Social TV: Building an Organic Experience

This year’s Superbowl was a new high-water mark for social activity around television – and for media coverage of the potential of tools that allow users to interact with each other – and ultimately with the core creative – around a TV show.

I’ve read a couple of articles in the past 48 hours that I think make valuable contributions to the discussion and constitute essential reading for those interested in social media and transmedia storytelling. Here are links and some brief thoughts.

Livedigitally.com – Why 2nd Screen Superbowl Ad and Social TV Experiences Suffered

I’ve become very interested in the notion of user experience over the past year, and specifically in the possibility of building more intuitive experiences and interfaces around entertainment content.

This piece, by Livedigitally.com’s Jeremy Toeman, suggested that one of the initial challenges that Social TV apps face is finding ways to make it easier for users to interact with content (and brands) and “dive deeper” into the experience with a minimum effort. The following excerpt speaks for itself.

The problem was in the experiences.  I tweeted a couple of times during the game, by using the Twitter app, which was native and easy to do.  The thought of launching another app, just to get something that would enable be to tweet never even crossed my mind.  In reality, most of these apps actually got in the way of the experience.  And yes, while there was tons of tweeting and updates occurring, I’d lay down a strong bet most of this was about people posting, not reading what others were posting.

I also found the Super Bowl ads highlighted two major flaws in the ad experience.  Shazam got a lot of pre-game buzz for all their ad partners.  Sounds cool in theory, but the experience is just plain lousy.  First, the commerical starts airing.  Then, at some point in the middle of the ad a little Shazam logo appears somewhere on the screen (I only noticed it a handful of times personally).  At this moment, the viewer must grab their phone, turn it on, unlock it, switch to the Shazam app, and then – and this is important – get everyone in the room to be quiet for 7-10 seconds.  Great in theory, but this is not a good experience for any user.

The Race for the Second Screen – the Show’s the Thing – FastCo Create

This article, by Jim Hanas, constitutes essential reading as a cross-examination of the current state of Social TV. I want to highlight one aspect, however: the need to anticipate and plan for social activity for a show at the creative (not merely technical level). Andrew Adashek, digital and social media producer for NBC’s The Voice – one of the strongest social shows to date – summarizes the potential problem perfectly:

“Where people really get hung up, if you come from the television side, you sort of look at technology as just something that you can slap on after the fact…

You have to build something social by design. On the other side, you’ve got the tech folks that look at television as just strict content, and they don’t really understand what goes into making that content and making it social.

Clearly then, there’s a lot of crossover between social TV and the broader category of “transmedia” – ideally it’s something that you want to be spearheaded by the core creative team, and understood by everyone across the production (and broader organization). I believe that we will soon see – if we don’t already – showrunners on both non-fiction/reality and traditional fiction thinking about social activity around their shows from their inception. This can only work correctly, of course, if it goes hand-in-hand with robust technology (better UX and curation of quality social “commentary” is essential). That should be no surprise to anyone – most opportunities today lie at the intersection of tech and creative, of art and science.

Speaking of the crossover between social TV and transmedia storytelling, the article touches upon the potential of using social platforms to tell stories in different kinds of ways.  USA Network is already experimenting with this and, personally, I see great potential in the likes of the evolving creative toolset produced by SocialSamba. Dermot McCormack, EVP of Digital Media for MTVN and Logo perhaps puts it best:

 ”So much of this conversation today takes place around the technology piece of it, and I think in a way we want to bring it back to the storytelling piece. How can you tell a story in a new way?” At Viacom, this means script-level integration of social elements, and perhaps even characters or narrative arcs that appear only on the second screen, creating truly integrated “storytelling without borders,”

Of course, media companies are unlikely to invest the time, money, and effort to get Social TV right without a major incentive. The Voice‘s Adashek articulates what that is – major brands are increasingly looking to build campaigns around social media. Moreover, they are looking to be participatory and interactive, rather than merely broadcasting messages unilaterally:

“There’s enthusiasm from brands, demanding a robust digital and social plan,” Adashek says. “And it’s not just, we want video clips. It’s we want to create interactive and engaging experiences around the show. Seeing that push from the brands is what makes me believe that we’re going to see more and more push from the networks, because ultimately brands pay for everything.”

Clearly, it’s still early days. Nonetheless, I’m very encouraged by the process I’ve seen over the past 18 months or so, and I think once more companies understand the fundamental need for cooperation, and creative involvement in social TV (and structure accordingly), we’ll see an acceleration in the creation of compelling experience.