TV GOES SOCIAL Report: Riding an ADD Medium?

TV GOES SOCIAL – The Take Home Report

From the TV GOES SOCIAL + 2nd Screen Summit at the Loews Santa Monica Feb. 22

The real issue of Social TV is managing an ADD environment. With as much as 60% of the TV audience holding a second screen in front of them, the issue is: can you make the two or more screens work together or are you simply providing the opportunity for distraction?

The conversation has moved from paralleling Tweets and Facebook fanposts to managing the relationships between multiple screens. This has implications for content, advertising and technology opportunities. One key word is Transmediea – storytelling that lives in a symbiotic relationship across 2 or more media.

TV GOES SOCIAL Panel

Social TV Networking

This matters because content has to be aware of the multiple environments in needs to live in – including mobile – where it may derive its audience and ideas. Ads have to live in the same environment which offers both challenges and amazing opportunities.

Since the second screen issue thrives on the quality of its relationship with the first screen, metadata and a variety of cross-communication technologies are major issues that have stakeholders - especially cable companies – deeply concerned.

Prediction: look out for Apple TV to be a game changer with a slew of competitors hoping to upstage them prior to 2103.

PODCAST OF SOCIAL TV - SESSION 3: Software

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What happened at TV GOES SOCIAL

Dear Executive,

Thank you for joining us yesterday at TV GOES SOCIAL.

We think you’ll agree that our speakers packed a lot of eye-opening ideas into a compact day.

You can watch and share the Conference from our channel on Ustream.

Part 1 Hardware &  Software Panels

Part 2 Facebook & USA/ABC Keynote Panel

[We will also be posting highlights and a full report shortly to improve the conversation-sharing.]

Some of the key ideas that emerged were:

* The importance of recommendations (Facebook’s Andy Mitchell and “TV With Friends”)
* Brand Ambassadors (USA Networks, Jesse Redniss),
* Taking the content to the expanding array of platforms (ABC News’ Isaac Josephson)
* Incorporating Wi-Fi and Apps like Facebook into the TV box and opening up the API (Samsung’s Eric Anderson)
* Social Media check-ins and TV Community building options (Get Glue, Social Guide, theChanner, PHILO, TunerFish)
* Ad synchronization models and campaigns from SecondScreen TV and Social Bomb
* Mass video interaction from Watchitoo
* Explosion of Pads as the key second screen device and the harmonization of lean-forward, lean-back experiences.

Other interesting but lightly covered topics were education, telepresence and the exploding Social TV Start-Up ecosystem now welcomed – rather than resisted – by key broadcast and cable networks as well as Social Media platforms like Facebook.

This was a well tweeted and commented event that you can follow on Twitter at #TVGOESSOCIAL and #SOCIALTV

We think this is step one in giant Media Convergence industry that will profoundly affect the communications method, content, style and influence dynamics in advertising, marketing, politics and learning. We are honored to be part of the beginning of this movement and will be back later this year with larger conferences in NY and L.A. We will also introduce investor-oriented meetings on a regular basis to support the Entrepreneurial ecosystem as part of our iBreakfast/iEvening monthly meetings.

Thank you for joining us and stay tuned – and connected.

Best,

Alan Brody & the TV GOES SOCIAL Team

What IS Social TV?

This is the report from our TV Goes Social iBreakfast on Feb 9 during Social Media Week.
Speakers include: Simon Applebaum, Tomorrow Will be Televised • Bonnie Sandy Sterling, 28 Squared • Scott Varland, Social Bomb

This iBreakfast opened the door on what many think may be the next really big thing. The CEO of Endemol thinks so. So does Wired, Fast Company and so on.

But what is it?

There is a hardware and software component and a history.

The hardware is that TV will show up anywhere and may come from any source. Your flat screen will soon integrate TV, YouTube and Facebook and anything else you want from the web. Your mobile device and laptop will do much he same. Companies will soon offer really effective whole house servers that let you get the full experience on all your TVs and your smart phone will probably double as a smart remote. If they don't do this hackers are already doing it for them.

Simon Applebaum

On the software side, we are seeing communities form around TV - the content, the actors, the recommendations and so on. Marketers will try to create an ecosystem around their shows. Speaker Scott Varland of Social Bomb does this with an integrated platform they developed to help viewers develop a conversation with the shows they watch. Bonnie Sterling does this on 28 Squared with Brooklyn and African artisans who can share and sell their goods through this visual transaction medium. There is also a coding standard for cable systems that will enable the launch of App markets etc.

Alan Brody

The iBreakfast founders are already involved in doing this on the creation end - helping schoolkids develop their own network using social media tools to develop content and then promote it afterwards. Our first coup was their interview with Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg's Dad which got picked up by 700+ news outlets around the world. SNNews.org

The real magic is that the teens know how to use these tools for development and communication - more importantly, they know how to use it for social and academic gain. They get noticed by friends and eventually, college admissions officers. This is presumably a blueprint for way adults will eventually adopt Social TV. We just have to figure out which gatekeepers they want to impress.

According to Varland, TVs many gatekeepers have made investors fearful of entering this space - Social TV in all its forms may just be the means to getting around them!

As for the History - Social TV has become the new flagbearer for elusive quest for Interactive TV - and therein lies the minefield. Everyone gets the social community and communication angle - they even get the idea of communicating with visual references etc. They don't get the dangerous side - that viewers don't want their TV experience interrupted. In other words, they don't want their vegged out mental state disturbed. This is our national meditation time.

A key reason Interactive TV failed is they did a good job of disturbing viewers - with the exception of their amazingly successful caller ID on the screen feature. This was great precisely because it saved you from getting up from your chair to screen your call. If only it could handle the call itself - so you won't have to be bothered with it at all!

With these themes in mind and a million more questions - we will be running a number of additional panels as well as a TV Goes Social blog.

If you have any ideas of your own please share them with us at soctv@ibreakfast.com and we'll post them.

Additional Report on IPTV Evangelist
 
Want your Twitter TV? - read about it in Fast Company.