This week the major topic of discussion is today’s cross-device user and how they influence marketing and advertising. People-based marketing and cross-channel usage come together as marketing and advertising executives top priorities this year. In addition, Facebook and Google prove to consume these cross-device users’ time, more details below. Finally, a friendly reminder of this summer’s biggest sporting event and major social media topic of discussion, the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio.

In a recent study conducted by the Relevancy Group, 401 marketing and advertising executives were surveyed across a collective of priorities in “madtech,” the marriage of marketing and advertising. It was found that people-based marketing and the ability to identify an individual across channels and devices were among the highest of priorities. 92% of respondents agreed that implementing people-based marketing is important and 94% for the ability to identify an individual across channels and devices. This isn’t a coincidence. Today, marketers and advertisers are smart and know that their audience is no longer limited to a single source of communication. In order to truly succeed in people-based marketing, advertisers must recognize that this multi-channel user needs to be recognized across devices using opportunities like Facebook and Google login, as opposed to cookie-based targeting, if they truly want to get an accurate and valuable view of their customer.

Dscout published data, opening up the article with the question, “How often do we touch anything that’s not made by Google or Facebook?” Answer: according to the graphic below, nearly 50% of all touches were done through apps made by Alphabet (Google, YouTube, Chrome, Gmail, Hangouts) and Facebook. Facebook Inc. owned the top ten with its apps: Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and Whatsapp, and the Facebook app itself showing 50% more interactions than any other app. In addition, Alphabet’s apps came in second with 16%. As said in the previous paragraph, consumers are always connected, always going, and always interacting. They are interacting with each other and brands across multiple devices. However, the good news for marketers and advertisers is that, although endlessly connected, users aren’t actually all too hard to locate. It isn’t necessary to dip into every digital space possible to try and connect with your customer. They are clearly spending most of their time in a concentrated area, between Google and Facebook spaces, which offer a variety of opportunities to target consumers the right way at the right time.

With all this talk about connected consumers and cross-device usage, it would be wrong not to give an example of the major events happening today that drive users to use their devices and gives the perfect opportunity for advertisers to reach them in real time. This summer is the Rio Summer Olympics and you better believe that fans will be more connected than ever. One in three users surveyed in a study said that they would tweet opinions and thoughts in the upcoming Rio Olympics. Twitter is not only a platform for fans to give opinions and get the score of a game, but it’s also television’s new companion. Twitter has done several studies with Nielsen that show that people who engage with Twitter while watching TV pay more attention to the ads on TV, have both a 157% higher brand favorability (7% versus 18%) as well as 88% higher intent to purchase(16 to 30%). So advertisers should consider all the digital interactions around the Olympics this summer when crafting their upcoming campaigns.

To Stay Ahead of Retail Advertising Changes and Increase ROI on Facebook & Google, attend our upcoming webinar!