The shortest route from point A to point B is a straight line. Now, the second screen platform can be that straight line branders and marketers have been looking for, when trying to get from products – point A – to consumers – point B.
A 2012 US survey showed that Facebook is the social network with the highest influence on what people watch on TV. Comments posted while watching TV, responses to these comments, suggestions to watch a show, likes and shares, are all means of promoting a show, done for free by the people watching TV. But what if this step could be taken even further, and what if second screen apps could lead to an even wider, more connected and available market?
second screen platform
Second screen advertising benefits from the users being connected to their online social network pages which have information that branders can use. Instead of having to settle for a time slot in the commercial breaks at certain hours, marketers can simply promote their services to the “real” potential buyers. Why waste money for commercials 100% of viewers see when only 50% of them need it and are going to buy it?
Take women’s hygiene products for example. Second screen marketing is a more customer oriented process, which means that the message will be aimed at women app users, making it a better investment instead of a waste of commercial space and time on people who will never purchase such a product for themselves, namely men.
Second screen apps change the concept of potential buyer, in the sense that, right now, since communication channels are the same, wide and unfiltered, all consumers get the same offers and messages from producers. It would be easier for them to simply invest in advertising to the people really interested in the presented products. It would increase their chances of selling considerably.
This mainly means that second screen marketing and second screen advertising will be done in a context in which commercial space restrictions have been eliminated. The new generations are digital to the core and, by the time the industry really takes off and takes over, they will be the ones brought up and used to the concept of information always being accessible, of logging in to benefit from any sort of experience and from taking control of anything displayed in front of them on a screen.
If they become accustomed to the second screen platform like most of us did with the Internet, they might not be able to understand our stories of the “commercial breaks” when TV stopped and there was nothing you could do about it except go to the bathroom, get a glass of water and other small activities we use to occupy our time in order to avoid seeing the same commercials all over again.
Second screen apps could do for television what social networks did for means of communication and interaction: they can make it more accessible, more controllable, more interesting and more personal. Second screen advertising can be something more acceptable for consumers as company offers developed on the second screen platform can be less tedious if they are well thought off and better aimed.
