A Live TV Nation
Here's a fact I bet you didn't expect. While the media landscape continues to provide endless new ways to watch, listen and browse content, Canadians mainly engage with live television. Ipsos' Canadian Media Landscape study (a study designed to support marketers as they strive to connect with target consumers in the new media landscape), shows that watching takes the top spot in the Canadian media diet, accounting for 50% of their total media hours yesterday. More specifically, that represents 2.8 hours of a total of 5.6 hours spent with media (all forms combined). What is particularly important for Advertisers is that 1.4 of those hours are spent watching TV as it is airing live.
The latest results highlight the proportion of all time spent with media in the average Canadian's day and details findings regarding their habits. While media covers a wide range of content and platforms (watching, listening, reading, gaming, browsing, and social networking), watching still reigns supreme. Watching includes any content that is consumed via Live TV, PVR, streamed or downloaded, video on demand or on disc. The study also outlines differences by generation.
Of course, it's no surprise there are differences in how each generation engages with media. We intuitively feel and observe that Millennials engage with media differently than other generations. The Canadian Media Landscape Study confirms this, but also uncovers more nuance. For example, among the key generational differences revealed by the Canadian Media Landscape Study, Millennials watch less in general, spending only 39% (2.2 hours) of their media hours in this fashion compared to 49% (2.5 hours) for Gen Xers and 57% (3.4 hours) for Boomers. But there is more to it when we dig further into older and younger Millennials and the specific formats they watch. Trailing Millennials, that is, 18-24 year olds, watch the least amount of Live TV among the generations, but it is still part of their media repertoire (7% of their total media hours). Their older counterparts, Leading Millennials (25-32 year olds), spend twice as much time with Live TV relatively speaking (16% of their media hours).
Marketers need to be aware of these inter-generational differences. Leading Millennials in some ways are closer in life stage to younger Gen Xers as they become more focused on careers and family. Not only does this mean they are earning more than Trailing Millennials, but it also influences how much time they spend with media and how they consume it.
Final Thoughts
That's why brands could be missing the mark if they are considering Millennials as a whole - Trailing and Leading Millennials do vary in their media behaviour. And Brands also need to be cautious. From our perspective, any consideration that is being given to walking away from TV advertising entirely could very well be short sighted. That said, Trailing Millennials spend more time browsing, gaming and social networking than any other segment - important fodder for any marketer.
Click here to learn more about the Canadian Media Landscape study.
