New Game Rule in Multi-Screen Era

Last summer, there was a reality show sweeping the whole China, called ‘Where Are We Going, Dad?’, and this year, it went out for season two. Apart from the amazing number of video views both from the TV and online broadcast, it also did a good job on program marketing. The program opened a official account on Weibo (a popular micro-blog in China) for interaction with fans. By the end of season two, it can be seen on its Weibo page that the program has received 5.8 million fans with 21 billion views of its topics and 33 million discussions, among which were created during the program (Where Are We Going, Dad?, 2014).

Here comes the issue. Unconsciously, people have entered a multi-screen world these years, which includes TVs, PCs, mobile phones and tablets. They occupy most of our entertaining time. And according to a research conducted by Google (2012), 98% subjects claim that they shift among devices each days. Except from the example of discussion on TV program mentioned above, there are many other examples around us. For girls, we have many apps in our phones for online shopping. When there is a break, we may go through those products and put some into carts. After we come back home in the evening, we open PCs to check the goods in carts again and finally pay.

Source: The new multi-screen world: understanding cross-platform consumer behavior, 2012

So what does it bring to marketers?

Nowadays, to identify the characteristics of each device and manage the precision marketing is significant for advertisement to stand out. Google also pointed out in the research about the functions of different terminals that computers are for daily work and receiving information (e.g. news). Mobile phones are mainly used to connect with people while tablets normally function as entertainers. In that case, advertisers should place advertising according to their different roles. For television and PC, traditional advertisement may still work, such as promotion videos or page posts on edge of E-mail account page. However, for mobile phones and tablets, because of their limited screen size, it is meaningless to put traditional posts. Instead, more interactive ones should be designed to target more effectively (e.g. apps game) and link them with social networks to boost impact and involvement.

However, does it mean advertisement on different channel are split? Obviously, the answer is no. Although the form may be flexible on different devices (such as video on TV and photo on Twitter), the message itself and its expression should be consistent. Williams (2014) believed that a consistent message will build up the trust between the customers and the brand, which as a result, maintain their loyalty. So, at the beginning, attention to consistence should be paid when generating marketing strategy, and it should be executed strictly through the whole process to ensure the effectiveness.

As a conclusion, Multi-screen era is coming. To keep pace with the times and the changes that it created on customers, marketers should be aware of it and match the marketing content and its form with the characteristics of each device. More importantly, maintain it consistent.

Reference:

Google (2012), ‘The new multi-screen world: understanding cross-platform consumer behavior’, [Online]. Available: http://services.google.com/fh/files/misc/multiscreenworld_final.pdf [Accessed: 16 Octorbor 2014]

Where Are We Going, Dad?, (2014), Official Weibo page, viewed 16 Octorber 2014, http://www.weibo.com/p/1002063774371267/topic?from=page_100206&mod=TAB#place

William, D (2014), ‘Content consistency creates loyal customers’, SPROUT Content blog, web log post, 17 January, viewed 16 Octorber 2014, http://www.sproutcontent.com/blog/bid/192948/Content-Consistency-Creates-Loyal-Customers