The following post is a guest contributed articled from Christine Oliveri, Vice President of Client Services and Operations at I.Predictus.
Device proliferation is changing the way we access and view media, with consumers increasingly likely to use a smartphone or tablet as a second screen while viewing content on TV or online. A Time Warner study highlighted by Adweek shows that multitasking via second screens during TV viewing is on the rise, with more than half of TV and computer owners likely to use a second screen while watching TV and 60% of people with a smartphone, TV and computer reporting that they multitask.
The Adweek article also suggests that second screen engagement can even heighten brand appeal for viewers.
The rise of the second screen experience can be a great way for brands to drive sales: A TV ad can instantly transform viewers into shoppers. But to create a successful second screen experience, marketers need to remember to treat outreach on all media channels as a single campaign. Given the way responsibilities are sometimes divided up within organizations, too many companies fall into the trap of running a different campaign for each media channel instead of one seamless, consistently branded campaign deployed across multiple channels.
To remedy this, the teams responsible for putting the elements together for each channel should work together in the campaign planning and development phase and leverage opportunities to drive traffic to other channels, such offering a URL or social media site on a television ad to prompt second screen users to visit online campaign hubs. It’s also important for the teams to work together closely on the creative so that all campaign elements have a unified look and feel.
Another crucial success factor for multichannel campaigns is an accountable media strategy. To optimize your campaign, you and your media buying team and other partners will need to generate and analyze data from a variety of sources – TV, social media, retail, mobile, etc. To accomplish this effectively, you’ll need to bring all the data from multiple channels and touch points together, and then identify which media elements are driving responses.
The second screen phenomenon offers incredible cross-channel marketing opportunities for brands, but to make sure your campaign succeeds, make sure you always approach cross-channel initiatives as a single campaign. This means working closely with everyone involved to present a consistent look and feel and coordinating messaging to maximize response rates. Just as importantly, make sure you consolidate the data from all sources and then analyze it to identify the channels that are delivering the most ROI. This will allow you to allocate marketing spend more effectively – and drive sales higher.
