The rise of ‘second screening’: integrating TV advertising with your other digital channels
The rise of second-screening
According to data from Thinkbox, around 75% of us are second screening for around 40 minutes a day. That is, watching TV while also looking at our phones, tablets or laptops.
These small screens are not the enemy of your TV campaigns, but are instead it’s best buddy. Your mobile device is literally a shop you always carry with you, with the power to purchase at your fingertips at any moment in time.
After an advert has been broadcast, the response window could be seconds after it ends, or even whilst it’s still on the TV. This is a rich territory to capitalise on, and you can adapt direct-response TV techniques to focus more on the customer journey of today.
How can we use this phenomenon to maximise our assets?
You should be planning your TV campaign, digital campaign and social campaign in tandem, and think about how to make the most of each platform in your creative.
The strong relationship between TV and its influence on the digital journey has often been missed. An interesting statistic from Thinkbox:
- 69% of Web site visits are generated by paid media
- 47% of that 69% are actually generated by paid TV media
MediaCom and ViewersLogic have also found that the act of watching TV while also using your mobile phone, actually improves the chances of the viewer taking action by 75% – making it much more effective! The same research also found these same people to be up to 12% more ‘brand aware’.
If we think about the customer journey of today, the call to action in a TV ad is not just the sign off. It’s the trigger of the gun at the start of a race that we set off to drive the audience online. Once they’ve reached your website, they’re a few clicks away from a potential purchase. And this needs to be considered when planning your creative.
The issue a lot of times with TV is it’s one of the hardest platforms to track and attribute sales back to. Consumers may end up on your website with no clear footprint that leads back to the TV ad. Your website views will spike soon after your advert has been broadcast, but it’s not as clear as the journey taken from clicking on a digital or social media ad.
It’s clear you should always consider how to amplify your campaign by maximising all of the rich assets you are creating for TV for use in the digital and social space to give consistency and reach.
Let’s look at second-screening in action
Here’s an example of a campaign we worked on where all the TV assets were repurposed for digital execution.
We worked with Sky on their Ultimate on Demand campaign, whereby if you join Sky TV you would receive 90 channels, including Sky Atlantic, along with Ultimate on Demand. This meant you could enjoy Netflix originals such as Stranger Things along with Sky box sets like Game of Thrones.
A lot of work went into creating these TV spots, so it makes sense and is cost effective to re-purpose the assets for online. This is called a pocket TVC.
Best practise
- When you’re moving your assets over to the digital space, you should never just reformat the TV ad. You must follow the best practises for the channel to match the consumer’s viewing habits – so on their phones this should be between 5-15 seconds so you can capture their attention before they swipe on.
- Always have your brand logo shown from the start as well, so even if the consumer does swipe on then you will have achieved brand awareness.
- You can’t guarantee the sound will be on when someone is watching on mobile so make sure your visuals speak for themselves
- Remember it’s not TV – so experiment and have fun with the platform. In our example, we had our stranger things vines grow out off the screen.
The relationship between TV and online is getting closer and will continue to do so. When done right, it can seriously amplify your campaigns for maximum results. TV is getting smarter as well, with more options for advertisers evolving that give you more access to data and targeting.
TV should still be the beating heart of your campaign; it’s as relevant today as it always has been and that doesn’t look like it’s changing soon.
Like what you see?
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