IOI Special Report: American Immature Young Men

The Sethsus Bureau has recently surveyed a very specific group of young "professionals" about consumption of media, breakfast, and electronics. Details: 15 respondents - ages 25-27, college educated, living in major urban markets in the Northeast U.S., but with very different jobs (private equity to A&R rep to government). Here are the findings:

• Spend on average 20.5 hours/week on the Internet. (Most popular sites: Espn.com, Google.com/Gmail, and Yahoo/YahooMail)
• Spend on average 11 hours/week watching TV.
• Spend on average less than 1 hour/week (.86 repeating) listening to the radio. (Raised significantly by 1 participant with XM and 1 who listens to Internet radio)
• Spend on average 10 hours/week listening to their iPods. (2 people do not own an iPod. Ha-losers. What? Sorry. And only 2 download podcasts)
• Spend on average 4.5 hours/week on their cell phones. (Approximately 50/50 texting to calling ratio.)
• Go to the movies on average 1 time/month.
• 25% subscribe to NetFlix.
• 60% have DVR or TiVo.
• Spend on average 4 hours/week working out.
• Eat breakfast on average 4-5 times/week.
• Go to the bathroom on average 6-7 times/day (3:1 ratio of #1 to #2)
• 8 out of 15 plan on going to graduate school in their lives. (1 uncertain)

Most popular "biggest concern for 2007" was B-school followed by $ (generally, for school, for engagement ring), career, and then GWB, Cholesterol, Adjusting to new city, and How awesome I'll be with 1 vote each. (Yellow Cake was a late submission and thus excluded from overall report.)

One thing you can't live without include: Water (with most votes -- LEARNING ALERT: Be careful how you word questions! There are a lot of sarcastic (or smart, depending how you look at it) people out there), BlackBerry and iPod tied for second, Food related items in third (Cheese, Popcorn, "Food"), and with one vote each—Phone, Car, Friends, and my personal favorite from a risk consultant "Instant access to information."

Finally, the best purchases of 2006 were new TV (with most votes -- LEARNING ALERT: 4 of 15 claimed new TVs bought this year were best purchase, probably the same as how many bought them. However, not 1 of them named the brand! The went into detail with size and type : 46" LCD, plasma, DLP, etc.) but not Sony, Samsung, Panasonic, etc. OPPORTUNITY HERE.), iPod in 2nd, Plane tickets to...(INTERESTING - "It's all about the memories, man. See if I invite you to the reunion!") in 3rd, and with one vote each—DVR, Soccer cleats, Car, Apple computer, Tumi luggage, (THERE WE GO ON BRAND WOM), and Custom-made English leather army biking boots.

NOTE: The most interesting feedback I had was this: SURVEY THESE GUYS ON A FRIDAY!
I've tried to get these mofos to answer questions on everything from beer ("Come on, what do you think of Sam Adams Light? Seriously, I might be able to hook up free cases!") to fashion to favorite ads, and I'm usually lucky for a 25% response rate. But last Friday I hit 75% in one day (received 15 out of 20).

(Photo by: Matthew Johnson )