Advertisers might be rushing to create ads for every platform – but in reality people don’t move from device to device to chase their messages, writes Channel 5’s Agostino Di Falco.
I have a confession to make. I’m in the process of recovering from an addiction. 62 episodes of Breaking Bad absorbed in 20 days, in public on the train, at lunchtime in the office, at home upstairs and downstairs. My very own cross-screen dependency.
You’ll be pleased to hear that the patient is doing very well and actually it’s been a learning experience. Not only do I now have a working knowledge of crystal meth production but as an ad man it’s also been a timely reminder that great content drives viewer engagement – with or without advertising.
The idea, promulgated in the industry that the general public flock to TV screens and devices specifically to watch advertising – and switch effortlessly from screen to screen following it – is somewhat fanciful.
Channel 5’s own research recently showed that while two-thirds of smartphone owners use their device for second screening every day, three-quarters of this engagement has nothing to do with what’s on the first screen and the other quarter is mainly to either research the content they’re viewing, or to discuss it on social media platforms.
A good start is to accept that the key stimulant has to be content”
Turning this behaviour into a positive outcome for brands leaves advertising with a lot of work to do, but it’s by no means a lost cause. A good start is to accept that the key stimulant has to be content. Advertisers need engaging content to immerse themselves within and around. And if that suitable content doesn’t exist (unlikely) they need to find ways to facilitate the existence of such content.
What could this look like? Well, in the world of TV, by working closely with broadcasters this could mean involvement in creating new programme formats or simply becoming an active component, within content such as Big Brother for instance. Endemol are rightly proud of the way together with Channel 5 they have integrated brands such as Very.co.uk and Levi Roots’ Reggae Reggae Sauce into the show, adding to the viewing experience and promoting cross-screen behaviour for many brands.
In the last series of Celebrity Big Brother viewers were able to pitch via Gumtree’s website to have their furniture placed in the house. And then once the series was over, they could go online and buy “the contents of the house” as memorabilia in the same way. This browsing and purchasing behaviour will naturally take place on mobile, tablet or laptop and is a far more effective way of leveraging brand messaging cross-screen than merely serving mobile ads related to activity on other screens.
So, by cross-screening I mean actively driving viewers from one screen to another by utilising new tech formats that enable successful conversion of the initial viewer engagement. I was in a lively discussion the other day where the merits of mobile, programmatic and data were being debated enthusiastically but perhaps misguidedly.
Where opinions are formed, trust is established, minds are enlightened and we are entertained”
The focus of the debate was on how these formats and tools can allow us to reach an audience that is moving cross screen. Although this is a valid debate, the fact remains that to be in a position to benefit commercially from cross-screen behaviour there first needs to be a reason for people to visit that second screen and that reason will always be content.
Mobile, programmatic and data are “closers”. A signal that the customer is nearing the end of their purchasing journey and will soon reward a brand with their business – the beginning of the end. But it’s short-sighted to suggest that piling investment into the “last click” should be the sole focus.
There’s a real beginning. Where opinions are formed, trust is established, minds are enlightened and we are entertained: television and the opportunities to create content that TV offers. And that for me is why TV advertising is at the top of its game at the moment. No other medium delivers this kind of engagement day in, day out for advertisers to benefit from the content consumers love.
TV advertising is selfless – it works beautifully with other media especially new tech formats, who have developed their own dependency on TV to bring them viewers to convert. Witness the 100 online brands that spent £400m on TV last year alone.
My addiction to intoxicating TV content won’t go away and the general public will, I’m sure, concur. As a consumer, I’ll travel to get it if I need to and more importantly, I’ll take advertisers along with me.
Agostino Di Falco is Channel 5’s deputy commercial sales director
