Listening to BBC news this morning will have had marketers and advertisers in the UK and abroad waking up to smell the coffee.

Blanket coverage on TV, radio and the broadsheets here, talked extensively about OFCOM’s new Communications Market Report that delved deep into UK consumers’ media consumption across multiple devices.

Source: OFCOM Communications Report

As more and more people come online, they’re spending more time consuming media via internet channels. Although TV still rates pretty highly, the increased use of computers for watching video and TV programs “on demand”, coupled with the increased sophistication of mobile phone handsets and options to watch content on the move, means if you want to target your marketing message holistically, digital is a definite option.

We’ve been watching media consumption grow across multiple screens for some while now. The multi-screen research we released a few of weeks ago with Wunderman, certainly tallys very well with OFCOM’s study where we found:

“69 percent of multi-screen consumers believe that being able to access similar content (media and advertising) across different screens makes the content more useful and their media experience more relevant and informative.”

And when it comes to marketers targeting consumers across devices:

“80 percent of consumers surveyed expect improvement in the delivery of content and advertising across devices – and they report that these improvements will increase their engagement.”

Source: OFCOM Communications Report

From the report summary:

• People spend on average seven hours a day consuming different media, but they squeeze in 8 hours and 40 minutes’ worth using more than one medium at a time.
• Older consumers spend most of their media and communications time using TV and radio sets, while younger people spend half of their time with computers, mobile phones and handheld devices.
• 18% of mobile phone users access the internet using their handsets, a five percentage point increase since Q2 2007.
• Social networking now accounts for nearly a quarter - 23% - of all time spent online.
• Digital television was the most widely-adopted digital communications technology in 2009.
• The growth in online catch-up TV services continued in 2009, as consumers increasingly watched internet-based content via their PC.
• On-demand content accounts for 17% of the average consumer’s 1,461 total minutes of weekly audio-visual viewing.
• UK adults are most likely to watch scheduled TV on its own, whereas mobile and computer activities attract the most simultaneous media use.
• Online advertising grew through the downturn to reach £3.5bn in 2009.

With a recent Microsoft Advertising/Nielsen report into the effectiveness of video advertising showing that the medium outperforms TV advertising “thanks to an inherently more engaged audience and high-quality advertising environments that include exclusive positions alongside content,” coupled with the Rise of Rich TV, and burgeoning innovations in the mobile advertising experience, creating campaigns from the bottom up that include seamless integration of media delivery, consumption and measurement will soon be part of every brand’s approach to delivering their message when, where and however they need to.

Check out what the Microsoft Advertising team in the UK have to offer marketers, including a huge compendium of case studies for you to digest along with OFCOM’s report.

Thanks,

Mel

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