“Blog post 6 deals with the integration of connected platforms right in your living room – how brands use second screening to make the most of their TV content.” – Blog post #5
We’re coming to the close of our ‘connected consumer’ journey. Even during the last few months of writing these posts, technology and consumer behaviours have been evolving. It’s highlighting more and more how companies need to reorganise their businesses to keep up and stay afloat, or ship out quite frankly.
In today’s world you switch on your TV and flick on a programme. In all likelihood you will be confronted by a not-so-subtle invitation to tweet about it. Made in Chelsea, for example, actively publicises the #MadeinChelsea and #MIC hashtag for Twitter – usually these trends grow organically. The programme recognises that reality TV relies heavily on the authenticity of the characters to maintain rankings. What better way to market these characters than through social media? Personalities are free to grow and be supported on Twitter. The era of the inaccessible celebrity is over. He or she is now a core marketing tool – core to building rapport and trust with fans. (Hence the immense success of celebrity product placement…)
What’s interesting about second screening is the idea of synchronisation. It’s no longer a case of watching something on TV and then reading a press release about it in the newspaper the next day. The synchronisation of 2012 is immediate. Content flows between one device to another and is created by marketers and consumers alike through tweets, blog posts and comments.
But let’s not forget the power of the app. When the sport’s on you can keep track of the stats and rankings live from your tablet or phone at the same time. The likes of Channel 4 are using second screening to promote exclusive content that accompanies their main programmes on TV too. ‘Behind-the-scenes’ of a new show immerses the viewer and proactively invests his or her time into the series. Their commitment to watching therefore extends beyond casually flicking channels; he or she is likely to use catch-up or on demand services to watch the programme.
Another reason why understanding your audience is becoming increasingly imperative to the success of customer engagement and ultimately acquisition. It’s all about the customer journey and platforms need to become seamless in platform integration and user experience. It’s the idea of creating long-term value out of a consumer, but that’s something I’ll talk about next time round.
Occasionally, it’s actually the second-screen content that gains real traction and positively impacts the popularity of the show. The new series of Shameless on Channel 4 was promoted on the Facebook page by including exclusive interviews with cast members and mini episodes. It’s the mini episodes in particular which served to attract people that hadn’t watched before. And then in theory, the calibre of the programme itself should keep them as regular viewers. There’s no reason why it shouldn’t. Shameless has run on Channel 4 for 9 series already.
We’ve talked about the benefits of multi-channel marketing and all its varying parts. But, how about the future? How does new and emerging technology impact a marketing strategy we’ve just started to get good at? That’s what my final blog post will be looking at, but won’t be the end of this journey.