Media Multiplexing Behavior: Implications for Targeting and Media Planning

  • Authors:

  • Chen Lin;Sriram Venkataraman;Sandy D. Jap

  • Affiliations:

  • Eli Broad College of Business, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48824;Kenan-Flagler Business School, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599;Goizueta Business School, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia 30322

  • Venue:
  • Marketing Science
  • Year:
  • 2013

Quantified Score

Hi-index 0.00

Visualization

Abstract

There is a growing trend among consumers to serially consume small, incomplete “chunks” of multiple media types---television, radio, Internet, and print---within a short time period. We refer to this behavior as media multiplexing and note that key challenges for integrated marketing communications media planners are 1 predicting which media or combination of media their target audience is likely to consume at any given time and 2 understanding potential substitutions and complementarities in their joint consumption. We propose a forecasting model that incorporates media-multiplexing behavior of both traditional and new media, their interdependencies, and consumer heterogeneity, and we calibrate the model using a rich database of individual-specific media activity diaries. The results suggest that accounting for media synergies within a single utility specification significantly improves model forecasts. We also introduce a utility function that directly models cross-channel media complementarities via interactive effects of the satiation parameters of own and joint consumption of various media types. Finally, our individual-level analyses generate unique insights on consumer-level media switching, multiplexing, and individual heterogeneity often ignored in aggregate data.