Smart Screen Exclusive

By Chuck Parker, S3 Chairman

The latest activities of the 2^nd Screen Society (S3) were highlighted on Huffington Post yesterday as part of the Advertising Week Experience, putting the spotlight on the emerging second screen landscape. Interviewed in New York, Guy Finley, Executive Director of S3 and Rick Liebling, Y&R New York’s Creative Culturalist and chair of the Society’s newly formed Advertising Subcommittee (ASC), shared their thoughts on the current and future state of all things second screen.

“2^nd Screen is an engagement tool; it’s a supplementary, social and synchronized experience that delivers enhanced content to a tablet or smartphone, engaging the consumer through a second screen,” Finley says. “What we look at are complimentary experiences that show up on the second screen and are branded with the content on the primary screen. It should enhance the primary screen, not detract from it.”

Finley and Liebling also clarified the definitions of several buzzwords often linked with the second screen ecosystem, including multi-screen, which is commonly used interchangeably with second screen.  They explained that multiscreen is actually the ability to watch programming anytime, anywhere on any screen, whereas second screen is the ability to engage and interact with that programming. They added that Social TV is the ability to share and converse with your community while watching television, while second screen is a consumer engagement experience that includes Social TV as an integral element. Finally, over-the-top (OTT) is the ability to deliver a television experience over the Internet, where second screen integrates OTT with traditional cable and broadcast.

Click here for the full video interview with Finley and Liebling.

On Tuesday night, in the midst of a very busy Advertising Week in NYC, the Society hosted a cocktail party at Y&R’s offices to announce the launch of the Advertising Subcommittee, lead by Liebling. Sponsored by Magic Ruby and Mobovivo, the event was attended by a strong cross section of the second screen ecosystem, including broadcast networks, advertising agencies, media buyers, application developers, broadcast service companies, financial analysts, and service providers. In addition to supporting the cross-industry network, Liebling introduced the mission of the sub-committee to the attendees of the event, simply stating its goal as:

“To forge mutually beneficial relationships between 2nd Screen industry technology developers and communications/marketing agencies for the purpose of delivering consumer engagement experiences that drive client business goals.”

The Advertising Subcommittee will be made up of industry leaders to represent each of the stakeholders in the emerging second screen domain. Alongside Y&R, founding members of the Advertising Subcommittee will include second screen champions in content and technology development for this comprehensive industry alliance.

Liebling emphasized the need for the various constituencies of the industry to work together to further develop their clients’ projects, but to work toward a more profitable and effective approach for everyone in the chain. Highlighting the successful Advertising Week second screen panel he moderated on Monday, Liebling pointed out that it would take a combination of app developers, service providers, creative agencies, content creators, connected device manufacturers and sports leagues to successfully propel the industry forward from its current nascent, but rapidly growing industry phenomena into a commercially strategic and valuable part of the overall television and advertising ecosystem.

S3’s next event, 2nd Screen Summit at International CES 2013, is set for January 7 at The Wynn in Las Vegas.

For information about joining the 2nd Screen Society, please visit www.mesaonline.org/communities/second-screen-society.