How to power up that second screen

Many users watch and use multiple screens at the same time. Here’s how to take advantage of that as a marketer.

It’s no secret that when users are watching TV, a lot of the time they’re actually watching a second screen–usually their phone, or maybe a laptop or tablet. One second they’re riveted by what’s on TV, and the next they’re not–instead, they’re scrolling through social media or checking their email.

By one estimate, 85% of viewers use a second screen at least sometimes when they’re watching television. That’s 200 million second screen users, just in the U.S.–that’s a lot of distracted TV viewing.

In an age where people use TV for background noise as well as watching, it can be difficult to know whether anyone is actually viewing your TV ad. – In comes second-screen advertising: the power of delivering a follow-up ad to somebody’s phone, tablet, or laptop, at the same time that you’re running an ad on TV.

And as media becomes increasingly shoppable, there is so much you can do beyond just serving a second ad. That second screen becomes the channel that brings a viewer straight to making a purchase.

What are people looking at?

Before we get into how the second screen can lead to a purchase in the age of shoppable media, let’s look at what people are watching–and what’s distracting them.

• The thing people are looking at most on these second screens? Their email–at 63%, followed by social media at 61% and text messages at 56%. 
• Typically, that second screen is a phone. Of the 200 million TV viewers that use a second screen, 177 million adults are using these second screens on mobile.
• Sometimes, they’re looking up content related to what they’re watching. Most of the time–around 75%–they’re not. 

So would it be effective to use TV ads as a jumping off point for phone-targeted ads? More than you’d think.

Live sports, reality TV

While viewers are less likely to second-screen while watching shows with involved plots–dramas, TV comedies–they are much more likely to do so when watching reality TV or live sports. These might be two of the best categories to cater a second-screening experience for.  And with users increasingly switching to CTV to enjoy their live sports (35% of the population), it’s an excellent opportunity to target someone with a second screen ad that’s targeted and effective. And it’s an opportunity that’s only growing–Disney, which owns ESPN, Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery recently joined together to create a sports-exclusive streaming service coming in Fall 2024.

While watching sports, the most common second screen activity worldwide is using apps, at 35%, followed by using social media platforms, at 32%. That’s followed by talking to someone on the phone, then checking or sending emails, texting, playing games online, and ordering food delivery. – That’s not just an opportunity for the UberEats and the Instacarts of the world. It’s an opportunity for any advertiser to target second-screening sports viewers.

Shoppable media

Remember the 2022 Super Bowl? During one of the ad breaks, Coinbase placed a 60-second commercial of just a QR code dancing around the screen. It was scanned so many times it temporarily crashed the app.

Companies like Roku already add QR codes alongside commercials. But we can go beyond QR codes as media becomes increasingly shoppable. What percentage of ecommerce transactions are completed on phones? Last year, mcommerce (that is, mobile ecommerce) sales accounted for over 40% of total retail ecommerce sales. Within the next half-decade, it will likely become the preferred channel for ecommerce transactions. It just goes to prove that mobile isn’t just a channel anymore–it’s a purchasing hub. With phones already serving as TV remotes for platforms like YouTube and Netflix and companies increasingly trying to bridge the gap between ad impression and conversion, second screen advertising is not too far from becoming second screen purchasing. 

Exploring second screen possibilities

So as a marketer, how do you take advantage of an increasingly shoppable second-screen landscape? 

If checking email tops the list when it comes to second screen activities, it only makes sense to use email as a way to send a simultaneous marketing message as a viewer watches your TV ad. That’s one of the things Stirista can help you do. Additionally investing in a simplified and frictionless mcommerce experience can help increase conversion–as well as putting effort into creating ad campaigns that centralize the consumer, moving beyond simply cross-channel campaigns into creating a unified experience.

Shortening the funnel from impression to purchase is only possible when you take advantage of that second screen–using it as a tool to reinforce a marketing message, powering it up with calls to action, and making sure the path to purchase is as seamless as can be, whether on a big screen or a small one.