At some point in the not-too-distant past, Cartoon Network SVP and group creative director Michael Ouweleen was watching his sons watch television, and ruminating.

“My boys have a screen in their lap when they’re watching TV,” he told Brief, “and I was like, ‘how do I make the connection between the two screens?’”

The answer: Give his boys the chance to make content using the small screen that could then be seen on the big screen. And so, the concept for CN Sayin’ was born, a mobile app for iOS devices with a system for fans to create video content in the form of various weekly activities, including acting like a television host or quoting favorite shows. Once made, the content can be submitted to Cartoon Network for the chance to appear on-air, as bumpers during Thursday night programming.

“We were thinking about setting up photo booths in malls for fans to film themselves and send us messages, and then at some point that felt very 20th century,” said Ouweleen. “Everyone has a production booth in their hand. Let’s just have them do it while they’re watching us on the big screen.”

The initiative is part of an ongoing effort by Cartoon Network to bring fans deeper into the programming – in this case, quite literally.

“We had this existential crisis,” said Ouweleen. “Is our name too 20th century? We’re this big broadcaster with the word ‘network’ in its name. Do kids even know what that means? And then it was like, ‘no wait a minute: network can also mean social network or a network of fans. We share a partnership with our viewership. We want to erase any distinction between us and the audience and [CN Sayin’] seemed like a really good way to do it. Give the responsibility for the network away to the audience. It’s kind of a hippie vibe frankly, but we believe it.”

For now, the app’s content-making “activity” prompts involve imitating fun, inspirational quotes from popular shows that tie in with weekly promotions. But ultimately, said Ouweleen, “we’ve got to program the app almost like a network. It has to be like an ever-evolving game with the audience. So next week’s challenge might be, ‘talk like a rooster.’ You get the app refreshed and then do it.”

Interactive design studio Toolbox No. 9 worked with Cartoon Network on CN Sayin’s back-end development, building the interface whereby content updates can be implemented swiftly. “What’s cool about mobile is, the platform for getting user-contributed content is so much easier than it ever was,” said Jason Rhoades, founder of Toolbox No. 9, “especially when we talk about video. Before mobile, creating video required a camera and putting it on a computer and then optimizing it and then submitting it. Now we can optimize the video before it even gets submitted. It mitigates a lot of user hurdles that were there even a few years ago.”

For CN viewers, submitting video content has never been easier, but selecting which of that content will become on-air bumpers is still a work in progress. “It’s hard to get ready to brace yourself for what the response is going to be and have a workflow from it,” said Ouweleen. Fortunately, he continued, submissions are manageable for the time being, which means that, so long as kids fill out the app’s proper permission fields granting CN access to their creation and demonstrate enthusiasm in their bumper, “we’re going to try and get you on the air.”

Though CN Sayin’ is on a second screen, it ultimately lures viewers back to the main TV screen with the promise of a thrill no digital experience has yet to match.

“There’s still something magic about getting on TV,” said Ouweleen. “There’s still something that only TV can offer.”

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