Arbitron Media Research Report

What Is the Arbitron Report: Driving Social Network Traffic: Outdoor Advertising and Social Media.

This report examines the outdoor media audience and its social media habits. It answers questions such as:

1. Who are heavy viewers of outdoor advertisements?
2. What percentage of these outdoor media viewers uses social networking sites? And which ones?
3. How are the demographic and consumer profiles of these social media users different from the general outdoor advertising audience?

Summary

1. There is a core group of U.S. adults who spend an inordinate amount of time traveling in a vehicle each week. These top-motorists equal only 40% of the U.S. population aged 18 or older but they account for 81% of all miles traveled each week. When examining outdoor media, it is prudent to focus on this group since they represent the vast majority of the gross impressions delivered by an outdoor advertising schedule.
2. Top-motorists are also top viewers of outdoor billboards and street furniture. One might expect those frequently exposed to a medium to become desensitized, but in the case of outdoor advertising, top-motorists are 17% more likely to say they notice the ad message on a billboard each or most of the time they pass one compared to average consumers.
3. Internet usage is higher among heavy travelers. Top-motorists are 12% more likely than average consumers to have used the Internet in the past month and they are 37% more likely to have used it at work. They are also 18% more likely than average adults to spend 20 hours or more online each week.
4. Nearly 1 in 2 top-motorists use a social networking website. Forty-nine percent of top-motorists have visited a social networking website such as Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn in the past month. They are also 20% more likely to have accessed a social networking site on their mobile phone compared to average consumers.
5. Facebook is by far the most popular social networking site. Forty-seven percent of top-motorists have visited Facebook within the past month; if you look at it by market share, 94% of all top-motorists who have visited a social media website in the past month used Facebook.
6. Twitter is mainly a spectator’s sport. While Twitter messages (or tweets) are frequently quoted on television, websites, and digital billboards, less than 5% of U.S. adults have personally tweeted in the past month; tweet rates are only slightly higher among top-motorists.
7. Top-motorists who use social media skew young and upscale. Social top-motorists are 42% more likely to be in the 18-24 demographic compared to the average U.S. population. When compared to top-motorists overall, the difference is even more dramatic as these heavy travelers typically skew more middle aged. While top-motorists tend to live in upper income households, social top-motorists are even more likely to be upscale.

Credit : Arbitron / Scarborough Research