Monday, July 15, 2013

In Second Screen Engagement, Twitter Leads

More and more, people are turning to their laptops and mobile devices as a way to virtually gather ’round the TV set and share an entertainment experience. But for brands deciding where to invest their engagement efforts, there are a multitude of options to consider.

The Apps

GetGlue and Viggle attach incentives and personalized entertainment schedules, while AMC’s Story Sync follows the program’s story with you, even if you’re not watching live. Each one presents a unique set of offerings, but what they all have in common is that they create a community in which audiences can talk about what they’re watching, share opinions or predictions, and get access to behind the scenes or exclusive content. But there still might be no better place to chew the fat about your favorite shows than Twitter.

The Elephant in the Room

From social revolutions to McDonald’s horror stories, hashtags provide a way for audiences on Twitter to curate conversations around their favorite (or most hated, in the case of McDonald’s) topics, thinning the fire hose that is a Twitter feed down to a manageable stream (which is relative, depending on the hashtag). Nearly all networks are using them to lead the conversation (such as Arrested Development’s#BluthParty).

Just last week, 15 hours after the premiere of the new season of Big Brother, #BB15 was still trending and engaging conversation. Bluefin labs (the leader in social TV analytics) reported that about 95% of real-time TV engagement happens on Twitter.

Twitter’s Dominance of Social TV

Twitter has recognized its potential power within this space and is actively making moves to create an even more engaging experience that will allow a two-way exchange of content and media between entertainment brands and their audiences. One of the ways they’re doing this is through Twitter cards.

Twitter cards make it possible to attach media experiences to links. This allows brands to share news stories with a full summary and photo, and to tweet sized photos, photo collections, apps, media and products. Going a step further, Twitter’s Amplify program enables its partners to embed videos directly into their own stream. The NFL and NBA have already used the program to tweet instant replays and real-time highlights. Other partners including BBC America, Fox and Clear Channel Media have signed on as well.

While Twitter purists may think that it’s overkill, the technologies will provide an opportunity for studios and brands to give fans the kinds of content they want (fan content, behind-the-scenes content, shareable content, exclusive content and participatory content) directly within tweets.

Twitter has also teamed up with Nielsen to create a new metric called the Nielsen Twitter TV Rating, which measures social media activity of a TV show’s audience, and it acquired Bluefin Labs to lead the way in social TV analytics as well.

What This Means for Brands

Twitter gives entertainment brands the power to guide the conversation (though never control it). Its new features coupled with its social TV analytics make Twitter the primary place for entertainment brands to engage with audiences. However, it’s not the only place, and brands will need to actively monitor and engage with fans that use second-screen and social TV apps.

(VIA)

Sunday, July 8, 2012

Social TV Apps are Changing How We Watch Television

Viacom released a study a few months ago on social television usage that I’ve been meaning to write about, because I think it represents a critical behavioral change in TV viewing that will impact many a brand’s marketing decision. In a nutshell, a Viacom survey found that 56% of respondents use social apps on mobile devices to interact with friends while watching their favorite TV programs. In other words, over half of those interviewed (the survey represented a reasonable distribution of the TV viewing audience) are engaging in some form of social interaction with a mobile device while watching their favorite TV shows.

The Viacom survey, “Social TV: Viewers C’s the Moment,” notes that viewers engage in an average of seven different types of social TV activities (online or offline) on at least a weekly basis. The most common activities include watching TV with others (85%), searching for supplemental content (61%) and viewing TV show clips on social networks (58%).¹

What are people doing on mobile devices that makes their TV viewing experience “social?” Communicating, consuming content, and checking comments.

LET’S HAVE A CHAT

Above all, social TV viewers love to chat with friends, often using multiple platforms. For example, 56% prefer communicating through a social TV app/service, 53% through Facebook, 50% through individual or group texts, and 38% through Skype or Apple FaceTime. For those that use check-in services, 71% check in to a show to let their friends know and 64% check in to let other fans of the show know.¹

The vast majority of social TV apps are accessed via smartphones (82%); social TV viewers are using tablets to communicate just 18% of the time. For social TV services delivered through mobile websites and apps, almost half of viewers (48%) are still using a desktop or laptop device, with only a slight majority opting for smartphones or tablets (this may have something to do with the fact that not all browsers have fully integrated popular web-app markup languages like HTML5).

When asked what content they are looking for in a social TV app experience, most survey respondents wanted deeper engagement with their favorite shows, such as episode teasers (75%), behind the scenes snapshots and extras (71%), and live interaction with the stars and creators. In short, they want to feel like they are part of the experience. "I love reading Daniel Tosh's tweets while watching Tosh.0. It gives the show a whole other dimension," said one survey respondent.¹

Many viewers want to hear comments from a show's cast and crew, followed by the people they know. Audiences are sensitive to the quality of comments from a show's cast and crew – they look for authenticity and prefer the star(s) to be in character.¹

The speedy pace of tablet adoption is likely to further alter the social TV viewing experience. According to eMarketer, by 2015 the majority of online users will access the Internet via mobile tablets. Assuming this ends up being even remotely accurate, many millions of users will be accessing TV shows through their tablets. This is partially true even now. A recent study by OPA found that 47% of tablet users are regularly watching full-length TV shows:

MARKETING TAKEAWAY

The consumer shift to a more “social” TV experience has many implications. For one, as marketers continue to shift ad dollars from television to video, popular TV networks are going to have to react or watch ad revenues decrease. They would be wise to accept the new reality and focus their efforts on creating a deeper user experience that incorporates social and mobile technologies.

Marketers should keep a close eye on where viewers are consuming popular TV shows, and shift ad-spend accordingly. Many have already figured this out. In May, online video ads reached 52% of the total US population an average of 64 times. Of these ads, online streaming TV and video site Hulu generated the highest number of video ad impressions, at 1.6 billion.

In an increasingly complicated media landscape, marketers who are able to develop an organic and non-invasive means of tapping into the social TV user experience stand to gain; those who dismiss it as a passing fad stand to lose.

(via)