Single-screening: marketing’s big missed opportunity

Despite all the talk of engaging multi-screening consumers, the biggest marketing opportunity is targeting those that use different screens at different times exclusively, says Millward Brown’s Martin Ash as he takes us through the latest AdReaction study.

You can’t go to a conference these days without someone chatting about dual screening. Consumers, it seems, cannot get enough of their screens – so much so that they use them in tandem.

Domino’s sponsorship of the X-Factor app in the UK attempted to make the most of this opportunity. The dual-screen format (TV and mobile) featured branded games which offered players Domino’s deals and personalised promotional codes based on the success of their game-play. Interactive messages from the pizza chain were synchronised with TV ad spots.

But while that’s an important part of the picture, it’s not the whole story of consumer screen behaviour. To focus too much on dual screening is a bit like describing an elephant having only seen its tail.

Our 2014 AdReaction study highlights the true and much more complex story behind the seven hours that UK consumers spend with screens, TV, laptops, smartphones and tablets.

Marketers who are aggressively pursuing multi-screen strategies will be excited to know that our study highlights that multi-screen behaviours can give them the chance to trigger interactions between screens and deepen engagement with consumers – but there’s no proven silver bullet in this area. TV ads linking to digital resources are a familiar tactic and while platforms such as Shazam can help, they don’t deliver stand-out.

Equally, second screen play-alongs can be highly popular – the Coke Chase advert for Superbowl 2013 is a great example – but not all brands have the resource or scale to achieve this.http://www.asi.eu.com/2014/04/15/single-screening-marketings-big-missed-opportunity/