Social tv survival guide networked insights by Jermyn Shannon-El

THE NETWORK EXECUTIVE’S

SOCIAL TV SURVIVAL GUIDE SOCIAL INTELLIGENCE REPORT

SOCIAL INTELLIGENCE REPORT SOCIAL TV SURVIVAL GUIDE

Geography no longer impedes communications, reactions and thoughts. We are learning to live and collaborate in real time as all forms of media begin to converge. At the same time, the information available to peruse, share and act on is exploding. Every minute, veritable lifetimes of content are produced and shared on the social web. Social networks like Facebook and Twitter, blogs, YouTube and online stores are among the millions of sites where consumers share opinions and content and openly discuss their likes and dislikes. The convergence of media and the proliferation of content are creating unparalleled opportunities for the television industry. TV is entering an era in which profitable, engaging, viewer-informed programming can take the industry to new economic and cultural heights. For the first time, powerful technologies enable us to gather real-time data and use it to make agile, smart decisions. In the hands of a great team, these disruptive, exciting technologies can help unleash enormous value across the entire life-cycle of a TV show. Just a few of the opportunities real-time data offers network executive’s today is richer insights into a show’s audience before and after it airs, a deeper understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of a show, and more effective multiplatform messaging and marketing.

“The convergence of media and the proliferation of content are creating unparalleled opportunities for the television industry.”

Networked Insights is sharing The Network Executive’s Social TV Survival Guide to help you sort through the many ways of integrating the social web into show creation, production and distribution, from development to post-premiere life. The guide also offers insights into how the dramatic changes under way are influencing advertisers’ expectations and decisions and viewers’ preferences and choices as TV morphs into the social TV experience.

SOCIAL INTELLIGENCE REPORT THE VALUE OF LISTENING TO VIEWERS IN REAL-TIME

Real-time listening is a liberating construct for the television industry. Traditionally, industry decisions requiring viewer research have relied on periodic static data such as that provided by Gfk MRI. While there is value in this data, it is limited in not only sample size, but in its ability to tell the whole story. This is partially because traditional data is collected out of sync with when viewers actually consume TV, but also because the data is biased since people are more guarded with their responses once they know they’re being measured. Like Gfk MRI, or Nielsen data, focus groups suffer from similar problems as typically the loudest people in the room wins, even if they don’t represent the true viewers. In the social TV era, however, your ability to listen and garner feedback has risen to an entirely different level. Today, more than one billion people worldwide offer their insights and opinions, clues to purchasing behavior, and likes and dislikes online. Instead of relying on episodic and delayed opinions, you can capitalize on trends by taking advantage of real-time interests, attitudes and desires

FIGURE 1. TRADITIONAL DATA COLLECTION VERSUS REAL-TIME LISTENING TRADITIONAL DATA COLLECTION

REAL-TIME LISTENING

TIMING

PERIODIC

REAL TIME

SAMPLE SIZE

LIMITED

THOUSANDS OF POSTS

DATA CHARACTERISTICS

SOLICITED, GUIDED AND GUARDED

UNFILTERED EXPRESSION

RELEVANCE

DIRECTIONAL GAUGE

MEASURABLE INFLUENCE

DATA USE

SILOED AND SEQUESTERED

AVAILABLE TO ALL EMPLOYEES

The key is to erect the right listening posts. Real-time listening enables you to gather deep intelligence from large sets of viewers and, further, identify true sources of influence and relevance. Gone are the days of guesswork; the social web provides instantaneous, deeply analytical and highly measurable feedback from huge numbers of connected viewers offering opinions every second. Each of them has the potential to affect your brand, your content and production decisions from the minutest details of casting to the highly strategic issues of themes, demographics and advertiser friendliness.

