Jun 20, 2010
All You Can Eat Media
A recent study from Nielsen shows that more than half of television viewers are engaged in another media consumption activity while taking in their favorite programming. Nielsen’s study, The Three Screens Report, was created specifically to capture data about usage behavior in our living rooms. The report is a painting of how media is changing and how the adoption of our phones, computers and hybrid devices is changing the way that we interact with one another and media. Nielsen’s Three Screens Report goes back to 2009 and even this small period of time, it’s easy to see a shift in behavior.
Surprising is that the multi-channel consumption is not limited, or even led, by a particular demographic. Mobile video consumption for instance, is led by 25-34 year-olds. and that consumption drops 10-15% for users not-yet 20 years old. Also surprising is that although younger audiences consume more media (in time spent), a more mature demographic (24-35 year-olds) spend their time using many channels simulatiously. The Nielsen study does not go into specific details regarding the content of what is consumed, but should still be taken seriously by those who create content for prime-time viewing as well as content on-demand and web media.
From a media-professional perspective, understanding that your messaging and imagery is competing with several different stimuli at a given time. The tactics that you must employ are becoming more and more fragmented as well. Web content should be scannable, clean and broken out into digestible portions. Apps should be designed to keep your place within content and preserve the last “state” if the device goes dormant or is exited. Television content, especially commercials, should be fast and attention getting. Also, branding should not be visual alone as users may be looking away from the screen (especially during commercial breaks).
The Nielsen report is a fantastic benchmark for media producers. Not only does it provide support for what we all know-all-to-well to be typical behavior, but it also shows demographic information that is surprising. The report covers the first quarter of 2010 and the data, when compared with the previous year’s reflects the emergence of new devices and mobile network capabilities. The survey period ends before the release of the Apple’s iPad, which may further tilt the statistic towards multi-channel and mobile media consumption. The iPad, Google Android and several other consumer oriented mobile media devices are creating a new category of info-tainment that makes every minute, every commercial break and every morsel of downtime an opportunity to see a short-format video or catch a quick-laugh on YouTube. The trick is to become THAT content that captures user’s attention.
