• by Tyler Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_tyler, February 25, 2015

Make some room -- "right person, right place, right time," you've got company.

"Right screen" has officially entered the fray in its own right -- no longer should it be an also-ran of "right place."

This morning's study from Nielsen and YuMe (commissioned by YuMe), which found that television engages consumers half as long as digital, showed the distinct difference between the array of screens consumers have at their fingertips. The multitasking nature of today's consumer has put marketers on a Great Hunt for successful multi-screen marketing.

The challenge, highlighted by today's report, is that marketers may be trying to solve for something (consumers no longer dedicated to one screen) that can't be solved.

The number of screens is increasing, but the amount of time consumers have each day has remained the same.

Attention spans have been stretched thin, with consumers being pulled this way and that with engaging content. In the study that Nielsen and YuMe conducted, no screen between TV, laptop, tablet and smartphone dominated in terms of use. Only the television was on more than half the time (at 53%), but it had consumer attention for 39% of the time (and only 30% of the ads received attention).

Think of it this way: Two (or more) programmatic marketers could theoretically reach the exact same consumer, at the exact same time, and the ad could be placed in perfect context.

But which screen will the consumer be looking at?