Speed summary of a useful research report from Microsoft (download) on our multi-screening digital lives; how we use second screens whilst watching TV – based on ethnographic research and a survey of 3586 adults in US, UK, Canada, Australia and Brazil in early 2013.
Key Findings
- 7 out of 10 consumers now use a second screen whilst watching TV. Marketers need to take a holistic multi-screen view of content strategy, and understand the need-states behind the four main multi-screen behaviours- 68% viewers engage in CONTENT GRAZING – (aka ‘Media Stacking’ using a second screen independently to TV content – multitasking and a form of ‘distraction behaviour’
– 46% engage in QUANTUM behaviour (aka Task Media Stacking) when TV content triggers an unrelated task on a second screen (shopping/work-realated)
– 57% engage in INVESTIGATIVE SPIDER WEBBING (aka ‘Media Meshing’) using a second screen to find information related to TV content – curiosity driven behaviour
– 39% engage in SOCIAL SPIDER WEBBING (aka ‘Social ‘Media Meshing’) using a second screen to interact with others about TV content – social behaviour - Different devices have different analytical psychology profiles – based on Jungian Archetypes (the 12-16 character types that pattern human stories) that can help us understand on-screen need-states
TV – THE EVERYMAN (Core Desire: connecting with others, Goal: to belong, Fear: to be left out or to stand out from the crowd
TABLET – THE EXPLORER (Core Desire: to find the truth, Goal: to use intelligence and analysis to understand the world, Fear: being duped, misled—or ignorance)
SMARTPHONE – THE LOVER (Core Desire: intimacy and experience, Goal: being in a relationship with the people, work and surroundings they love
Fear: being alone, a wallflower, unwanted, unloved)
LAPTOP – THE SAGE (Core desire: to find the truth, Goal: to use intelligence and analysis to understand the world., Fear: being duped, misled—or ignorance)
GAMING CONSOLE – THE JESTER (Core Desire: to live in the moment with full enjoyment, Goal: to have a great time and lighten up the world, Fear: being bored or boring others)
E-READER – THE DREAMER (Core Desire: to get to paradise, Goal: to be happy, Fear: to be punished for doing something bad or wrong)
If analytical psychology interests you as creative stimulus (and it should…), check out this great video walkthrough (below) on applying Jungian archetypes to marketing from Step Change Marketing. Although my PhD supervisor once quipped that (outside marketing) there are few card-carrying Jungians left, within marketing, generations of planners and creatives have found Jungian archetypes a rich and useful creative framework.
