Nowadays, people tend to manage their lives through various screens like smartphones, tablets and laptops. These behavioural changes open the doors to new opportunities in digital advertising, because each of these “new” distractions provides an opportunity for additional and engaging connections that were never possible when consumption involved just one screen.

TV and online activity

TV content drives a huge amount of multi-screening activity. From texting to tweeting, gaming to gossiping, activity tends to be driven by three things: researching content, sharing with online friends and participating with TV content and ads.

Let’s dig in into some of the examples that show how TV content affects online activity. Advertisements during the Super Bowl tends to trigger online searches for the advertised brands immediately, within one minute, with smaller effects persisting up to an hour after the ad’s broadcast time. So here marketers have an opportunity to catch TV viewers that are using other devices while watching TV through a PPC ad or through an extremely well designed mobile website. Such online search is obviously important to the brands that sell primarily online, but it also matters to offline retailers, as it allows interested consumers to learn more about an advertised product before visiting the store.

Another brilliant relationship between TV content and products mentioned is that it also affects the other products in the brand’s portfolio. A study by Ebiquity found that, on average, 38% of TV’s total sales effect was felt by products not directly advertised creating a ‘halo effect’ across a brand’s entire portfolio. So, if a beauty brand advertises a shampoo product on TV, the campaign is likely to boost sales of its other products, such as body spray or moisturiser. If a bank advertises a mortgage product, its home insurance and current accounts will benefit as well.

When is the best time to take this opportunity and capture the audience?

Razorfish recently explored the relationship between television advertising and consumers’ online behaviour. The study found that a quarter of multi-screen users go online immediately after seeing a TV commercial. 26% go directly to an advertiser’s website and 25% conduct an online search based on the television commercial they have just seen. Television also enhances the performance of other media used within the marketing mix.

This seems to be a perfect space for TV content producers and advertisers alike to boost brand awareness, sales and website traffic through multi-screening. We have been investigating multi-screening trends for a number of years now, and our study back in 2013 analysed the success of Twitter hashtags used across TV advertisements, providing tips for running a successful multi-screening ad campaign for other brands. The findings at the time revealed that the placement of a second screening cue is very important in an ad, as it determines how successful the prompt will be amongst viewers.

But let’s take these trends and push the limits even further. By implementing simple calls to action within TV content like hashtags for social media which advertisers have been implementing a lot more, marketers are only scratching the surface. By making TV consumption and second screening experience via other devices easier and more streamlined through targeted online activity, marketers will win even more passionate participants and consumers. This participation could be increased at the moments when consumers tend to multi task and start browsing through other devices like mobile phones while watching TV.

The top five categories that attract multitaskers are:

  • Reality
  • News
  • Comedy
  • Sports
  • Food

These top results are interesting, but not extremely surprising as the content through these categories is easy to consume. The results further down the list showed that drama beat genres like talk shows, music videos, how-to and others. This means that intense and gripping content like drama or action/adventure categories are still embraced by distracted consumers that are seeking more content online while watching TV.

Is multi-screening the future?

Multi-screening is the path forward for advertising. The frequency and centrality of mobile devices in consumers’ lives opens the door for a perfect marketing space if brands can optimise communication across devices and integrate the brand within the content that audiences are consuming. Smartphones are best used for calls-to-action like polls or sharing opinions via social media. Laptops are best for detailed digging into TV content, search, and lower funnel behaviours, like product research and purchase. Tablets are best suited for extensions of the TV experience with additional video content, like behind-the-scenes video.

Here are a few of the examples that showcase what kind of TV content has an effect on a variety of brands:

  • Visitors to a popular fast food restaurant’s website were more likely to get delivery online during an episode of “The Biggest Loser.”
  • Analysis that we undertook for our client Bravissimo showed that website traffic to its website doubled whenever the brand was mentioned on ITV’s “This Morning”.
  • We saw an increase in website visits and ticket sales for bands and artists for our client The Ticket Factory whenever they promote a tour in an interview on “The One Show”.

Second screening through smartphones and other devices will continue to broaden the TV viewing experience beyond the living room in the near future. How will your business take advantage of this window of opportunity?


By Diana Tolockaite, Fast Web Media. 

PrivSec Conferences will bring together leading speakers and experts from privacy and security to deliver compelling content via solo presentations, panel discussions, debates, roundtables and workshops.
For more information on upcoming events, visit the website.

comments powered by Disqus