Today, marketers need to be fully aware of the “Fourth Screen” because it is growing in popularity according to the recent Nielsen Company’s “Fourth Screen Network Audience Report.”
Remember the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind? It was one of Steven Spielberg’s best movies in my humble opinion. The “Third” kind referred to visual confirmation of “animate being” AKA an alien or extraterrestrial. Bonus points if you know what the close encounter of the first and second kind refer to. See below for answers.
So what is the Fourth Screen?
Well to answer that, we first need to know what the other three screens are, right?
In no specific order…
- TV
- PC
- Mobile
And the Fourth Screen… ?
Well that would be the screen we see essentially everywhere else.
- Doctor’s offices
- Movie theaters
- Supermarkets
- Gas stations
- Bars
- And other place-based venues
Digital Out Of Home (OOH) ad spending is expected to exceed $2 billion in the U.S. this alone. And with good reason as according to the Nielsen report the number of networks is increasing as is the number of visits to these OOH networks. Here’s a list of the top networks broken by industry/location along with the number of visits:
In terms of who is watching these networks and their ads, the report shows that over half are men (58%) and nearly three-quarters (73%) fall into the much desired 18-49 demographic.
So, the question to ALL marketers is…
Are you using the power and the reach of the Fourth Screen?
Given the diverse number of locations of the respective networks, there is bound to be at least one that matches your target customer, right?
Even if your target does not fall into the above demographic, why would you not at least test the use of the Fourth Screen against one of the other three screens?
Sources: Nielsen and Marketing Forecast
Bonus Answer
Close encounter of the first kind – Visual
Close encounter of the second kind – Visual plus a physical effect such as crop circles
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