In 2012, the second screen stood out as one of the most exciting and disruptive areas of digital advertising, with a number of interesting experiments and product launches. But we’re reaching a point where the honeymoon period is drawing to a close, and in 2013 the services on offer will have to move from test budgets to becoming a permanent fixture on agency plans. VAN asked some of the leading companies in the space what they expected to see happen in the coming year:
Max Bleyleben, CFO, Zeebox
- The second-screen app market will shake out, leaving a smaller number of platforms and several niche players. The platforms getting the most traction will be those that are supported by the media owners with content and promotion.
- ACR technologies will commoditise rapidly, making it widely possible to serve ad units on the second screen that are synchronised with the TV ads. The hard part is working out how to time, target and deliver those synch’d second-screen ads – very few platforms will do this effectively.
- The TV ad sales houses that are able to bundle TV and digital inventory effectively will see a huge multiplier effect on their TV ad sales deals.
- We will see an increasing number of new TV productions with second-screen interactive elements written into the script from the start. The most forward-looking of these will also include second-screen activities that are sponsored by leading brands.
- The power of combining TV audience and second-screen interaction data will become apparent, creating significant value in the collectors of such data and those able to interpret it.
David Jones, EVP Marketing, Shazam
We think that the question of “will second screen advertising work?” has been definitively answered by Shazam with a resounding YES. With over 200 TV ad campaigns that have been Shazam-enabled, we’ve seen across all industry verticals consumers interacting on the second screen with TV ads, turning 30-second ads into several minutes of brand engagement, including shopping from the couch.
So, where does it go from here? Until now, the media agencies have been driving the second-screen strategy for their brands, but we believe that a major shift will occur – creative agencies will step forward and be instrumental in taking the mobile dimension of advertising campaigns to the next level, making the second screen experience as innovative as the ads themselves.
Along with consumers interacting with TV ad campaigns comes a wealth of data on where an advertising campaign is resonating. Brand marketers are increasingly going to have to also be “performance marketers” just like their online/digital marketing colleagues, experienced in rapidly processing hard data such as engagement rates and ROIs by creative across many variables. These will be increasingly exciting times for those who relish blending the “art” of brand advertising with the “science” of digital marketing.
Ryan Manchee, Director of Innovation Strategy, DG Mediamind
- 2013 will be a defining year in the evolution of multiscreen experiences. We will see further fragmentation amongst consumers and, with that, advertisers will be challenged in connecting to this hyper-connected audience.
- More second screen apps will be developed and made available to consumers, but we will also see some consolidation amongst the players. Second screen will be a major component in the digital marketing world’s push for ‘native advertising’. Among the leaders in second screen development, we’ll see an increased emphasis on monetization – this will be especially true as audiences and user bases grow.
- Second screen technology will improve to offer a more seamless experience for consumers to access their desired content, and for advertisers to provide more value to their prospective customers by gaining even further in-depth knowledge of their audiences; reaching them any time, in any place and on any device or screen.
- Agencies and brands will get serious about second screens and look for efficient ways to plan, buy, and execute multiscreen ad campaigns. Consequently, cross-channel ad verification and viewability metrics will become a top request and eventually made available, if only at an early stage.
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