2013 has been a big year for Syfy, with transmedia series “Defiance” making its debut and TV movie “Sharknado” taking Twitter by storm. While the latter became a surprise camp hit, Syfy’s Michael Engleman says it has less to do with forcing a social strategy and more to do with how a brand anticipates its audience.

“Always be on the hunt to transform storytelling,” said Engleman, executive VP of marketing, digital and global brand strategy at NBCU’s Syfy and Chiller. “Enabling participation is becoming as important as the story itself.”

Engleman has been at Syfy since 2008, responsible for series campaigns such as “Defiance,” “Face Off,” “Warehouse 13” and “Being Human.” During the keynote at Lost Remote: The LA Show—titled “Fireside Chat with Michael Engleman”—he stated that “2013 was our space race, we wanted to get to the moon” – and to the moon they went, promoting “Defiance” at Comic-Con, through brand partnerships and through their own super-fans, internally called Syfy Igniters.

“Defiance,” which has a second season launching this summer, was a big move for Syfy. The transmedia story was told through TV series as well as an online game, and Engleman says that TV viewers who also played the game became much more engaged overall in the story. Audiences that have a say, according to Engleman, become more naturally invested in how the story plays out. Also, their brand recognition (for example, with car sponsor Dodge) went through the roof.

He attributes this partly to “continuity marketing – though the season ends, you can continue to play the game. We are seeing measurable results when we allow consumers to really help shape that piece of play.”

But, as Engleman points out, it’s all about how technology is forever changing the relationship between brands and consumers.

“And what it means in entertainment is we’re seeing boundaries coming down very rapidly between content creators and the rest of us. Consumers and marketers are becoming as involved and important to the storytelling process as Hollywood actors, writers and producers. I’m not diminishing the importance of a great, important story, but suddenly our roles are changing. It’s becoming sort of a ‘storytelling is everything’ ethos, and as a result you’re seeing better engagement and better interest.”

Engleman also spoke about this summer’s Twitter phenomenon “Sharknado,” one of the most tweeted-about TV events of the year, reaching more than 5,000 tweets per minute at one point during the premiere. Syfy reached out to fans via Twitter to crowdsource the idea for the name of the sequel (The winning title became “Sharknado 2: The Second One”).

Referencing the first film, he said: “You are welcome, America. We’ve increased the canon on great storytelling.”

When it comes to the social conversation around “Sharknado,” Engleman was careful to point out that though they anticipated fan response, it was nothing like what they got. “We did not know this was going to burn as brightly and as hot as it did, but when it did, we were very quick to pour fuel on the fire.”

As Twitter metrics began to come in and the social intensity became apparent, Engleman and his team simply encouraged what was already being said, spotlighting the movie’s more visible tweeters and Facebook users.

“I personally attribute Cory Booker’s Senate win to his ‘Sharknado’ tweet,” said Engleman.

While Syfy has had success with social media and second screens, using those tools still requires some strategy.

Said Engleman: “Just because it’s technically possible is not a good reason to do it.”

Tags:


  Save as PDF