In the digital age, Canadian producers and content creators should capitalize on mobile device usage and video viewing to reach audiences, says comScore VP Canada Bryan Segal.

“The universe of internet continues to grow and our penetration usage engagement with the internet continues to be world-leading. That breeds a huge opportunity for either Canadian companies or companies operating in Canada in the digital world,” Segal told Playback ahead of nextMEDIA.

Segal is to discuss these and other trends at the digital industry conference that is taking place Monday (Dec. 3) and Tuesday at the Carlu in Toronto.

“Our research continues to show that people don’t say, ‘I hate content and I don’t want to watch it anymore.’ It’s: ‘I love that TV show, I want to watch it again, I want to watch it on my own schedule, I missed it on TV so I want to watch it digitally.’ It’s an increased usage rather than a battle between media, so at the end of the day, with video usage, you’re extending reach, not cutting reach,” Segal insisted.

And it’s no surprise that mobile media is a key platform for content producers to generate eyeballs and dollars, with Segal noting that 61% of phone owners having a smartphone.

“Mobile media increases, which means ad opportunities increase, which means content opportunities increase, which is the whole boat of the mobile audience,” he explained.

The increased mobile and smartphone usage speaks to the consumer behavior of what Segal calls digital omnivores, the generation growing up in an increasing digitized marketplace centred around internet-enabled devices.

He added that as digital becomes a bigger piece of the content pie, marketing content is becoming less siloed and more integrated too as it needs to reach consumers across all platforms.

Segal also said that the digital business model that underpins content is shifting away from advertisers purchasing ads based on gross impressions to purchasing based on viewable impressions, and advertisers are increasingly looking for transparency in digital metrics.

“If you’re not delivering good content, you’re going to have very [few] viewable impressions. That’s going to start to weed out some of the players that don’t deliver for advertisers,” Segal said.