Welcome to the era of the 4th screen

The 4th screen is nothing but mobile communication devices, that is to say smartphones and tablets. The other 3 screens are the cinema, the television and the game console. For few years we have been exploring the dawning of i phones and i pads on which consumers can download many different apps. An interesting information service is the Location-based Service. This service can locate a person and an object, including finding the nearest Starbucks or ATM machine! The result is that consumers are always connected online and on social networks. This constant connectivity impact marketing because customers can influence the general opinion by posting some reviews or episodes that happened in regards of a company. So, for example, people in line a lifelong to be served at Walmart can easily tweet how bad is their costumer service with an immediate negative impact on the company and since social networks can reach million of people in few hours you might want to pay attention to. It is convenient therefore, to create ad campaigns which are fully integrated, including mobile platform. This is a great opportunity for marketers which can reach a wide range of consumers but, in order to be really effective they should use a more targeted approach and mobile marketing should appear personalised. Speaking about tablets expansion it is easy to understand why people adopt them quickly, they are symbol of social status, it is lighter to carry than a computer and you can also use it as a phone or a camera! Nevertheless, there is still some resistance. This is due to the high costs of the product and that people do not really feel the necessity to carry a mixture beetween a giant telephone and a tiny pc. Anyway I think it is just a matter of time!