The Official blog of Dark Matter, Inc.

Our two cents:
Clearly there is value in using a multi-screen approach with consumers. However, what marketers should keep in mind when reading this study is that the mere fact that a consumer viewed a brand advertisement on multiple screens means that they had increased exposure to the brand, which undoubtedly helps. When using a multi-screen strategy, we typically recommend to our clients that they create a messaging strategy based on the format the end customer is viewing the message on. In other words, you don’t simply cut and paste a bunch of :30 spots into tablets, PCs and mobile devices. Instead, marketers need to take the time to figure out which messages translate best to each device and make sure to take advantage of each device’s inherent attributes.

Full article below by Stuart Elliot

By STUART ELLIOTT

The conventional wisdom deems that many consumers may become confused or overwhelmed when ads are aimed at them on different screens in multiple media. However, according to new research from Nielsen, which was commissioned by Google, marketers may benefit from such cross-platform exposure.

As part of the research, consumers visiting an interactive digital laboratory at TVCity in MGM Las Vegas –- a joint venture between the Nielsen Entertainment unit of Nielsen Holdings and the CBS Vision unit of the CBS Corporation -– were asked to look at content on a TV set, a computer, a smartphone and a tablet.

During the test, a video ad that ran 15 seconds, pitching a premium-priced sports sedan, was shown in different permutations. Some people did not see any video ads, while others saw the video ad on various combinations of screens.

According to the research report, the ability to remember the automotive brand behind the video ad – and engage with the car being advertised — increased significantly when multiple screens were involved.

For instance, the report finds, in the group that saw the video only on TV, 50 percent recalled the brand being peddled. In the groups that saw the video ad on all four kinds of screens, 74 percent remembered the brand name.

Twenty-two percent of the members of the group watching the video on TV were able to recall that the car was a four-door sedan, according to the research. When the video was watched on four screens, that figure increased to 39 percent.

Also, according to the report, people who saw the video on four screens almost always had more positive opinions about the car compared with those who watched only TV, in categories like reliability and power.

“This research demonstrates the positive incremental value of multiple exposures across multiple platforms,” says a summary of the report that Google and Nielsen plan to release on Wednesday.

The report is titled “Better Together: Examining the Incremental Utility of Cross-Media Campaigns.” Three of its authors are from Nielsen Entertainment and one is from Google.

Google has been active lately in providing marketers with information about consumer behavior as digital media become more prevalent.

For instance, a post this week on the Google Mobile Ads blog presents data about the use of tablets, PCs and mobile devices for searches during the course of a work day.

According to the data, consumers use computers and smartphones for searches throughout the work day; smartphone use increases during commuting times and in the evenings.

And the use of tablets for searches “spikes dramatically” in the evenings, according to the blog post.

“If you are an advertiser, you might be wondering which is the best screen to reach your customers on,” the post concludes. “The answer is: All of them. These screens are better together.”

MOBILE USAGE

• 303 million Americans reported that they own a mobile device (CTIA)
• 96% of the U.S. Population owns a wireless device (CTIA)
• 26.6% of U.S. households are mobile-only, meaning that they do not own a landline phone (CTIA)
• 63.2 million Americans own a smartphone (comScore)
• 50% of consumers ages 25-34 have smartphones (comScore)
• 35% of smartphone users access the mobile Internet from their device (comScore)
• Two-year growth (2008 – 2010) of more than 2,000 percent in mobile-ready web sites. (DotMobi)

CONSUMER BEHAVIOR

• 82% of consumers have used their mobile phones in a store (Insight Express)
• 55% percent in a doctor’s office or hospital (Insight Express)
• 17% during a movie at the theater (Insight Express)
• 14% while flying on a plane (Insight Express)
• 7% percent during church service (Insight Express)
• 17% of mobile users have shown a clerk in a store a picture of a product on their mobile phone
• 45% of users check their mobile devices first thing in the morning (Insight Express)
• 1/3 mobile searches have local intent (The Kelsey Group)
• 1/3 of all mobile users already actively engage with Web content on their mobile phones (comScore)
• 53% of smartphone users routinely engage in mobile Web browsing activities
• E-mail represents 41.6% of mobile Internet time for users in the United States (Nielsen)
• 86% of mobile internet users are using their device while watching TV
• Average US mobile user spends 2.7 hours socializing per day on a mobile device

