Why are your viewers watching TV? In order to really understand what will engage viewers on the second screen you have to understand why they are turning to the first on a regular basis. Odds are your viewers are turning on the TV because they have an emotional investment in a show, curiosity about a topic or a desire to connect with others.
Anything that is in a companion application that is not adding to or enhancing the satisfaction of these desires does little to encourage the viewer to participate in your second screen environment. If you are not adding to the story you are just distracting the viewer from the first screen, something both networks and advertisers want to avoid.
The need to strike this precarious balance of enough interesting content to keep viewers entertained but not distract from the first screen is an interesting dilemma. It is one possible explanation for networks’ hesitancy to explore new concepts for companion app experiences.
Recently one major US network announced it would not be actively pursuing new second screen experiences. This decision was reportedly made because they found that the second screen app they were testing was distracting their viewers from the first screen.
This decision is clearly overlooking the fact that even if the network chooses to not release an app, over 75% of viewers will still be engaging in distracting second screen activities. This shortsighted approach seems to be the result of not understanding why the viewers are watching TV and engaging in second screen behavior.
The challenge of how to integrate content across all screens and appeal to the existing second screen habits of viewers remains. One method of overcoming this may be to provide interactive, complementary, and app exclusive content on the second screen to truly enhance the experience of watching on the first.
Much of the second screen experience has been focused on providing viewers with content and capabilities that are unrelated to the story on the first screen. These include features like show ratings, viewing suggestions, TV on demand and social TV. These all provide value in their own way but approaching the second screen with a focus on these offerings overlooks what engaging viewers on a more intense level can offer.
The stronger a show’s bond is with viewers, the higher the resulting engagement will be for brands. Recent studies show that ads viewed on the TV and a second screen concurrently can increase the brand favorability by 33% and can trigger an emotional response to ads that is 1.3 times higher.
So, are viewers watching a show that involves voting or crowd participation? Add to their perceptions of the story by letting them become a member of the studio. Help them connect with the show by making them an active member of the audience.
Do drama viewers want to learn more about the characters in their favorite shows? Give detailed character descriptions or provide additional content such as extra videos providing easter eggs or deep content that is only accessible through the app. Maybe you can entice your viewers deeper into the plot by revealing the contents of the steamy love letter you didn’t show on-screen.
Companion applications provide the perfect platform to offer more to viewers than ever before. So give viewers more of what they want. Engage them more deeply in what’s shown on first screen by enhancing the story on the second.
This strategy will not only lead to repeat use of the second screen application, but to an increased ROI. Remember: if the content in the app is natural and fun users will be engaged on both screens, and that provides two chances to catch their eye with the advertisements you want them to see.
