Millward Brown has released its AdReaction 2014 study, which measures the amount of time people are spending consuming content across different screens. This year marks the second time the research agency has included Canada in the study, interviewing a total of 622 Canadians for the survey, 290 in English Canada and 332 French Canadians.
Screen time:
Of the countries measured, Canada is near the bottom in the total amount of screen time consumed, coming in just above Japan, France and Italy to land at the end of the list. English Canadians are spending approximately 379 minutes on screens daily, with French Canadians spending 366 minutes across screens for an overall national average of 372.5 minutes.
The study found that 37% of Canadians’ overall screen time is being used simultaneously for TV and a digital device. Of this time, French Canadians are more likely (17%) to mesh the content they are watching on TV with related content on their second screen than English Canadians (8%).
English Canadians are tied with the US for having the highest amount of people (28%) watching unrelated content on their second screen.
Of the reasons given for using multiple screens while watching TV, the top one for both English and French Canadians was to fill time during ad breaks. The second reason given for English Canadians is because they are watching TV with someone who is viewing a show they aren’t interested in and for French Canadians they say it is to keep up with friends on social media in ways that are unrelated to the TV show’s content.
The top reason given by English and French Canadians for watching related content or meshing the second screen with the first is to get more information about what’s on TV. In second is to discuss what they are watching on TV with friends on social media.
Canadians are split with the second screen device of choice, with English Canadians being more likely to use smartphones and French Canadians going to tablets.
French Canadians are more likely to consume TV content earlier in the day, with English Canadians most likely to be starting their screen time with tablet content.
Ad receptivity:
English Canadians show less receptivity to ads overall across all the screens measured relative to the global average, according to the study. Compared with English Canada and other countries around the world, French Canadians are reported to be more receptive to ads across smartphones, tablets and laptops.
Overall, all advertising is better received by French Canadians than English ones in the study, with micro-videos and TV ads with URLs getting the most attention across Canada, scoring high in both noticeability and receptivity.
TV ads with hashtags were lowest on the receptivity scale for English Canadians, with TV ads promoting mobile apps scoring lowest on that scale for French Canadians.
In English Canada, TV ads were more likely to be reported as salient, while mobile ads were perceived as trend setters. French Canadians associated advertising most with brand affinity and differentiation across all screens.
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