Like many people in this world, I’m a busy person.

I live outside London, have a 9 month old daughter and run my own business – all of which means that ‘me time’ is precious and the days of watching TV in real time are long gone.  It means that when I do get time to myself, my media consumption tends to collide and I end up digesting about 3 or 4 things at once – something increasingly referred to as ‘Media Stacking’.  Whilst ‘Media Stacking’ isn’t a new phrase (it was coined by OfCom about 4 years ago), it is a new phenomenon for many people as their lives get busier, technology evolves and in turn they are offered more ways to consume and share media on a range of platforms and devices.

Primarily driven by people watching TV and using social platforms such as Facebook & Twitter on smart phones, tablets and laptops, this simultaneous consumption of media platforms is creating a platform commonly referred to as ‘Social TV’.  The figures are pretty staggering – with one recent study revealing that 80% of under-25’s use a second screen to communicate with friends while watching TV and 72% use Twitter, Facebook or a mobile application to comment on shows.  You only had to look at what was trending on Twitter during Saturday’s Champions League Final football or last night’s ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ Semi Final to know that these figures are true.

All this is great, but Media Stacking is giving me a couple of problems.

Firstly from a personal point of view, it means I have to go to extraordinary lengths to avoid finding out who was fired from ‘The Apprentice’ before I get a chance to catch up via Sky+ or iPlayer.  Without realising it, I have become a media stacker and I now actually find myself having to avoid using my phone, laptop or tablet for fear of seeing the result tweeted, re tweeted or shared by a friend.   More importantly from a marketing point of view, as media stacking becomes more prevalent in people’s lives, those of us in the media industry need to ensure the  brands  we represent are still being seen and heard in environments where consumers are more distracted than ever before.  The convergence between social platforms and TV channels is increasingly being acknowledged and it’s partly for this reason we have seen an increase in spend on mobile, video and social advertising.  Planners need to realise this trend is real and happening and can use it to their benefit it they are clever about when and how then run through the line campaigns.

In my opinion media stacking is good news for the entire media industry.  Far from media channels operating in silos, we are actually seeing the gap between on and offline media narrow.  ‘Social TV’ may well be what is needed to modernise the TV (advertising) industry by incorporating and encouraging more social interaction to complement rather than compete with programming.  I have no doubt that it won’t be too long before Syco realise this and find some clever way of tying in online and offline channels and shows like The X Factor and BGT become 100% social.