Television has seen a lot of disruption in its 74 year-old existence in the U.S. We experience "TV" in 2013 very differently than we did in 1939. But at least one thing is the same: The reason we watch.
While many like to proclaim the death of TV, the mass medium is quite fraught with life. It's not that television is dying but that its business model must adapt along with technology innovation and changes to our own consumer behaviors, else be left behind.
So what is the reason we watch TV? And why will that change the business of television?
Looking back at my TVnext℠ recap posts from 2011 and 2012,
at least one big thing is consistent: That “floored” feeling I have because of
the people I work with every day. Over 80 Hill Holliday employees contributed
to TVnext whether it be in planning,
production, or speaking roles. And, of course, an enormous thanks to our
speakers and sponsors as well as the judges and sponsors of our TVnext℠ Hack.
Relive this past Monday with a
look back at the photos and videos from the day.
Although 87% of
broadcast television is still watched when it airs, DVR usage continues to
rise. And both TV networks and brands are getting creative with ways to
increase tune-in to commercials. The latest is what Fox is doing on American Idol and its live results
shows:
During the commercial break between when the
bottom 2 contestants got announced and then when the last place contestant was
revealed, the cameras kept rolling in the upper right corner. The brands advertising
during that “pod” (Ford being one of them) had their commercial play but in a
smaller player all wrapped around, for all intents and purposes, a giant
display ad.
It’s an interesting way to keep the audiences
engaged during commercial breaks and, at least, notice the brands while either
watching live or time-shifted. (It worked on me ;-)
Exactly 4 weeks from today is
Hill Holliday’s 3rd annual TVnext℠
Summit. I absolutely love being part of putting on this event each year and am
particularly psyched about this year’s program as we’re tackling some of the
hottest topics about television right now – all wrapped around the theme
“Belief + Behavior” – what we’ve believed to be true about TV contrasted with
our actual (modern) behaviors around the 74 year old medium.
A few highlights:
A
Fragmented “Cultureverse”: TVnext
kicks off with a compelling keynote from NPR’s Neda Ulaby who examines the
impact that television’s increased media/channel fragmentation is having on
pop-culture.
The
Twitter TV Rating: Nielsen’s acquisition of SocialGuide got a ton of buzz
when the television measurement company announced the “Twitter TV Rating.” We
have the people behind it who will show – for the first time – actual examples
of how the rating will be used in conjunction to the Nielsen TV rating.
SyFy’s
Defiance – Transmedia: In what has
been hailed as the biggest transmedia play to-date, we have SyFy to tell us how
things are going with its massive TV+Videogame “mashed up” series just 2 weeks
after its debut.
Sports:
The sporting world is seeing some of the highest TV ratings in years (despite
the claims of the death of television). We’re giving sports a special focus at
TVnext this year with MLB’s Tim
Brosnan and the President of ESPN, Ed Erhardt who will be joined by ESPN on-air
commentator Michael Smith.
The Kitchen Cousins: We've got Kitchen Cousins, Anthony Carrino and John Colaneri, live and in the flesh along with HGTV's head of programming (Freddy James) to talk about the success of their show in the age of modern television.
The Future of Cable TV:Marcien Jenckes is the guy who literally runs all of Xfinity TV - and he'll be joining us to share a peak into how a company like Comcast is adapting to our changing consumption behaviors around TV.
And don’t forget about our TVnext Hack featuring APIs from the likes
of Tribune, ESPN, Klout, Viggle, GetGlue, WatchWith, Ramp, and many others. Winners
of the 5 Hack categories will demo their app in front of you guys at the Summit
and YOU vote via Twitter for ‘Best In Show.’
The first of 52 episodes of
Rovio’s Angry Birds Toons launches to
the world this weekend. But you won’t be watching it on television – or will
you?
The idea of a video game
spawning a cartoon “TV” series is nothing new. I vividly remember playing
Pac-Man in the early 80s at the local arcade and then watching its Saturday
morning cartoon on ABC.
What is new about Rovio’s approach is their distribution strategy that
bypasses U.S. television networks. The company is placing its bets on the hyper
connected on-the-go/on-demand consumer. With bite-sized content (each episode
is 3 minutes long), smart TVs (Samsung), connected TV devices (Roku), plus
smartphones, laptops, and tablets is how potential viewers can consume Angry Birds Toons.
Rovio’s biggest asset? Their 1.5 billion app installs worldwide that will now feature a button on the games’ home screen - shepherding
its users to take a few minutes to watch some good old “television” and
hopefully attracting advertisers in the process.
