MBI Study Finds Media Pros Have A 'Digital Media Bias'

Digital Bias?

Research presented by THE MEDIA BEHAVIOR INSTITUTE during Advertising Week, shows that media professionals are more likely to be heavy users of digital media -- in particular mobile and social -- and are much less likely to use traditional media such as radio than average consumers.

The study, which utilized a mobile app-based diary that a small, non-projectable sample of industry executives used to self-report their media usage during one day in their working life, compared their behavior with MBI’s ongoing USA TouchPoints study, which captures the same daily usage data among the general consumer population for 10-day periods. While the data is based on a small sample, the findings are striking, because the media pros reporting were so dramatically different than average consumers, especially when it came to their use of Internet-connected computers and mobile devices.

The media pros spent 53% of their waking day interacting with e-mail, vs. 20% for the general population, and they spent 28% accessing the Internet vs. 15% for average consumers. The study also found their use of mobile apps and social networks were similarly distorted. 92% of the media pros utilized mobile apps, and they used them for 11% of their waking day, on average. Only 25% of consumers utilize mobile apps, and use them for 6% of their waking time on average. Exactly half of the media pros used a social network and accessed it for 19% of their waking time vs. 19% of consumers who used it for 7% of their waking time.

When it comes to "traditional media," consumers utilize all forms -- especially radio -- more than industry pros with the exception of print.

"The difference in radio usage was more marked," notes MBI's MIKE BLOXHAM, explaining that, "42% of media professionals listened to the radio, but almost twice that (80%) of the general population sample tuned in."

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