Accenture has released an interesting new survey describing the ways US consumers perceive the social media that they see on their TV screens. One thousand consumers participated, the majority of whom (63%) were between the ages of 18 and 24. The findings tell a story that underlines the importance of television to help market social platforms. Specifically, Twitter, Facebook and Shazam’s investment in getting their logos and brands on TV seems to pay off in both awareness and actions.
On the awareness side, “the majority said they had noticed and were also familiar with how to interact with social media symbols while watching TV, including the Facebook “Like” symbol (42 percent), QR codes (28 percent), Twitter Hashtags (18 percent) and Shazam symbols (9 percent),” according to the study. On the actions side, “one-third (33 percent) of those surveyed said they had actually interacted with the symbols while watching TV by ‘liking’ the TV program on Facebook (20 percent), scanning a QR code (11 percent), searching for the Hashtag on Twitter (7 percent) or scanning the Shazam symbol (5 percent).” Here are further details from the report:
Reasons for using social media: obtaining more information about a show, product or service was the greatest motivator for interacting with a social media symbol while watching TV; cited by 43 percent of the participants who have done so. Other motivations included:
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- getting coupons and promotional codes (32 percent);
- entering a contest/sweepstakes (31 percent);
- watching another video (26 percent);
- interacting about the show or product on social media (26 percent);
- connecting with others with similar interests (21 percent);
- sharing or recommending video/program to others (20 percent); and,
- making a purchase (16 percent).
While the sample was small, Accenture described that it, “was representative of the U.S. population weighted by age, gender, geographic region, race and education.” Does this mean that GetGlue, Miso, Viggle and other social TV startups should continue pushing their partners to put their logos on TV? Of course. More so, I think this means that brands investing in thirty second spots definitely need to make sure that any piece of content they’re producing has a deeply embedded social layer so they can turn that awareness into action. All of this is probably obvious, especially to our readers, but it’s good to see an established firm like Accenture taking the time to put together some proof.