Regular visitors to the MB blog may recall Camilla’s post last week ‘Checking in with Sherlock,’ about the rise in entertainment check-in services.
The team at LS:N Global – the online news and consumer insight network – have also picked up on this new consumer behaviour, with Max Reyner’s post today about how networks like HBO are using Philo, Miso and GetGlue to encourage people to check-in to their shows.
Camilla, our resident trend and digital strategist, was asked to share her views with LSN Global about how brands can begin to use this information. “A Twitter conversation just happens, you can’t really build a community around it,” she says. “But by checking in, you become part of a group and start to create data. Brands can then start to see clusters forming and specific check-in times. They could use this to make personalised recommendations for people”
If you subscribe to lsn.global, you lucky thing, log-in and check out the full article here.
Last night tech site Mashable posted this article – making me say “Oh my Lady Gaga” into my iPad. The article, entitled “Why Entertainment Will Drive the Next Checkin Craze” looks at three start-up services which allow users to ‘check in’ to TV shows, music, books and games. The Mashable article says that entertainment checkin services such as GetGlue, Miso and Philo are “silly and far too extreme in ideology to attract anything more than a testbed tech audience”. For a Mashable writer to call a tech start-up “silly” is uncharacteristic. Anyone following the Sherlock hashtag between 9 and 10pm last night on Twitter will know that conversations about the BBC hit show were in the hundreds before the end of the opening credits. Clearly, sharing your entertainment choices with others is becoming an integral and vital part of the viewing experience – a behaviour media brands are practically salivating over.
I thoroughly recommend you take the time to read the article, if only to imagine the potential for check in services which combine with semantic technology. Connecting in real time to others who share your interests, while also receiving hyper-personalised recommendations is the future for media and entertainment brands. Add in super-targeted advertising opportunities and suddenly these “silly” services look like major game changers for brands from every industry.
An interesting new platform has been showcased at last week’s BVE trade exhibition which represents the closing gap between entertainment and social networking. Project Canvas, is “a proposed partnership between the BBC, ITV, C4, Five, BT and Talk Talk to build an open internet-connected TV platform”. As well as creating a technical standard for internet connected TV devices, the proposal also includes a split-screen experience with networked conversations on sites such as Twitter appearing next to TV pictures.
With many people already known to watch TV whilst also browsing the internet, Project Canvas marks an inevitable shift for the media industry. Previous blog posts on here about the reach of shows such as Glee and the Superbowl have already highlighted the role online interaction is having in boosting viewing figures, increasing brand awareness and, ultimately, acting as a drive to consumption. Added to the expected lift on the ban for product placement on UK TV, and we are likely to see a dramatic shift in how people watch and consumer media in their homes.
(Apologies for low quality movie – currently only example of the demo available)
Unless you’ve been living in a cave these past few weeks, or do not have access to a tv, a radio, a computer, a mobile phone or a newspaper, you will be fully aware of the new American import phenomenon that is Glee. A cross between High School Musical 1, 2 and 3, Mean Girls, American Idol and 30 Rock, the show mixes high school life with sardonic wit and killer tunes. Last night’s installment on E4 drew in 1.2m viewers – a high share for a Monday night. What’s most intriguing is the show’s business model. Instead of relying on merchandise to earn extra bucks, Glee is capitalising on its young audience’s preference for watching tv online. Increasingly, people are “shopping the screen”, responding to product placement instantly online. By airing close to the “clicks”, Glee can turn the songs featured on the show into immediate iTunes hits, as the line between being a viewer and consumer blurs.
