Education, English proficiency hinder Hispanic Internet use
The Latinos Online report from Pew Research found that 56 percent of Latinos in ´the U.S. (comprising 14 percent of the U.S. adult population) use the Internet. By comparison, 71 percent of non-Hispanic whites and 60 percent of non-Hispanic blacks use the Internet. Lower levels of education and limited English ability largely explain the gap in Internet use between Hispanics and non-Hispanics, concludes the report.
One in three Latinos who speak only Spanish go online. Seventy-eight percent of Latinos who are English-dominant and 76 percent of bilingual Latinos use the Internet, compared with 32 percent of Spanish-dominant Hispanic adults. Seventy-six percent of U.S.-born Latinos go online, compared with 43 percent of those born outside the U.S. Eighty percent of second-generation Latinos go online, as do 71 percent of third-generation Latinos. Eighty-nine percent of Latinos who have a college degree, 70 percent of Latinos who completed high school and 31 percent of Latinos who did not complete high school go online.
Mexicans are the largest national origin group in the U.S. Latino population but only 52 percent of Latinos of Mexican descent use the Internet. Even when age, income, language, generation or nativity is held constant, being Mexican is associated with a decreased likelihood of going online.
Internet use is much higher among Latinos who speak and read English fluently than among those who have limited English abilities or who only speak Spanish. Language is not an issue in the white and black populations as the shares of adults with limited English abilities is quite small.
Communication, however, is not limited to the computer screen, says the report: 59 percent of Latino adults have a cell phone and 49 percent of Latino cell phone users send and receive text messages on their phone. Expressed differently, 56 percent of Latino adults go online, 18 percent of Latino adults have a cell phone but do not go online, and 26 percent of Latino adults have neither a cell phone nor an Internet connection. For more information visit www.pewhispanic.org or www.pewinternet.org.
Are pre-movie commercials a cure for ad zapping?
As hard as it is to believe for those of us who hate watching commercials at our local cineplex, frequent moviegoers say commercials before the flick starts are more acceptable than commercials on television. According to an Arbitron study, over half (53 percent) of frequent moviegoers (people who attended more than five movies in the past three months) find advertising before the movie to be acceptable versus 46 percent who find television advertising to be acceptable.
The study also revealed that 59 percent of moviegoers recall having watched on-screen commercials before the movie began on their most recent trip to the theater. This is a particularly impressive number considering that not all movie theaters run on-screen ads.One of the central themes that arose from the national survey of Americans age 12 or older is that a significant number of moviegoers accept on-screen commercials as part of the total entertainment experience.
Cinema advertising connects with the youth market. Advertising in movie theaters reaches over 124 million or 45 percent of Americans 12 or older in a month. Eighty-one percent of teens and 67 percent of young adults age 18-24 have been to the movies in the past 30 days. Not only do movie theaters reach a high concentration of young people, but these consumers are also more likely to embrace cinema commercials than ads targeting them on the Internet, before programming on DVDs and embedded in video games.
Frequent moviegoers are early adopters and decision influencers. Thirty-two percent of past-month moviegoers and 40 percent of frequent moviegoers feel they are ahead of the curve for buying new products compared with 22 percent of all Americans 12 and older.
Movie theater advertising can provide an antidote for commercial avoidance. Moviegoers are more likely to use technology that allows them to avoid advertising such as digital video recorders (DVR) for television or pop-up blockers on the Internet. Moviegoers are more than twice as likely to use a DVR, such as TiVo, compared to non-moviegoers (26 percent vs. 11 percent).
The modern cinema environment provides advertisers with multiple opportunities to connect with consumers. Eighty percent of moviegoers looked at posters while in the lobby or concession area on their most recent trip to the theater and 54 percent noticed advertising on concession stand food and drink containers regardless of whether or not they consumed any of the items. Forty percent of moviegoers heard music playing overhead and 28 percent saw video programming in the lobby or concession area. These multiple touchpoints open the door for advertisers and marketers to create complete brand experiences within the theater setting. A free copy of the study is available at www.arbitron.com/study_o/cinema_study_2007.asp.
What would Springsteen say now?
Bruce Springsteen’s 1992 song “57 Channels (And Nothin’ On),” which lamented the quality and quantity of TV viewing choices, seems rather quaint now in light of a Nielsen report that says the average U.S. home received a record high of 104.2 TV channels in 2006.
As the number of channels available to a household increases, so does the number of channels tuned. In 2006, the average household tuned to 15.7, or 15.1 percent of the 104.2 channels available, for at least 10 minutes per week. This compares to 2000, when the average home viewed 22.1 percent of the available channels (13.6 channels viewed out of 61.4 available channels).
The percentage of homes receiving 100+ channels rose from 42 percent in 2005 to 47 percent in 2006, with 33 percent receiving between 60 and 99 channels, down 4 percent since 2005. Nielsen found that the average television household in the U.S. receives more than 17 broadcast TV channels, while 58 percent of all homes can receive 15 or more, and 36 percent receive 20 or more.