University of media: utilizing mobile phones to study college students as they go through their day Debbie Solomon - Managing Director, Business Planning - Mindshare Uncovering how media fit into college students daily activities through mobile text messaging. Examining the challenges and opportunities of leveraging mobile phone surveying in this active and elusive target segment. Providing an understanding of college students’ media consumption to help marketers better communicate with them.

1. University of Media:
Utilizing Mobile Phones to Study College
Students As They Go Through Their Day
Debbie Solomon
Mindshare
Market Research in the
Mobile World
July 2011

2. 2
What We Did
• Sample - 144 college students, 74 different schools
• 44% Male, 56% Female
• Age 18 to 24
• Have SMS
• text message survey every hour for 48 hours
• Four questions:
• Location
• What media they saw/heard, if any
• If they saw advertising
• Stress level
• Follow-up online media usage survey
• Partnered with
• Alloy Media+Marketing to recruit students
• BrainJuicer® to execute MindSet and online survey

3. 3
Findings

4. 4 Day in the Life
9:30 am Wake up, get dressed and get ready
10:00 am Walk over to the dinning hall to grab a bite before class with
some friends
10:50 am Walk to class; big exam today!
12:00 pm So hungry! While walking to the Student Center across
campus, send text messages to friends to have them meet
up with me for lunch
1:20 pm Stop by my dorm room to get stuff for the afternoon;
watch the last portion of my favorite soap opera
2:30 pm Walk on over to my afternoon class
4:00 pm Walk from class to work in the Student Center – IM with
friends online while at work and text message them
7:00 pm Grab dinner with friends at the Dining Hall across the street
9:00 pm Head home to study
11:00 pm Study break to relieve stress – catch TV shows I missed then
go to bed
1–9:30 am Sleep

5. 5
Study Garnered 2,667 Texts
• Average 18.5 responses per
student
• A few respondents only replied
a few times, one replied 18
times a day
• Students exposed to media 79% of
2,667
time they responded Text Message
Occasions
18.5 avg
2,108
AND exposed to
Media
14.6 avg
8.6 avg
1,195
AND saw Ad

6. 6 Students Responded Throughout the Day
• Most responses between 10:00 AM and 11:00 PM
• Home top location
• While at home, students were watching TV half the time and
using internet 33% of the time
200
180
160
Shopping
Number of Media Occasions
140 Sport
Off Campus
120 Eat
Other
100
Study
Campus
80
Transit
60 Work
Class
40 Other Residence
Home
20
0

7. 7 Internet and TV Most Ubiquitous Media on Campus
2 Day Reach
Internet TV
93% 90%
Outdoor Posters
55%
Radio
Indoor Posters
Mobile 42%
49%
47%
MP3 Magazines
34% 30%
Newspapers Transit
28% 21%
IM
12%
Video games
10%
Campus Newspaper
6%

8. 8 Students Use a lot of Media
• TV number one at 39% of media occasions
• Internet second at 32%
• Low incidence of Campus Newspapers and IM could be because each are
only used for a brief period of time, not when survey arrived
• Not all campus newspapers are daily
Number of Times a Media Activity was Used/Seen
Watch TV 839
Look At The Internet 682
Txting/Playing On Phone 356
See Indoor Posters/Signs 233
See Outdoor Posters/Signs 193
Listen To The Radio 130
Other 127
Listen To Music on MP3/iPod 97
Read A Magazine 76
Read A Newspaper 65
See Posters In Transit 55
Use Instant Message Application 43
Play Video Games 40
Read A Campus Newspaper 20
None 559
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900

9. 9 Less Multi-tasking Than Expected
• When students did see media, 71% of time it was a single
media vehicle
• Most likely multi-tasking while on cell phone
• When exposed to multiple media, they saw an average of 2.4

10. 10
When are college students most stressed?

11. 11 Students Lead Relatively Stress-free Days
• College students generally less stressed than other groups
• Stress level fairly similar across locations, but studying most
stressful activity/location for students
Average Stress Level by Time of Day
5
Very
Stressed
4
Stress Level
3
2.2
2.1 2.1 2.1 2.1
2.0 2.0 2.0
1.9 1.9 1.9
1.8 1.8 1.8 1.8
2 1.7 1.7 1.7
Avg.
1
Very
8am
9am
1pm
2pm
1am
10am
11am
12pm
3pm
4pm
5pm
6pm
7pm
8pm
9pm
10pm
11pm
12am
Relaxed
Time (shown based on local time zone)

12. 12 Mood by Media Activity
• Students most likely to be in a relaxed mood when
playing video games and watching TV
100% 0
2 55 11 17
14 14 47 99 30
90% 17 7 10 14
87
5 22 21 36
80% 57
6 7 114 50
12 11
70%
Stressed
Media Activities
60%
Normal
50%
38 Relaxed
40% 697 78
94 95 140 252
56 30 38 469 51
153
30%
20%
10%
0%