SOCIAL INTELLIGENCE REPORT WHY TV MATTERS

Viewers as well as advertisers can benefit greatly when TV is made socially aware. Today’s viewers seek rich, entertaining TV experiences. They expect abundant choices and are willing to express themselves on all aspects of TV – the good, the neutral and the bad. And they are increasingly treating social media as a form of entertainment. Blending social media with television content is proving to be an irresistible combination. A recent Nielsen study indicated that 86 percent of consumers use a mobile device while watching television. Presumably, a large portion of these viewers use their devices to participate on social networks while watching, sometimes simply to signal that they’re watching a show or event and share reactions to narratives, characters and commercials. This indicates a growing “relationship” between viewers and their TV experiences – the entertainment they seek is being delivered and amplified by social TV.

“As viewers become more engaged and share more about what they are thinking, TV producers can tailor content to viewers’ likes and steer clear of their dislikes, creating a more rewarding experience” Social TV also provides an unprecedented opportunity for viewers to share their opinions and learn the views of others. This process introduces all participants to new voices, content and characters that they might enjoy. As viewers become more engaged and share more about what they are thinking, TV producers can tailor content to viewers’ likes and steer clear of their dislikes, creating a more rewarding experience. For their part, advertisers can provide more relevant content and offers through more targeted media choices, a winning formula for reaching consumers who spend four to six hours daily consuming TV content.

SOCIAL INTELLIGENCE REPORT REAL-TIME DATA: THE UNTAPPED PRIZE IN SOCIAL TV

Applying real-time listening to the TV industry reveals the most powerful dimension of social TV. The concept is simple: viewer-generated data expressed through social media improves the television ecosystem, offering “something for everyone” involved in the production and monetization process. The opportunity to mine and decipher the bountiful, relevant data being shared every minute provides a once-in-an-era opportunity to invigorate the television industry and elevate the viewer experience. Industry observer Simon Dumenco of Advertising Age describes social TV this way: “Millions of people are now partaking of the ‘dual-screen’ experience -- watching TV while using a smartphone (or tablet) to share their thoughts about what they’re viewing and to ’check in’ to shows. The result: a massive and rapidly expanding real-time focus group (and promotional force). Put simply, combining the social web with the television experience has created a vast volunteer army of opinion makers, advocates and evangelists, as well as a large pool of viewers willing to share opinions. Insights derived from the comments of both opinionated pundits and casual viewers can be used across the television value chain to produce better content, align demographics, drive advertiser demand and – above all – increase viewer engagement.

SOCIAL INTELLIGENCE REPORT SOCIAL MEDIA’S IMPACT ON THE TV LIFECYCLE

A simple, sequenced model of a show from ideation to post-premiere life can help illuminate tangible benefits of real-time viewer data across the value chain (Figure 2). The model components are:

FIGURE 1. TRADITIONAL DATA COLLECTION VERSUS REAL-TIME LISTENING PRODUCTION STAGE

TRADITIONAL TV

SOCIALLY ENHANCED TV “CROWD-SOURCED” CREATIVITY, TAPPING INTO CREATIVITY OF MILLIONS OF VIEWERS AND CULTURAL TRENDS SEEN OUTSIDE OF TRADITIONAL TV TIME

IDEATION AND PROJECT DEVELOPMENT

CREATIVE IDEAS GENERATED BY SMALL, CLOSED TEAMS

PREPRODUCTION AND PLANNING

GUT-BASED DECISIONS

DATA-DRIVEN CASTING VALIDATED BY AUDIENCES

PRODUCTION AND POST-PRODUCTION

PRODUCED IN A VACUUM, UNAIDED BY THE VOICE OF THE VIEWER

PRODUCTION INFORMED BY THE CONVERSATION THEMES OF THE TARGET AUDIENCEE VIEWER

DISTRIBUTION, PROMOTION AND PREMIERE

SILOED DECISION MAKING INFLUENCED BY INTERNAL VARIABLES

INFORMED MARKETING DECISIONS, GUIDED BY TARGET VIEWERS

POST-PREMIERE AUDIENCE GROWTH

MODERATE EFFORTS TO GROW AUDIENCES POST–PREMIERE

OPTIMIZED MARKETING STRATEGIES TO SUSTAINAUDIENCE GROWTH STRATEGIES

Ideation and project development Television can often be derivative, mimicking successful formats from other shows, networks or even countries. When creating such programming, producers who rely on more than gut instinct use viewer data expressed in ratings or advertising revenue. In other cases, the inspiration for new TV shows may come from popular culture, movies, novels, short-form online content or popular Internet memes. In these cases, producers are tapping into audience trends of potential viewers. With access to real-time data, writers and producers can confidently awaken creativity by connecting viewers’ social behaviors to content that really resonates with them. Understanding the essence of cultural drivers enables more relevant, poignant and galvanizing storytelling.

