KETCHUM'S ONLINE MAGAZINE YEAR 2009    ISSUE 1

MEDIA MYTHS & REALITIES

 

Key Findings

Since the first Media Myths & Realities survey in 2006, some general trends in media usage have been ongoing: Use of traditional media is declining; digital media use is growing; media audiences are highly fragmented; and there still is some gap between the way consumers use media and how professional communicators try to engage them.

With these established trends in mind, we took a deeper look at what respondents were telling us and combined that with our own observations of the changing media landscape to draw some broader conclusions about media consumption in the three countries surveyed. A summary of these conclusions follows:

United States

  • The lines between media channels are blurring.
    • The content features that were once distinct to a specific medium are now found on nearly all platforms, resulting in a melding of media. This shift has helped create an increasingly participatory and fragmented media landscape, which has further fostered the blurring of channels.
  • Search engines are more important than ever.
    • The use of search engines has become fairly ubiquitous among all age groups and appears to be holding steady. However, the sheer volume of information and variety of information sources on the Web make search engines more important than ever for consumers trying to find content online—and for anyone who wants to share content.
  • Word-of-mouth is critical.
    • Advice from family and friends continues to rank among the highest channels for credibility. Both online and offline, consumers turn to people they know and trust to help make decisions about products and services. Companies that can effectively tap into a word-of-mouth network in an authentic way can reap huge benefits for their brands.

United Kingdom

  • Big media brands count more than ever in a Web 2.0 world.
    • When it comes to credibility, established media giants, such as the BBC and The Times (of London), rank on par with advice from friends and family—showing that even though consumers are using a variety of media channels, they still rely on the media brands that have served them longest.
  • Search engines are their own news brands.
    • Search engines such as Google and Yahoo enjoy high usage and credibility as consumers use them as a key source for delivering all media. Because they deliver news to millions of desktops, they are now perceived as news brands unto themselves—even though their content is largely sourced from wire services.
  • Local newspapers present broad opportunities.
    • Although sales of local newspapers have been declining for a long time, consumers are reading weekly free sheets at least on par with national newspapers—demonstrating that local angles matter.

Brazil

  • Brazilians are avid consumers of information.
    • Brazilians consume both traditional and digital media at high rates, and they read national newspapers at three times the rate of consumers in the U.S. The general population tends to consume media at roughly the same rate as the country’s influencers—in contrast to both the U.S. and the U.K., where influencers use media much more.
  • Search rules.
    • Use of search engines is ubiquitous and continues to rise. With a population of consumers who eagerly seek out information, search engines make it easier to find the blogs, specialty information portals and other Web content that Brazilians are using in ever greater numbers.