The internet and social media have allowed people to define the terms on which they interact with the media they consume. For example, The X Factor may be seeing a drop in viewer numbers but this doesn’t stop fans from tweeting about the contestants or the judges. The latest figures show that 59 per cent of 16-23 year olds use social networking sites to discuss their preferred television programmes with their online friends. What does this have to do with us? Well recently 52 per cent of people have admitted to shopping online whilst watching television. What’s Hot decided that it was about time we had a look at how consumers are interacting with TV and digital simultaneously.
The act of watching television whilst using another screen, whether that be laptops, tablets or smartphones, is known in the industry as ‘dual-screening’. Dual-screening isn’t particularly new, but only an astonishingly small handful of companies have used it to their advantage. Of course it is by no means unusual to see a television programme ‘#hashtagging’ to encourage Twitter interaction from their followers. However very few have embraced dual-screening for its marketing potential, perhaps the logistics of co-ordinating marketing on two devices limiting what they feel they can do.
One company to attempt to incorporate dual-screening is Honda. After its highly successful ‘Grrr’ campaign, Honda decided to create something that could interact with its television advertisement. Their creation was a mobile app which could be ‘swiped’ at the television whilst the advertisement was being played. The application would recognise the soundtrack and automatically download a character from the advertisement, with a total of six available. This encouraged the consumer to actually interact with the advert, anticipating the next time it will be screened in order to download their next character.
Dual-screening may not be such good news for the television industry. Even for the most tech-savvy user it is practically impossible to be concentrating on the television content whilst discussing it on social platforms. Furthermore if consumers choose to use their second screen to research the brand or programme, whilst having it on their television, they are automatically transferring their concentration into the hands of the digital world. The television advertisement will have little chance to influence the user after they turn their eyes to a search engine or social network.
We are yet to see the direction dual-screening will take in regards to advertising potential. What is certain is that advertisers can no longer take for granted the effectiveness of any single media type.
Consumers are communicating their likes and dislikes over many different levels, and advertisers need to keep an eye on it.
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