In an analytical report published by eMarketer of a survey by Nielsen, mobile smart devices are predicted “to increase from 44% in 2013 to 60% in 2016.” This steady and inevitable growth is driving marketers to commit increasingly larger percentages of their budgets to multi-screen advertising. The report indicated that tablets, mobile phones, and connected TVs were the most important devices to target, and the need to keep their message in front of consumers was the most important factor driving this increased spending.

In a joint survey conducted by Nielsen and the Association of National Advertisers, financial commitment to advertising for integrated multi-screen campaigns (those having the same objectives running across at least two devices – tablet, laptop, smartphone, etc. – simultaneously) is expected to rise from the current 20 percent to over 50 percent by 2016.

Of those questioned, almost half replied that multi-screen campaigns were “very important.” However, that percentage increased to 88 percent when asked to assess their importance by 2016. Currently, almost 95% percent believe these campaigns are “somewhat important.” But while the smartphone is considered to be the second most important screen to target, current spending patterns for mobile devices does not reflect this.

Developing a consistent integrated approach is still needed, though, with almost 70 percent either running separate campaigns for each device, or using a mixture of separate and integrated. Because their importance is expected to grow from about 83% to 98% or higher by 2016, the greatest opportunity lies in creating integrated mobile device campaigns for tablets and smartphones.

According to the Nielsen study, “Integrated multi-screen advertising is a preferred strategic direction… [as] there are expectations across the industry for the majority of spend to shift to integrated multi-screen campaigns within three years…”

The analysis goes further with this observation: “…we can expect a greater emphasis on mobile and other connected devices as ad platforms…” and “Multi-screen advertising is an exciting development for our industry, offering new and better opportunities to engage consumers. It’s up to us to do the work to capture that opportunity.”

References:

eMarketer. “Multiscreen Campaign Importance Rises With Smart Device Use.” November 25, 2013.

Nielsen. “Optimizing Integrated Multi-Screen Campaigns.” November 18, 2013.