But with over 100 million TV
households in the U.S. is Rovio missing out on a mass audience? A partnership with
Comcast distributes Angry Birds Toons
via Xfinity on-demand and the Xfinity TV Player. That’s the closest step Rovio
has taken (so far) to reach the mainstream TV audience. We’ll soon see if it’s
enough…
Should brands that aren't part of a given TV broadcast get involved in its corresponding Twitter backchannel?
That's a question I've been mulling around ever since the Oscars this year. Where's the line between inviting and invasive? And is a steady stream of snarky one-liners effective marketing for (most) brands?
Almost as alarming
as when a brand says, “Let’s make a viral
video” is “We need a mobile app.” There’s
no doubt how critical it is for marketers to reach mobile audiences. But the
means to do so shouldn’t default to launching an app – that’s not a marketing
strategy. (when it calls for an app, here are 6 questions to ask before…)
1. Provide
utility not advertising.
Utility
makes doing something materially easier. Simply building an app that mirrors
your website doesn’t add value. Ask yourself:What core customer need is this app solving for?
2. Keep it
focused.
An
app is like a tool in a toolbox – you use it when you need (or want) it. When
developing your app, it’ll be tempting to dump all sorts of things into it,
however a “catch all” app dilutes its purpose and confuses users. Ask
yourself:How will we describe this
app in one short sentence?
3. Design for
simplicity.
Since we’re often on-the-go, there’s not a lot of time (or patience) to hunt and peck
for things. The best mobile user experiences are when something great happens
at a mere touch of a button. Leverage the full canvas and technical
capabilities of the device on which the app is being built. Ask yourself:Is our UX designed in a way that people
will just know how (and love) to use it?
4. Ensure
it’s ownable to your brand.
If
you’re going to launch a branded app, its very DNA should be the essence of your brand, else there’s nothing unique
about it – It’s simply a generic app that provides very little marketing value.
Ask yourself:Could another brand
put their logo on our app and pass it off as their own?
5. Budget for
promotion.
Getting
the app out into the world is all too often an afterthought. Brands who spend
all of their budgets trying to develop the perfect app, will be surprised with
minimal downloads because nobody knows about it. It takes a lot more than a
couple of Tweets and Facebook posts to activate an app. Leverage your existing
marketing channels as well as native advertising designed for app activation. Ask
yourself:How are we making it as
easy as possible for people to download our app?
6. Measure
success by repeat usage not downloads.
While
big publicity (and advertising dollars) often spikes downloads, the real
measure of your app’s true appeal, is whether or not people use it over and over
again. Brands who are under the gun to “meet their download goals” (so they can
report good news to their boss) can easily spend money to achieve them. But you
can’t “force” what really matters: People actually using the app. Ask yourself:Does my measurement plan include repeat users and active users?
The big question (that sums up all of the
above) to ask yourself before you spend any money developing an app is, why would my customers take time to download
and use this app? And if you cannot confidently, eloquently, and succinctly
answer the question, rethink your mobile strategy and invest those dollars in
other ways to reach your audience on mobile.
I spoke about the
profound impact that my mentor, Don Harley, had on me both as a student and in
life after graduation and how he expressed, at the time, that “now” (as a student leader) is the time to
take risks as the consequences of failure are nil. As students we didn’t
have mortgages to pay or families to feed – so we could be that much more
daring, bold, and courageous – and in the process learn and grow more in a
short concentrated burst of time than we would at any other stage in our lives.
If there was one
take away that I hope everyone left the event with was that being actively
involved in student run organizations (in my case the Student Senate) andhaving a mentor as a trusted guide
was, for me, an incredible jumpstart into the world I’d be facing beyond campus
– it was essentially leadership boot camp.
Back in 2003 &
2005 I shared some of my lessons learned at UNH’s Student Senate orientation. I
didn’t speak about these on Thursday but dug them up off my old laptop. Here they are:
It’s not about formal power - It’s about influence.
We spend so much time and energy agonizing over
organizational structures, reporting relationships, job descriptions, and
titles. But the only power that matters is the ability to influence others. And the power of influence can only come from
you through the relationships you foster. While your title might open a door or
two, people ultimately follow leaders who they truly believe in.
Money is always limited - Get used to making tradeoffs. Getting things done requires constant compromises. Resources
are always scarce and “bandwidth” is always low. Those who are tenacious, can
creatively think quickly on their feet, great at triage + prioritization, and
can stay focused on the ultimate goal are usually the ones first to the finish
line.
Politics are everywhere - Learn to be politically savvy. In every organization, there are those who will say or do
anything to further their own agendas. Take the high road, stay far away from
organizational gossip, don’t assume trust – and constantly deliver outstanding
work. Your career will be that much more fulfilling if you have a mentor who inherently
believes in you and always has your back.
