ITV’s second screen advertising needs to grow from ‘niche to mainstream' admits ITV's Jon Block
The use of second screen advertising at ITV is still ‘niche’ and needs to grow into a mainstream capacity, the broadcaster’s controller of commercial digital products, Jon Block, has said.
Speaking at the Open Mobile Summit in London today, Block said second screen advertising – such as that in ITV’s Britain’s Got Talent app – is dependent on the content of the programming.
“It is niche and it’s limited by the second screen audience… the challenge is having enough programmes to work in the multiscreen environment, because of course it’s only the big entertainment shows that really work,” Block said.
He revealed that the Britain’s Got Talent app sees around 70,000 visitors during the ad break of the broadcast show.
He added that ITV's advertisers are regarded almost as 'partners' as the broadcaster allows them to take over an app using a projection called Ad Sync.
This works by launching in the play-along area of the app when the commercial break begins, which in turn pushes advertiser content to the user in tandem with the broadcast spot. The user can then choose to engage with the content.
Block said that out of 30 campaigns over the last year and a half the average engagement was 43 per cent with the average click through around 14-15 per cent.
“If you think about it people are clicking and swiping during content and they’re doing that for 15 minutes. Then when they get to an ad break…the creative takes over the device and they continue to click and swipe – they understand the trade-off between advertising and content.”