Home topics technology Devices Marketing Social Media Devices Multi-screening a marketing opportunity for SMEs Gina Baldassarre July 31, 2013 People often lament the damage smartphones have done to the average attention span. However using multiple devices at the same time actually spells more opportunities for businesses to market their product . A new report from Microsoft found that ‘cross-screening’ – using a combination of television, mobile, laptop, and other devices at any one time – has become the default viewing mode. Gabbi Stubbs from Mi9 said it’s no secret that Australia is a nation of tech junkies and that consumers are always switched on . “To capture people’s attention as they switch from screen to screen, marketers need to adapt their messaging so it works in sync with both the consumer’s immediate job at hand and is relevant to the device being used,” Stubbs said. The report identified four main types of cross screening. The most common type of cross-screening behaviour is known as ‘content grazing’. Almost 7 in 10 Australian consumers use two screens at the same time to access unrelated content, such as checking Facebook or email while watching TV. Six in ten Australians are ‘investigative spider-webbers’, using a second device to view related content that enhances the experience of their primary screen, like using a TV companion app to look deeper into show content. Almost 50 per cent of cross-screeners use their devices to ‘quantum screen’, starting an activity on one device and finishing it on another.