Harmonic Aftershock

Facebook hashtags signal a shift in Facebook culture.

Today’s news from Facebook is yet another indictor that the hashtag has become the universal currency for organizing conversations in social media.

And it’s no surprise that in its announcement of hashtag support, Facebook started off with stats about television. “During primetime television alone, there are between 88 and 100 million Americans engaged on Facebook - roughly a Super Bowl-sized audience every single night.” Facebook wants a bigger piece of the real-time social TV audience.

The announcement’s title alone “Public Conversations on Facebook” signals the platform’s movement toward more real-time and open posts organized by hashtags. Sound familiar? This is the very essence of what Twitter is, how it works, and the value that it brings to its users every day.

While they’ll be rolling out to users over the next few weeks, Facebook hashtags only (currently) work on its desktop platform (so much for its “mobile first” strategy) and at the moment advertisers can’t target or promote hashtags nor are they being tracked by Facebook Insights. While I’m sure this will quickly change, the question remains whether or not the Facebook community wants a platform that is feeling more and more like Twitter.

At the same time, if Facebook weren’t to move in this direction, they would be ignoring a huge opportunity to continue to grow and monetize its platform with all of the data each and everyone of us produces as we post.

Twitter erupts after last night's Game of Thrones.

Here's a look at the volume and cadence of tweets during one of the most devasting TV episodes in history. What's interesting to note is that the use of the #GameOfThrones hashtag vs. simply "Game of Thrones" followed a similar pattern during the show but after the show, Twitter users seemed to favor tweeting "Game of Thrones" instead of using its hashtag. (Source data: Radian6).

As an aside, the only other time I've felt this way about a TV episode was the season 3 finale of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Remember this?

The big difference? There wasn't social media on which to emote back on June 19, 1990 (23 years ago) when this episode aired.

A social TV documentary...

Last November, Columbia University grad student André-Pierre du Plessis contacted me over Twitter to be part of his documentary thesis project. He interviewed me in early January. The result is the video below which was published last month. A long(er) haired me is at 14:50 and 31:20.

Day 1: A Social TV Documentary from André-Pierre du Plessis on Vimeo.

 

The one thing that will change the business of television.

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?

The answer is detailed in an artical I wrote for Lost Remote. Check it out and I'd love to know what you think.

[READ FULL ARTICLE]

Another #TVnext Wraps

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.

PHOTOS:

VIDEOS:

Also, be sure to check out my colleague Laura Nelson’s post about the participation results from our third annual TVnext℠ Summit.

DVR proofing TV commercials.

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 ;-)

The future of television.

Exactly 4 weeks from today is Hill Holliday’s 3^rd 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.


• Bluefin Labs Post Acquisition: When Twitter acquired Bluefin Labs, many speculated about what it would mean to Twitter, television, and advertising. Our afternoon keynote will be a fireside chat with Twitter’s Fred Graver and Bluefin labs co-founder (now with Twitter) Deb Roy. 


• 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.’

Our 2013 TVnext Event is going to be awesome. And I hope you’ll join us on Monday, April 29.

Angry Birds Toons expands the definition of “TV.”

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…

The State of TV's Twitter Backchannel

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?

I begin to just touch on this in a post I did for ClickZ as a prelude for the opening keynote I'll be giving at SES in a couple of weeks.

This is just one part of what I'll be chatting about at SES. Hopefully I'll see you there!

6 Keys For Branded Mobile App Success.

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.