
The statistics show an interesting trend. Target your ads at the younger generation and the future holds immense possibilities. I feel many have not yet figured this part out!
Hi DJ, No wonder!! Research has shown that many people in their 20s are not picking up the newspaper habit the way their parents did. Many people already read newspapers and magazines online irrespective of their ages, and the number is shooting up day by day. This trend will continue a strong platform for new media marketing in the decades ahead. A good omen for internet marketers!!!!
This is interesting, the trend like this a year or more later will redefine and explore all the tapped and untapped (rarely) areas of the Internet as a marketing medium. Not bad at all; much of the stats given here show a good future for the internet business in years to follow.
I am confident that this trend will continue. Lets face it – in a few years its going to be everyone watching TV from the internet. Im certain that the rise of bandwidth use in phones. (Especially the IPHONE!) will contribute.
Was just made aware of another interesting stat.
Almost half of college students today would give up beer for WIFI! Damn!
Check it out. http://tinyurl.com/3aqv64v
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