How to advertise in a multiscreen world where mobile is the "first screen"?

AdReaction, the largest ever study on multiscreen usage in 30 countries, shows that mobile is the new "first screen" and that marketers need to understand the behaviour around shifting, stacking and meshing to win the most precious of resources - people's attention. <odr:mediaImg filename="20140321104027_daily-media-spend.png" width="580"/>

AdReaction, the largest ever study on multiscreen usage in 30 countries, shows that mobile is the new "first screen" and that marketers need to understand the behaviour around shifting, stacking and meshing to win the most precious of resources - people's attention.

<odr:mediaImg filename="20140321104027_daily-media-spend.png" width="580"/>

A typical multiscreen user consumes 7 hours of media per day, and for most countries across the study, smartphones are now the primary screen, taking up 2.5 hours of time daily.

Millward Brown's AdReaction has delivered insight and findings related to the opinions and perceptions of advertising, particularly digital formats, for more than 10 years. All fieldwork for the 2014 "Marketing in a Multiscreen World" was conducted via mobile by On Device Research.


Key highlights:

  • For 35% of screen time people are simultaneously watching TV and using a digital device
  • 65% of screen time is shifting, which is the biggest multiscreen marketing opportunity (read the full report embedded below to find out what shifting, meshing and stacking are)
  • TV is predominately a starting point and digital devices are used more to continue/complete tasks
  • Receptivity is higher for TV than for ads on digital screens
  • Smartphones and tablets account for 47% of media time but only 4% of media spend, this is expected to grow to 12% by 2016



Martin Ash of Millward Brown told The Guardian that the AdReaction report was design to understand consumers' motivations across different devices and understanding a bit more about the precise nature of second screen activity. The goal was to go behind the data stats and actually look at what was going on in the consumer's mind when they were shifting across devices.

The challenge of 30 countries

From a fieldwork point of view the project came with its own set of unique challenges. Multi-country studies are the bread and butter for On Device Research but simultaneous research in 30 countries was a new one for the team.

African countries are the forerunners when it comes to accessing internet through the mobile phones, however, majority of the usage happens on feature phones. Smartphone usage in the upper age groups is significantly lower and to get reach respondents required some innovative approaches from the team.

In South Korea, where phablet (a cross between phone and a tablet) penetration is the highest in the world respondents sometimes seemed unsure whether they own a phone or a tablet creating an interesting challenge in the data analysis phase.

Finding solutions to problems and puzzles like these is what keeps us on our toes and helps to drive mobile market research as a methodology forward. Nothing like a happy client at the end of the project!



A recording of Duncan Southgate's presentation at the Changing Media Summit 2014 has been posted on The Guardian's site now: Duncan Southgate of Millward Brown on making sense of multiscreen – video

Our latest highlights

Find out what’s driven our pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) below: