Welcome to the 36-Hour Day

JANUARY 30, 2007

Get up. Radio is playing. Turn on the television. Log online. Check e-mail. Answer the phone. Text a friend. Join an IM conversation. Overload? Nope. It's the start of a 'normal' day in the year 2007.

One hundred million US adult Internet users watched TV while they were online last year — more than two-thirds of the total US adult Internet population.

In addition, nearly 90 million listened to the radio while online, and more than 50 million read magazines while online.

"Media multitasking is something that is often taken for granted but actually has a profound impact on the ability to absorb and remember content and advertising messages," says Debra Aho Williamson, eMarketer senior analyst and the author of the new Multitasking Consumers: Distracted or Connected? report. "These days, consumers use so much media that researchers are fond of saying our 24-hour day has morphed into something much longer."

According to a 2006 study by Yahoo! and OMD, consumers now live a 43-hour day filled with more than 16 hours of interaction with media and technology. MTV, in a 2005 study, said a "normal" day lasts 32 hours, with 6.5 hours devoted to various media.

Veronis Suhler Stevenson (VSS), which quantifies time spent with media by using ratings data, survey research and consumer purchase data, reported that between 2000 and 2006, US consumers increased their total media time by 5%, from 3,333 hours in 2000 to 3,499 in 2006.

Put another way, that is an average of 9.6 hours a day of media exposure, up from 9.1 hours in 2000.

VSS estimates that media usage will rise to 3,518 hours in 2007.

"Study after study confirms it. People are consuming more media than ever, but they are not dropping one in favor of another," says Ms. Williamson. "They are juggling, multitasking and figuring out ways to use a number of media channels at the same time."

Who multitasks? Which media? How often? These are the questions that marketers want answered.

"Not surprisingly, a substantial portion of multitasking behavior takes place either entirely on the computer, or with the computer as a part of the media mix," says Ms. Williamson. "The computer, with its multiple windows and applications, creates an environment where multitasking is nearly unavoidable."

The Kaiser Family Foundation found that for children computer activities were the most likely to be multitasked at least some of the time, with 64% of respondents saying they multitasked while using the computer.

Television, on the other hand, was least likely to be multitasked, with 53% of respondents saying they multitasked while watching TV at least some of the time.

The answer to the question "Who is multitasking?" is everyone — but kids are multitasking more.

Time magazine called teens "The Multitasking Generation" in a 2006 cover story detailing how their constant computer use impacts their personal lives. Teens even do their homework while doing something else online — almost half of them, according to Burst Media.

What can marketers do to make their messages seen and heard?

"With the amount of data building up on the amount of multitasking that is going on," says Ms. Williamson, "the best strategy may be to assume that attention waxes and wanes during media usage and that full engagement is no longer a realistic expectation."