Preproduction and planning Many creative decisions made in television production are calculated with full awareness of the compromises being made. The aim of these decisions is to create elements of distinction that will attract and enthrall an audience. Evaluation of show elements frequently begins with gut-based decisions. While the people making the choices are experts in their industry, they are relying on interpretations and pattern recognition of an individual or teams of individuals. Intelligently incorporating the viewer’s voice as expressed in real-time data offers a new risk balance. Producers and networks can mitigate much of the uncertainty associated with choices made in concepting, casting and writing. Viewer data is a navigation tool for writers and producers; with real-time access, all decisions can be informed by the target audience.

SOCIAL INTELLIGENCE REPORT PARTNERING FOR SUCCESS

Production and post-production During the annual march to the upfronts, information is discovered by the audience and reactions to promotional videos and advertising are captured across the social web . These responses can be tracked, analyzed and measured to uncover the themes driving conversations and how those conversations change over time. This information can influence much of the fine-tuning done by producers during the first season. Real-time data enables earlier measurement of audience reaction and accompanying optimization of content to maximize a show’s resonance at its premiere.

SOCIALLY ENHANCED TV IDEATION

PRE-PRODUCTION

PRODUCTION & POST

DISTRIBUTION & PROMOTION

POST PREMIERE

TAPPING INTO

DATA-DRIVEN

PRODUCTION

INFORMED MARKETING

OPTIMIZED

CREATIVITY

CASTING

INFORMED BY THE

DECISIONS, GUIDED BY

MARKETING

OF MILLIONS

VALIDATED BY

CONVERSATION

TARGET VIEWERS

STRATEGIES TO

OF VIEWERS

AUDIENCES

THEMES OF THE

SUSTAIN

AND CULTURAL

TARGET

AUDIENCE GROWTH

TRENDS SEEN

AUDIENCE

STRATEGIES

OUTSIDE OF TRADITIONAL TV TIME

Distribution, promotion and premiere Finding an audience for a show is both a creative endeavor and a marketing challenge. The existing TV ecosystem was designed and perfected for an era of slower decision cycles and far less competition. Today, the margin for error has shrunk. Audiences aren’t allowed time to discover a new show. Instead, producers must create content that’s instantly compelling, and networks must set program schedules meticulously. Broadcasters’ challenge in today’s always-on world has shifted from gathering relevant viewer information to how quickly they can apply it. Viewer data expressed in social media is an additional information source for all decisions associated with launching a new TV show that improves performance and increases the likelihood of success.

Post-premiere audience growth The premiere has long been the focus of traditional entertainment marketing. Today, however, the hyper competition for viewer attention makes it more difficult to weather audience attrition. While the launch of a new show is critical, sustained audience growth over time is even more important. Multichannel marketing campaigns uninformed by performance data are cost prohibitive for organizations working on tighter budgets and smaller margins. Social TV data provides a real-time window into how marketing is affecting target viewers. With the ability to optimize and amplify what’s working with social TV data, networks can influence media and communications trends across the web that drive viewership.

SOCIAL INTELLIGENCE REPORT MORE BANG FOR THE BUCK

The paradigm shift that social TV is bringing to broadcasters and producers also extends to brands and viewers. While brands spent approximately $60 billion on TV advertising in 2011 (and are already on course to spend even more this year), brand marketers are gradually moving away from mass marketing techniques and toward strategies that focus on engagement. In this environment, the TV programs that attract a more committed audience will be considered premium for advertisers. Programs with high engagement in social media enable advertisers to add social lift to their marketing programs by reaching high-value viewers who amplify marketing messages through digital word of mouth.

