From Corus, CTV and CBC to MSN and Metro, many of the biggest brands in media turn to Toronto’s Xtreme Labs to build their mobile experiences. Increasingly, the mobile firm’s clients are asking it to build apps and sites that complement the media they produce on TV, the web or in print. On Wednesday, Xtreme Labs’ senior director of strategic alliances Aron Levitz will moderate a panel at Marketing’s 2013 Mobile Day featuring speakers from Bell, Telus and the Globe and Mail.
Ahead of the conference, Marketing spoke to Levitz about tailoring ads and branded experiences for multiple screens, stretching mobile budgets and whether the second screen is a brand extension – or a distraction.
You’re part of a panel called “Optimizing User Experience for the Multi-Screen.” Give us a quick preview.
We’re going to concentrate on the second screen and media – someone using an additional screen, a tablet or smartphone, while watching a primary screen like a TV. This is happening today, 30% of users who have smartphones or tablets are using them while watching TV.
One of the major things we’re seeing is that most of the interaction on the second screen is happening on social networks, Facebook or Twitter. People are tweeting or talking about TV shows on Facebook. We think that’s important for marketers to understand because that means the conversation about your brand is happening outside of your brand.
Some marketers are concerned the second screen distracts from the TV ads they’ve invested in. Others want to continue conversation about their brand online. Which camp do you fall in?
For certain brands, fans interacting with a show – say a reality TV show – is really important. Voting or doing trivia makes the audience feel more like they’re a part of the show and actually enhances the experience. For those who say it’s distracting, maybe a asynchronous experience is better for them, in which consumers can focus on the first screen then have a transmedia experience later on their tablet.
The problem is that marketers talk about second screen like it’s a single thing. We think about it in three ways. 1) Lean forward: watching TV and interacting with it. A trivia game or voting on a reality TV show. 2) Lean back: the second screen shows you more information. Watching a news channel and getting additional content about an interview subject. 3) Asynchronous: After watching, you experience something that expands on what you saw.
What’s the best multi-screen approach, reaching consumers on the right screen or on more than one screen?
That’s like asking what TV show is right for every demographic. It simplifies it too much for such an expansive technology. If a brand is on both smartphones and tablets, those experiences might be totally different.
The most important thing is creating the right second screen strategy based on who your audience is. You also have to choose the right content. What you consume on a smartphone isn’t necessarily what you consume on a tablet and it definitely isn’t what you consume on the PC.
To choose, you have to step back and look at your audience, how they’re using technology and the experience you want them to have with your brand. Then you can decide which content that you’re creating works best for each screen.
For marketers with small mobile budgets, it’s difficult to optimize for every device and screen size. How do you help cash-strapped clients decide which screens to utilize?
We have a process we call “discovery” that’s a consulting phase. We do market research on what competitors are doing, analyze your current demographic and see whether they’re on iPhone, Android, or maybe even Smart TVs or the car.
One thing I like to push marketers on is to think less about your mobile application as a campaign and more about a continuous aggregation. If you run one campaign for one type of car, that’s great. But if you take that same process and spread it out over a brand’s entire portfolio you could potentially reach millions of people instead of tens of thousands of people and continually have a conversation with them.
From iPhone and iPad to BlackBerry and a multitude of Android phones, there are hundreds of screen sizes and ad units in mobile. Any tips for tailoring creative/messaging to fit multiple screens?
Part of it is choosing the right technology. Creating one size fits all is very difficult today. Depending on the screen size and the type of tablet, you will have to make alterations to your assets. Choosing the right technology becomes important here, like selecting the right ad serving platform to selectively put out the best experience for each screen. By choosing the devices your demographic is on, you can also cut down on the number of assets you’ll have to create.
