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Media Multitasking: Distraction or Ultimate Measure of Engagement?
Judy Franks
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
The magazine industry has long prided itself on being the medium that consumers choose to engage with by tuning out most other distractions. This single focus between the reader and the magazine has long stood as the ultimate measure of engagement. In order for this argument to work, we (the industry) made a gross assumption that concurrent multimedia consumption (aka “multitasking”) was a bad thing. We assumed that if consumers were consuming more than one media platform at the same time, their attention to any single medium was “distracted” and held less value.
But, what if the reverse is actually true? What if concurrent multimedia consumption is the ultimate sign of engagement? Think about it. We now have multiple media opportunities to engage with a compelling piece of content. The more devices, the deeper the experience becomes. Sound a bit counterintuitive? Let’s take a look at a few examples.
How do sports fans watch an important game nowadays? Chances are, not only are they watching the big screen, but they may also be using either their computers and/or their mobile phones to chat in real time with other fans, view replays and confirm important stats. The sports media understand this phenomenon and they leverage it by setting up a concurrent, multimedia experience to deepen fan involvement across platforms.
Why would MTV put Twitter correspondents in the audience of the Video Music Awards? MTV understands its audience.It knows that pop culture programming calls for a connected experience, one that viewers can share with friends (both physical and virtual) and one that sparks cultural conversations in near real time. While MTV could not possibly predict Kanye West’s behavior, they were ready for it. The Twitter correspondents tweeted the live events as they unfolded, and the VMA audience tuned in both on television and online in record numbers.
Television programming, in general, is becoming a multi-platform experience. Ask a true fan of American Idol how they "watch" the show. They will share with you their concurrent multimedia behavior as they watch the show live, and critique the performances in real time on their social networks. Take a look at Bravo’s treatment of its Real Housewives franchise. A true fan can experience the property on a television screen, a mobile phone, a computer and/or a tablet all at once.
So, where does this leave magazines? The "curl up in your favorite chair with your favorite magazine" visual that we can all create in our minds is still a coveted media experience. But to claim that this type of media experience is the only true engagement experience is simply untrue. The magazine industry must accept that engagement does not always mean a single focus in a single medium. What is engagement? Perhaps it’s best defined as a deep, connected experience between the consumer and content in any and all forms. Perhaps what engages the consumer is not the medium at all but, rather, the content.
Magazines deeply understand the power of provocative content. It’s time to let go of the single media engagement story and celebrate our industry’s ability to create deep and engaging content experiences in any platform.
Minsider Judy Franks is the founder and president of The Marketing Democracy, a consultancy that helps world-class marketers bridge the creative and media divide that exists in today’s unbundled marketing services industry.
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