SOCIALLY ENHANCED TV

“Programs with high engagement in social media enable advertisers to add social lift to their marketing programs by reaching high-value viewers who amplify marketing messages through digital word of mouth.” IDEATION

Unsurprisingly, the advantage that accrues to advertisers mirrors the advantage gained by the TV industry. Socially enhanced TV engages viewers in ways traditional TV does not, offering a nuanced extension of the audience experience. Engagement deepens as consumers watch programs, share opinions on the social web, and join community discussions about a particular show’s characters, content and plot. In fact the more invested a viewer becomes the more ways they have to engage around it, and marketers have the responsibility to optimize their strategy to give the viewer more reasons and ways to engage around their content. For example if viewers are flocking to a social platform like Pinterest or Reddit advertisers need to know how to incorporate that engagement into their strategy and execution. The bottom line is advertisers seek engaged viewers, and social TV provides them. Social TV’s self-corrective power is another major advance for advertisers. In the traditional model, advertisers made their bets and lived with them. If a show became unpalatable to viewers, advertisers could “pull” their ads, or the show may shut down altogether. Either route is disruptive for advertisers. With real-time viewer data, producers can receive and decipher input and turn on a dime to make changes that buoy viewer interest. As viewers’ interest remains high and engagement goes up, advertisers win. The ability to gather information about your target consumers’ preferences to support data-driven advertising decisions before you make large investments is finally available. Social TV also provides increased length and breadth for advertisers to proffer their products and services. From episodic, broadcast-based timing to the always-on nature of a TV show’s “life,” advertisers can engage audiences along multiple dimensions year-round. In addition, technology innovation coupled with the emergence of social TV provides advertisers the opportunity to take product integration to a new level. They can engage audiences via a plethora of social check-in apps like GetGlue or Viggle, as well as more network-proprietary platforms like Character Chatter from USA Networks.

SOCIAL INTELLIGENCE REPORT THE BIG PICTURE

Making television socially aware is one of the greatest media opportunities in history. While socially enhanced television programming is still in its early phases, studies indicate that content published on the social web already leads nearly one in five viewers to programming. Now is the time to take full advantage of this powerful opportunity. Social TV adds value to all major groups in the TV value chain: content creators, producers, networks, advertisers and viewers. Real-time viewer insights make the entire TV ecosystem more rewarding, relevant and profitable for all stakeholders. Social TV data democratizes audience feedback and creates a meaningful, useful feedback loop that delivers powerful results: targeted and efficient advertising for brands, a superb experience for viewers, and enhanced and early brand and viewer support for shows and their creators and producers.

Making television socially aware

IDEATION

is one of the greatest

media opportunities in history.

NETWORKED INSIGHTS ABOUT US

ABOUT US Networked Insights is transforming the way companies make marketing investments by informing decisions with real-time consumer data. Our enterprise-level analytics platform uncovers audience interests that brands use to stay in-sync with their customers. The result is discovering the minimal effective amount of spend.

A MARKETING DECISIONS PLATFORM SocialSense is Networked Insights' real-time analytics platform that enables marketing professionals to rapidly leverage the social web to develop customer-centric strategies. It is a quick and powerful way to make datadriven marketing decisions informed by real-time consumer insights.

A TRACK RECORD OF INNOVATION AND RESULTS In 2012, Networked Insights was name one of world’s 50 “Most Innovative Companies” by Fast Company and was declared as “unrivaled in socially informed media planning and buying” by Forrester Research. Customers like MTV, Samsung, Kraft, RIM, MillerCoors, Group M, MediaBrands, Starcom and Mediavest use Networked Insights to help them improve media efficiency, reveal content opportunities, and discover new audiences.

Questions about this report? Interested in learning how to start translating real-time insights into action? Contact us 646-545-3900 hello@networkedinsights.com www.networkedinsights.com