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Is the second screen e-commerce's secret weapon?

Written by Tom Ryan

While "second screens" — smartphones and tablets — being used by coach potatoes are often feared by marketers as a way for consumers to avoid television advertising, a university study has found a strong correlation to online purchases. Multi-tasking web surfers often visit a product's website during or after a TV ad and subsequently make a purchase.

Researchers at Cornell, Harvard and the University of California, San Diego tracked traffic to dating sites, travel sites, telecom companies, retailers (including Amazon, J.C. Penney and Overstock.com), and a trio of pizza chains. Nearly 1,300 TV ads were screened as well as online visits by 100,000 web surfers to 20 websites during commercial breaks.

"We found a significant number of multi taskers being prompted by TV ads, then searching or going directly to the product's website, frequently before the TV show resumed," said Jura Liaukonyte, an assistant professor in Cornell's Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management, in a statement.

The study, "Television Advertising and Online Shopping," being published in the journal, Marketing Science, studied four types of ads:

  • "Action-focus" ads that provide a limited-time offer or deal to encourage specific action;
  • "Information-focus" ads that explain the product, price and brand information to help viewers evaluate an offering;
  • "Emotion-focus" ads using creative stories, warmth and humor to attract attention and engage viewers;
  • "Imagery-focus" ads that provide sensory stimulation, including evocative visual imagery.

Action-focus tactics were found to increase direct traffic to the website and related purchases. Information-focus and emotion-focus elements reduce traffic to the website but increase the number of visitors that purchase, which researchers attributed to the increased "efficiency of consumer search."

The only negative correlation came from imagery-focused ad content, which reduces direct traffic to the website, "perhaps because it discourages consumers from diverting their attention away from the television."

In conclusion, the researchers wrote, "Brand managers have to deal with two effects of media multi tasking. On one hand, it may divert consumer attention away from advertising. On the other hand, handheld devices may enable a more immediate and measurable response to traditional advertising."

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A new survey by Soasta, a performance analytics firm, analyzed mobile app usage by smartphone/tablet owners expected during the Super Bowl. One-third (32 percent) plan to use social media apps like Facebook and Twitter, 20 percent sports apps like ESPN and Sports Illustrated, and 19 percent games such as Candy Crush Saga and Trivia Crack. Apps for food delivery rate nine percent and apps for buying sports memorabilia or apparel, six percent.

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