MOBILE ECOMMERCE

• 8% of total eCommerce sales will come from mobile by 2014 (ABI Research)
• Mobile coupon users in North America increased more than tenfold in 2010. Triple-digit increases are expected in both 2011 and 2012. (Yankee Group)
• $2.37 billion of mobile coupon transactions will take place in North America in 2013, up from $5 million in 2010. (Yankee Group)

APPS

• Apple hosts more than 350,000 mobile apps in the Apple App Store
• Apple offers more than 65,000 iPad apps
• Currently more than 150,000 apps in the Android Market
• There were 10.9 billion worldwide app downloads in 2010 (International Data Corp)

ADVERTISING

• U.S. mobile advertising spend was estimated at $743.1 million in 2010 (eMarketer)
• Display mobile advertising spend will reach $334.5 million in total ad spend by the end of 2011, up from $202.5 million in 2010 (eMarketer)
• Spending for ads delivered via mobile apps in the U.S. will explode from $305 million in 2010 to $685 million in 2011 and more than $8 billion by 2015 (Borrell Associates)
• Google currently dominates mobile search advertising, with an ad revenue market share of 91.4 percent.
• 21% of Google’s largest advertisers have a mobile-optimized Web presence. (Google)
• 47% of mobile application users say they click or tap on mobile ads by mistake more than they do on purpose. (Harris Interactive Survey)
• Mobile search advertising spend will reach $295.1 million in 2011 (eMarketer)
• Mobile video advertising spend will reach $50.8 million in 2011, up from $28.3 million in 2010 (eMarketer)
• Mobile made up 3% of total online advertising budgets in 2010. This number will grow to 5% in 2011. (IDC)
• Mobile advertising is four-to-five times more effective than online advertising (InsightExpress)
• iPhone users are more likely to respond to a mobile Web ad than owners of other smartphones. (Luth Research on behalf of the Mobile Marketing Association)
• For smartphone users, seeing a mobile ad triggers a response with 43% of consumers seeing an ad (Luth Research on behalf of the Mobile Marketing Association)

QR CODES

• 65% of consumers have seen a QR code (MGH)
• 49% Of those respondents who had previously seen a QR code have used one (MGH)
• 72% of smartphone users would be likely to recall an ad featuring a QR code. (MGH)
• 35% of U.S. shoppers were interested in using QR codes as shopping tools (In-Store Marketing Institute conducted by Catapult and Ipsos OTX)
• Among those who were identified as being interested in QR Codes, 87% responded with an interest in using QR codes to gain coupons, deals or discounts. (MGH)
• 60% of those interested in using QR codes would use them to make a purchase. (MGH)

SMS / TEXT MESSAGING

• SMS will make up 24% of total U.S. ad spend in 2014, down from 44 percent in 2010 (eMarketer)
• Consumers worldwide will send more than 7 trillion SMS messages in 2011. (ABI Research)
• 36% respond to ads within text alerts, while only 11 percent responded to display ads on mobile Web sites.
• The US sends 187.7 billion text messages every month. (CTIA)

VIDEO

• Mobile video has higher viewer retention than online video, with 94 percent in the first 10 seconds compared to only 81 percent on the PC Internet. (Rhythm NewMedia)
• The number of U.S. mobile users who watch videos on their devices has increased more than 40 percent year-over-year in both the third and fourth quarters of 2010, ending the year at a grand total of almost 25 million people, according to a mobile video report fromNielsen
• These consumers watched an average of four hours and 20 minutes of mobile video per month in both the third and fourth quarter of 2010, which equals a 33 percent and 20 percent year-over-year bump in each quarter (Nielsen.)

