dolution

A Multi-Screen Media World

One night in June 2010, 2.6 million viewers were on the Bravo Network watching the final episode of the Real Housewives of New York City. As housewife LuAnn was singing a “cringe-worthy” single, Money Can’t Buy You Class, 13,000 viewers soon went to Bravo’s website to use an interactive feature called Talk Bubble and to interact with fellow viewers. The site’s tools allowed them to share jokes on Twitter, update their Facebook page, and follow a “Tweet Heat” graphic that grouped the viewer’s collective views about the show (e.g., “Stop Singing!”).
Nielsen research has shown that consumers now spend an average of over 3 hours and 41 minutes per month both watching TV and browsing online simultaneously, and that almost 60 percent of TV viewers engage in 2-screen viewing. In Europe, multi-screen viewers are found to be more educated, affluent, brand loyal, and are greater brand advocates compared to the average adult viewer.
n general, screen convergence is not viewed as cannibalization by many media advertisers and critics, as smartphones, TV, gaming consoles, and computers each have different benefits and personalities for users. Research has also shown that multi-screen viewing of the same ad can increase aided awareness scores and post-ad actions.
However, measurement that marries the different systems from traditional panels to third-party data (e.g., video across TV, smartphones, games, computer websites) can be challenging. Nielsen’s recent Online Campaign Ratings (OCR) (e.g., with gross rating points to be covered later in the chapter) is attempting to measure, for example, how many people saw a campaign ad in three different dimensions: (1) only on TV, (2) only online, and (3) on both. Such unified metrics in a multi-screen media world can only help with what is already a difficult and challenging job in media planning and buying.