I'm writing this on the Friday before the Super Bowl, knowing it won't be published until Monday. This leads to all kinds of complications, like how the verb tenses are going to work out. Bear with me.
Everyone talks these days about the multiscreen world, the evolving and growing role of the third, fourth or even fifth screen in consumers' lives, and whether the phone screen is first or somewhere down the hierarchy. But as one of the most-watched telecasts of the year, I see in the Super Bowl a case study for how those screens play together simultaneously. For most of its existence the game has been a one-screen phenomenon (namely, the big one in the living room), but for increasing numbers of US consumers, it's a two-screen event.
In a recent IAB survey, 70 percent of Americans said they planned to watch the game this year. Among those potential viewers, 56 percent of smartphone owners said they planned to use their phone during the game, and 45 percent of tablet owners planned to use their tablet. What are they using them for? It depends on the device, but if I generalize a bit, mostly it's about communication—staying in touch with friends via a variety of channels (texting, posting to social media, or even old fashioned phone calls). But our data also suggest a variety of other uses, some complementary to what's happening on the TV, some distracting from it.
Planned Use of Smartphones During the Super Bowl
Source: IAB Mobile Super Bowl Consumer Survey, conducted by Harris Interactive, January 2012. n=2,217 (US adults ages 18 and older).
Planned Use of Tablets During the Super Bowl
Source: IAB Mobile Super Bowl Consumer Survey, conducted by Harris Interactive, January 2012. n=2,217 (US adults ages 18 and older).
Keeping the attention of an easily distracted audience is priority one for both programmers and marketers in the multiscreen world. About 10 percent of consumers who own smartphones and/or tablets said they planned to use these devices to get more info about Super Bowl advertising during the game.
I’m sure marketers want to push that number much higher, and in order to do that several Super Bowl commercials included mobile prompts that encouraged consumers to use their mobile devices to do things like get more information, vote in a poll, or register for a contest. If I had one “Mobile Bowl” prediction to make as I look forward to Sunday’s game (now over), it would be that viewers’ mobile ad-related activities, both prompted and spontaneous, are going to be pondered very carefully in the coming weeks, and will prove to be one of the most important metrics in determining who won the ad component of the big game.
