An Exploration of Multimedia Multitasking: How Television Advertising Impacts Google Search

Abstract

A 2010 study conducted by Nielson on behalf of Yahoo reveals that three out of every four Americans use television and internet simultaneously, up nearly 20 percent year-to-year. Yahoo concludes that this disproves the myth that “traditional media is dead,” instead affirming “convergence is a reality.” Joo, Wilbur, and Zhu (2010) explore the growing trend of simultaneous online and offline media consumption by measuring the impact of television advertisement on online search, finding that TV advertising is positively associated with consumers’ choice of branded keywords in the financial services category. This paper builds upon their results by extending the analysis to the bundled Internet/TV/phone product category, applying regression analysis to evaluate whether local television advertising expenditure impacts the Google search queries from IP addresses in the same area. The impact of television advertising is found to be both positive and significant in the short-term (same day), with a cumulative effect of more than twice the magnitude of the same day effect. These results suggest numerous practical implications for marketers and companies, as well as a variety of avenues for future research.