JAKARTA: Some eight in ten consumers across South East Asia use their mobile phones while watching television, especially during advertising breaks, according to a leading Facebook executive.

Sandhya Devanathan, group head of ecommerce, travel and financial services for Facebook in South East Asia, addressed the prevalence of second screening during a presentation at the recent eTail Asia conference in Singapore.

She cited a study the social media giant had commissioned which revealed that more than 82% of the region's consumers aged 15-54 use a second screen while watching TV and are most likely to switch to their phone during television commercials – a development which will worry marketers.

This trend is particularly prevalent in emerging markets such as Indonesia, where 84% of respondents said they couldn't leave the house without their mobile phone. Four out of every five Indonesian youth switch to their phones when TV ads come on, or if the content is not that interesting. (For more, including the role of apps, read Warc's report: South East Asia's mobile-first path to purchase: Insights from Facebook.)

The data indicate that mobile-optimised marketing is now imperative for success in many markets across the region, particularly as viewers pay less attention to television ads.

Devanathan advised that, in Asia's mobile-first landscape, brands must actively work to make their online path to purchase as mobile-friendly as possible.

"People discover brands on mobile. But now mobile is actually influencing sales – 76% of shoppers from Indonesia, researched on mobile before they bought something," she reported.

"Nearly half – 45% – would love to buy on mobile … If you make it easy for consumers, they would not just research, they would also complete the path to purchase on their mobile."

With consumers moving seamlessly between devices and channels, marketers must also think about cross-device measurement to get an accurate picture of campaign success.

Devanathan advised enabling attribution models that are multi-touch and include offline conversions, while calibrating these models with people-based science.

Warc subscribers can read more insights on how brands can optimise their content for mobile for South East Asia's consumers in Facebook's A-B-C-Ds of mobile advertising in South East Asia.

Data sourced from Warc