• by Daisy Whitney , Op-Ed Contributor, December 24, 2013

TV viewers are easily distracted during commercials by the remote, while online video watchers are often lured away from ads by another browser tab. But mobile devices -- both because of their personal nature and the lack of ease in opening another window -- often deliver more engaged ad viewers.

How much more engaged than TV, is the question?

A YuMe-IPG Lab study has attempted to quantify the attention-grabbing nature of tablets, and found that  tablet video viewers are 26% more likely to correctly recall the brands they saw advertised compared to TV viewers.

The reason? Viewers are least likely to multitask while using a tablet, and tablets are rarely used simply to play video in the “background” as TV often is. What’s more, the study found that the majority of TV viewers multitask while watching. TV users are often talking with someone, cleaning or cooking while watching TV or they may be reading email, surfing the web or texting. By contrast, eating is the only activity that more than 50% of tablet users say they do while watching videos. Other activities -- using the phone or cooking -- are less prevalent while viewing programming on a tablet. As an example, 30% of TV viewers say their smartphone is actually their primary focus while watching TV, yet only 5% of tablet video viewers say that.

The study was conducted by YuMe and IPG Lab in the spring of 2013 in a survey of more than 5000 people about their media usage habits.