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(Pictured: Jason Damata of Trendrr and Kay Madati, Head of Entertainment and Media, Facebook.)
“The flow of storytelling and advertising is changing. Social TV is increasing in importance to engage people,” said Kay Madati, head of entertainment and media for Facebook, speaking as part of Wednesday’s Conference 2013 panel, “Driving Viewers and Revenue With Creative Social TV Strategies.” “It is essential to engage people before, activate during and then continue the conversation after.”
Super Bowl XLVII this past February had more than 52.5 million interactions via social media, according to the panel, up from 17.4 million social media interactions for Super Bowl XLVI 2012. And the finale of Fox’s “The X Factor” in December set what was then a record of 1.9 million mentions on social media.
Networks and marketers are learning “how to harness this information,” said Jason Damata of Trendrr. “They are seeing what fans said last night [on social media] in real time during Game 6 of the NBA Finals, for example, and pushing that information to mobile, iPads and other devices. Data is creative. Consumers are in the driver’s seat. And advertisers want to be part of that.”
Ajay Shah, CEO and co-founder of TVplus, talked about the next phase in social TV, a second-screen synchronized application that is being used to drive and enhance viewer interaction and engagement.
“We work with the company that produces ‘Republic of Doyle,’ a light-hearted detective mystery show in Canada,” said Shah. “While the show is on, viewers can go to the Internet, iPads or their mobile phones to get clues and to help solve the mystery. And they can then engage and interact with the show even when it’s not on. This is creating opportunities for advertisers.”
The show is entering its fifth season with a growing social media fan base: More than 80,000 followers on Facebook and more than 20,000 Twitter followers.
NBC intends to take advantage of this growth in social TV with “Million Second Quiz” in September. In addition to the contestants who will be vying live for cash, viewers will be able to play in real time during the show’s 12-day run, with the reward being that a viewer can then join the show itself to compete for the ultimate cash prize of more than $1 million.
NBC described the show as “a game, a social experiment and a live interactive event all wrapped into a uniquely sticky entertainment experiment.” Not surprisingly, the show’s executive producers have already created the likes of “Undercover Boss,” “Fear Factor” and “Project Runway.”
Robert Juster, VP of digital for Esquire Network – who in full disclosure said he did not like the term “social TV” – said that an isolated event during a show can drive social media engagement and create opportunities for advertisers.
One example was the blackout during Super Bowl XLVII, which included a real-time social media ad generated by Oreo that read, “Power out? No problem. You can dunk in the dark.” Another example was when Kanye West ran onto the stage while Taylor Swift was receiving her MTV Music Video award in 2009.
However, warned Shah, “Don’t build a program hoping for a Kanye West moment.”
“The goal, and the challenge, is not to distract viewers from what they are watching, but to further engage them, to have them interact with the program and with each other, and to have that engagement continue when the show is not on,” said Facebook’s Madati. “For us, social TV is TV with friends, and all of our partners have been wrapping their arms around it.”
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