I screen, you screen, we all screen.

In recent months there's been a fair amount written about how people are becoming addicted to the screens they use every day. Whether it's their TVs, laptops, tablets, smartphones, consoles or even their cameras, less and less time is being spent without some sort of screen close to hand. And in many cases it's not just one screen. It's many, used simultaneously - the result? We're cramming six or seven hours of media into just four or five.

Unsurprisingly, the trend is increasingly prevalent amongst our youngsters. One study found that the average 10-11 year old has regular access to five different screens in their house and the average adolescent spends 6.1 hours in front of a screen a day. Incredibly, a child born today will have spent one year of full 24hr days watching screen media - by the age of 7.

This multi-tasking must have clear negative implications for advertising's effectiveness - a divided attention span does not fully focus on one thing. Or does it?

Thinkbox recently conducted some surprising research which suggested that 81% of these 'dual screeners' will stay in the room during ad breaks and refrain from changing the channel. Those without internet connection are more likely to leave the room or channel hop during commercials. Similarly, a dual or even triple screener is more likely to watch TV for longer than those watching telly in isolation and (perhaps most importantly), the practice has no negative effect on ad recognition.

In fact, the act of using a second screen is fast becoming a complimentary experience - not a conflicting one. The Twitter 'backchannel' is the perfect example of this, as is the use of sites like IMDB or Wikipedia. Indeed one study found that up to 60% of viewers would search for additional info on a TV programme online or socially interact with the topic during the broadcast.

This is a trend that more brands will surely take advantage of over the next few years. We've already seen the likes of X Factor's 'Clap' and Heineken's 'Star Player' (apps that encourage audience participation) have a go at it.

The ultimate goal for advertisers in the future will be to monetise audience participation - something eBay are currently trialling with their 'Watch with eBay' feature. Before that, we should start to use multi-screen design in order to deliver better brand experiences to our customers.

 

If we're to make the best use of these different screens and engage consumers, we need to first understand how they're presently being used and how they differ. Success will come from using these devices to compliment the others strengths, and not just by duplicating content.

 

The best example of a company getting this right so far is Allrecipes.com. They understand that the different screens are not just three ways of getting the same content, but three very different user experiences. In their case, the laptop is best used to search for the recipes, the smartphone is great for shopping lists and the tablet acts as an interactive cook book (with big buttons that the user can press with their comparatively clean knuckles).

 

 
In short, people are using many screens nowadays, often concurrently. This doesn't mean they're the same devices and they shouldn't be treated as such. Our challenge as marketers is not working out how to render our content on different size screens, but to work out the subtle ways in which each device can be optimised to make our customers lives better at each stage of their interaction with our brands.

Dom Roe