Mobile technology has changed the way the world consumes media, and a new research from Google – with the help of market research firms Ipsos and Sterling Brands – has shown definitive numbers behind a growing trend of multi-screen media consumption. This is especially true for consumers in the United States, in which an incredible 90 percent of people are reported to view some form of digital content across their smartphone, tablet, laptop or PC, and television, for an average of 4.4 hours of media per day!
The behavior is broken up into two major categories which Google has dubbed “sequential” and “simultaneous.” The former is the more common with 90 percent of users starting some task with one device before moving on to others to complete it; spending varying amounts of times on each per session. According to the study, the average person only spends 17 minutes with their smartphones, as opposed to the 30, 39, and 43 minutes spent on tablets, PCs or laptops, and TVs respectively.
Interestingly enough, smartphones are the most common task starting point – at 65 percent – for online activities. As an example, the vast majority of users will begin searching for information via their smartphone, but continue it on a PC or tablet. In fact, searches in general were noted as the primary means of initiation for multi-screen media consumption. Other popular activities consisted of web browsing (81 percent), online shopping (67 percent), finance management (46 percent), and planning a trip (43 percent).
In the case of simultaneous screen consumption, the total number of users was less than the sequential, but still significant at 77 percent. For these individuals, the most common simultaneous usage was while watching television with the primary companion being a smartphone at 49 percent or a PC or laptop at 34 percent. For the most part, consumers will make use of a secondary screen to search for something inspired by what they are currently watching.
Much of this cross-screen consumption is simply due to mobile device accessibility at virtually any time or place. These “micro-moments,” as Google calls them, add up quickly, and according to mobile advertising network InMobi, Americans, at least, are consuming most of their media through mobile means, totaling 2.4 hours out of nine measured. This is great for marketers and vendors, but maybe not so much for consumer wallets. Why? Remember that 67 percent of consumers are using multiple devices to shop online. Of that percentage, 81 percent are making spontaneous purchases.
In fact, 80 percent of consumer tasks, across multiple screens, are spontaneous, with 44 percent being goal-oriented tie-ins to everyday life. What this means is that between both sequential and simultaneous multi-screen usage, it is inevitable that cross-media campaigns, leveraging multiple devices, will become far more seamless and prevalent than they already are. Within the next year, vendors will likely have to present their content across a series of technological mediums in order to keep up with the ever increasing pace of consumer life, meaning that how we shop, search, communicate, and so on, will only get faster.