There is no autopilot - “Drivers Wanted.”
Getting things done requires an entrepreneurial spirit. Ambition
doesn’t always equate to action. Leaders are inherently wired to want so badly
to get things done that they’re willing make the sacrifices necessary to reach
the goal. You’re not going to look back on your college days and wished you’d
partied more.
Student Senate isn’t a resume builder - It’s a skill builder.
Some students join organizations to bolster their resume.
Employers don’t care about what student clubs you belonged to; they care about
the skills that you can offer them. Use every moment as a learning opportunity
to grow your skills so you can demonstrate leadership at the entry-level.
Of course it’s tough - That’s what separates you from the rest.
From Don Harley: “Leaders
always work harder and longer; they endure more frustration; they receive more
criticism. Harry Truman said: ‘If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the
kitchen.’ The beauty of [UNH Student Organizations] is that they begin
(only begin) to teach you how hot it can be in the kitchen.”
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Updated 2/18 - After I spoke, UNH students Aidan King '14 and Sam Nute '13 asked a couple (really good) questions for this video they produced (also embedded above). It was Aidan's question (after the fact) that prompted me to write this post in the first place. And the more thorough answer to Sam's question (which really got me thinking) could be a whole other blog post in itself. Challenge accepted! Stay tuned... ;-)
After reading Twitter's announcement, I started to visualize in my head their description of the current ecosystem they've created around the much buzzed about (and forthcoming) Twitter TV rating. Here's my attempt at diagraming it:
But I doubt this acquisition is just about "social TV" and the Twitter TV rating. Brands continue to ask the tough questions about how social media is helping to drive their respective businesses. Data must be both the start and end points in answering this. And what Bluefin Labs has done with social analytics (by taking a "big data" approach) is innovative in helping to surface actionable insights.
Over half of Sunday's Super Bowl TV spots incorporated a Twitter hashtag. And many of those brands additionally purchased promoted Tweets from Twitter. I'm sure Twitter wants (and needs) to continue to prove its value as a place for brands and media companies to invest marketing budget dollars. Bolstering the company's arsenal of measurement and analytics capabilities is one way of doing just that at scale.
But there's even more beyond the realm of measurement. Let's not forget Bluefin's keen ability to map affinity relationships between lifestyle attributes and brands (and TV shows). It would seem that this kind of algorithm and intelligence could be used as a powerful (advertising?) targeting engine. And that may just have more imporant implications for brands.
Over the course of about two hours there were about 7 times
where folks following the @LetsMakeDealCBS Twitter handle could Tweet answers
that would affect the course of the show.
CBS also used Tout to give the Twitter audience short behind
the scenes video clips of the game show’s talent.
How many
participated?
Using Radian6, I extracted all of the mentions of 10
different hashtags used over the course of yesterday (click chart to enlarge).
The multiple choice hashtag that was Tweeted the most
garnered 65 mentions. That's less than one hundred (in case you thought that was a typo ;-). The more generic #DecideTheDeal hashtag was Tweeted 172 times
yesterday. That’s about .25% (note the “.”) of Let’s Make A Deal’s followers on Twitter.
BUT…
Before any of us think these seem like low participation
numbers, let’s keep in mind what CBS’s goal is: Ratings. They’re using this as a
stunt to generate buzz that will drive people to tune in on Wednesday, January 30th
when the actual episode airs.
That’s when we’ll see whether or not this (again innovative)
experiment worked for them.
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UPDATED 2/12 - The ratings are in and it seems as though this stunt did what it was intended to do as this episode garnered the highest ratings so far this season amoung adults 18-49 (47% higher than the average) and is tied as the top rated Let's Make A Deal eipsode in 2 years.
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A final thought:
I’ve now looked a results for stunts like these for The Voice, Hawaii Five-0, and now Let’s
Make A Deal with the latter two having relatively low volumes of people who
Tweet about the show when compared to shows like ABC Family’s Pretty Little Liars or AMC’s The Walking Dead or VH1’s Love & Hip Hop– and especially live
events (sports or awards shows).
If television networks want to drive the volume of
participating in interactive “social TV” stunts like these, producers may want
to consider the most social shows on their respective networks. Yet at the same
time, NBC’s The Voice does indeed
have a very active real-time audience on Twitter yet still only got about
15,000 Tweets when they tried a real-time vote.
In the end, this is just the beginning of the potential for
audiences (who want to) to be able to interact with and affect their favorite
shows. I hope the experimentation from TV networks continues…