13. 13 Exposure to Ads
• Overall, when students were exposed to media, they saw/noticed ads
57% of the time
• Lack of attention?
• Fewer ads in student media?
• Although not heavily used, most likely to see/notice ads in traditional
print media
• Newspaper ads most likely to catch a student’s attention
• 83.5% of the time they saw a newspaper they noticed an ad
• Cinema also had high ad awareness
• Least likely to see ads in video games

14. 14
% of Students
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
70%
80%
90%
0%
60%
100%
Manage Finances/Personal Banking Online
5%
48%
24%
22%
Use Cell Ph/Blackberry To Access Internet
7%
6%
56%
Play Games On Cell Phone/Blackberry
40%
17%
14%
32% 28%
Use Cell Ph/Blackberry For Info While In A Store
6%
55%
Comment On Blogs/Post Messages In A
41%
17%
Discussion Forum
Listen To Internet Radio
22%
16% 20% 23%
Buy Products Online
5%
34% 25%
50%
24% 22% 21% 19%
Download Games Online
19%
Talk Online Using Video Chat
53% 48%
18%
13% 12%
Use Digg/Other Service To Tag Articles/Blog
5%
9%
73%
15% 21% 12%
Posts
Download New Widgets And/Or Apps Online
9%
53%
20%
(Not Games)
Play Online Game Of Chance
5%
8%
74%
18% 12%
Use/Create An Avatar For Video Game/Online
4%
8%
68%
20%
Environment
Google Yourself
7%
22%
56%
16%
Download Free Games On Xbox Live/PS3
5%
6%
6%
83%
Use Text Messaging To Enter Contest/Vote In A
6%
54%
24%
14%
Poll
Book Personal Travel Online
2%
29%
58%
11%
Frequency of Online and Phone Activities
More
Never
Month
Times a Month
Once to Several
Once a Week or
Less Than Once A

15. 15
Texting – The #1 Way to Talk With Friends
Most used
Text Messaging
Face – to – face
On the phone
Sites like MySpace, Facebook or Twitter
E-mail
Instant Messaging on the computer
Instant Messaging on the phone
Blogs
Least used

16. 16
7/22/2011
Students exchange an average
of 52 text messages per day
One fourth sends/receives 50
or more

17. 17 Majority of Students Have Multiple E-Mail Addresses
• Men tend to have more e-mail addresses than women
• Men - 2.8, women - 2.3
2.3
2.8

18. 18
Who has more numbers in their cell
phone – college men or women?

19. 19 It’s the Norm to be Connected to Hundreds of People
• Men average more e-mail address and cell phone
contacts than women
• Median number of cell phone contacts is 110
• 65% have 100+
• 32% have 200+
• Median number of social network contacts is 350
• 73% have 200+ (77% M / 70% F)
• 39% have 500+
• 12.5% have 1,000+
Median Contacts
E-mail SNS Cell Phone
Male 50 300 130
Female 30 362 90
All 30 350 110

20. 20
Best Practices

21. 21 Advantages
• Uses technology this target is comfortable with
• Ability to follow target on the move
• Measures all channels on the same platform
• Real-time, does not rely on memory
• Ability to collect a large number of datapoints

22. 22 Challenges
• College students not good responders
• Nature of incentive
• Sample representativeness
• College students in class, cell phone restrictions
• Bandwidth issues
• Some plans charge for text messages
• Text message vs. apps or online
• Clicking on a picture/icon is easier than a code

23. 23 Make it Easy on Respondents
• Keep it simple (limitations of the screen)
• Short answer lists
• Minimize non-essential content
• Verify the survey got to respondents’ phones
• Let respondents complete mobile survey retroactively, but not
too much time lapse
• Provide ability to turn off survey at night

24. 24 Manage Logistics
• Make sure instructions are clear
• Establish minimum number of responses
• Make sure respondents understand cost ramifications
• All parties involved in study must communicate frequently
• Normalize time zones

25. 25
If I ever need an answer for something,
google never lets me down

26. 26
For More Information:
debbie.solomon@mindshareworld.com
312-242-1218

27. 27
Presented @ 2nd International conference on
Market Research in the Mobile World
July 19 & 20, 2011 Atlanta
For upcoming events, please visit: www.merlien.org
For latest MR news, please visit: www.greenbookblog.org

28. Presented at:
Market Research in the
Mobile World
2nd International Conference | July 19 & 20, 2011 Atlanta
Organized by: Thank you to sponsors:
LinkedIn Group: Mobile MR
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