TABLETS

• 10.3 million tablet users in 2010 and that number is expected to reach 82.1 million by 2015 (Yahoo Research)
• Tablet sales will grow to 36% of U.S. PC sales, outselling notebooks/mini-PCs, which are expected to be 32% of overall PC sales (Yahoo Research)
• iPad users are open to advertising, especially if coupled with an interesting video (49 percent) or interactive features (46 percent) (Yahoo Research)

SOCIAL MEDIA

• 80 Million Twitter mobile users
• 200 million Facebook users use the service on their mobile phone (Facebook Blog)
• 200 million YouTube views per day (YouTube Blog)
• Women aged 35 – 54 are the most active group in accessing social networks with mobile  (Nielsen)
• 30% of smartphone owners have accessed social networks via browser (comScore)
• Nearly 1 in 5 Smartphone Owners Access Check-In Services Via their Mobile Device (comScore)

The average American today has more ways to watch video. In the Cross-Platform Report, Nielsen finds that the resounding trend is this: Americans are spending more time watching video content on traditional TVs, mobile devices and the Internet than ever before.

Traditional TV and Timeshifted TV
Overall TV viewership increased 22 minutes per month per person over last year, remaining the dominant source of video content for all demographics. In addition, Nielsen data shows that consumers are willing to pay for high-quality TV content, with broadcast-only homes less than a tenth of U.S. TV households.

Timeshifted TV continues to grow, both in the penetration of DVR devices in the home and the time spent.

Mobile Video
Though still accounting for just a handful of hours per month, mobile video viewing continues to see marked gains, increasing 41 percent over last year and more than 100 percent since 2009.

Internet Video
Internet video streaming also saw increases in time spent; this behavior is the highest among a younger and diverse subset of the population.

More details are available to download in the complete Cross-Platform Report.

Emerging Traditional TV/In-home Internet Streaming Trend
Until the fall of 2010, Nielsen data consistently indicated that the heaviest media consumers are so across all platforms. A subset of consumers from television and Internet homes has now emerged that defies that notion, with the lightest traditional television users streaming significantly more Internet video, and the heaviest streamers under-indexing for traditional TV viewership.

This behavior is led by those ages 18-34.  The group of consumers exhibiting this behavior is significant but small. More than a third of the TV/Internet population is not streaming, whereas less than 1% are not watching TV.

Nielsen highlights some key media attributes of today’s American teen. What is most notable about this generation from a mobile perspective is that they are the first to have “grown up” with technology, a defining factor that must be considered when looking at Millennials.

According to Nielsen, Kids Today…

• Are the Heaviest Mobile Video Viewers: On average, mobile subscribers ages 12-17 watched 7 hours 13 minutes of mobile video a month in Q4 2010, compared to 4 hours 20 minutes for the general population.
• Are More Receptive to Mobile Advertising than their Elders: More than half (58%) surveyed in September 2010 said they “always” or “sometimes” look at mobile ads.
• Out-Text All Other Age Groups: In Q1 2011, teens 13-17 sent an average of 3,364 mobile texts per month, more than doubling the rate of the next most active texting demo, 18-24 year olds (1,640 texts per month).
• Talk Less on the Phone: Besides seniors 65-plus, teens talk the least on their phones, talking an average of 515 minutes per month in Q1 2011 versus more than 750 minutes among 18-24 year olds.
• Grew Up in the Age of Social Media—and It Shows: While they make up just 7.4 percent of those using social networks, 78.7 percent of 12-17 year olds visited social networks or blogs.
• Watch Less TV than the General Population: The average American watched 34 hours 39 minutes of TV per week in Q4 2010, a year-over-year increase of two minutes. Teens age 12-17 watch the least amount of TV on average (23 hours 41 minutes per week).
• Spend Less Time on their Computers: American 18 year olds averaged 39 hours, 50 minutes online from their home computers, of which 5 hours, 26 minutes was spent streaming online video per month.

Interesting report from Adobe talking about the most effective campaign tactics and technology that lure shoppers. While many things are online in nature, the majority applies to mobile as well, which should give retailers and an idea of what to focus on for in-store programs. Read more.