{"id":1370,"date":"2015-03-17T10:55:32","date_gmt":"2015-03-17T14:55:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.acaweb.ca\/en\/?p=1370"},"modified":"2017-11-03T14:22:06","modified_gmt":"2017-11-03T18:22:06","slug":"the-evolution-of-cross-screen-usage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acaweb.ca\/en\/2015\/the-evolution-of-cross-screen-usage\/","title":{"rendered":"The Evolution of Cross-Screen Usage"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Alyson
Alyson Gausby<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Canadians are consuming more media than ever before. Although the weather as of late has made me wonder if I\u2019m single-handedly driving up our national average with my Netflix binging, turns out that\u2019s not the case. Canadians not only have more opportunities to consume content through the ever-expanding number of connected devices at their disposal, but they\u2019re also no longer using their devices in isolation – nearly all Canadians engage in some form of multi-screening activity.<\/p>\n

This makes things complicated for marketers because consumers\u2019 screens have become more powerful than the sum of their parts. Now more than ever, their time and attention are precious. This means that with all these moving targets, brands and marketers need to be very people-centric in their approach. At the end of the day, the consumer is the common thread – they\u2019re the ones driving and connecting all these screens.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s ironic is that many marketers still focus on what a screen CAN do (like search, display, video), rather than what consumers NEED their screen to do – the reason they pick up that device in the first place! This is an issue because consumers\u2019 mindsets and needs are very different depending on what they\u2019re doing and what screen(s) they\u2019re reaching for.<\/p>\n

At Microsoft, we\u2019ve done a lot of research to understand not only how consumers use their devices and how that\u2019s changing over time, but also how they use them to fulfill different needs and goals. Here\u2019s the coles notes version from our 2014 study<\/a>:<\/p>\n