Nielsen data is no longer enough for effective TV planning and buying, suggests Networked Insights, a company that “analyzes social data to uncover trends and consumer engagement opportunities.”
Networked Insights recently published reports that focus on the value of television viewers’ social data. One such report examined top social TV shows from FOX, NBC, ABC, CBS and CW. Viewers were grouped by TV Fans, Millennials, Gamers, Electronic Consumers, Moms and Sports Fans, while general sentiments from each group were analyzed.
“What’s impressive is how the company looks at specifically where ad money is being spent to analyze the conversations around the show,” reports Lost Remote. “For example, before the show even premiered, they described NBC’s ‘massive ad campaign’ for ‘Whitney’ as a ‘Social Turkey,’ and that ‘over-hyping a show is underwhelming potential fans.'”
Another report revealed opportunities for a Toyota Corolla TV ad to improve its digital strategies, specifying where targeted spending would be most effective. Respondents included fans of AMC’s “The Walking Dead.” The article suggests that the case study “is pretty compelling proof that social data can help you get the competitive advantage in TV planning and buying if you listen in the right places across the social web.”
Networked Insights recently announced $20 million in series B funding from Goldman Sachs.
TV industry insiders can start monitoring buzz around TV shows through Trendrr’s real-time dashboard, launched this week.
It measures buzz on Facebook, Twitter, GetGlue, and Miso and allows users to compare the show’s performance on the various platforms.
The dashboard can tell users how effective the social networking sites are in building up anticipation for upcoming episodes and how long the buzz lasts the moment the show airs.
It can also tell which show is garnering the most buzz, show top markets and hash tags, and explore Twitter users tweeting about the show.
“Trendrr and its parent company Wiredset have been tracking how well TV shows fare in social media for quite some time, and the company claims to count half of the top 25 cable networks as its customers,” reports GigaOM. “Its most ambitious project so far has been the Weather Channel’s new social media initiative, which incorporates curated tweets into the network’s website and on-air programming.”
Ooyala Social, a new HD-quality Social TV platform (and additional entry point for Ooyala Everywhere) allows Facebook users to “share video with their friends and family, live chat while viewing, discover new content and watch video across multiple screens and devices,” according to the company’s press release.
It supports several business models including rentals, subscriptions, purchases and advertising.
Discovering new shows is based on user’s social circles. Viewers can share videos they “like” with their friends, or “loan” a show for later viewing.
Users can watch from tablets, mobile devices and connected TVs. They can purchase, rent, or subscribe to content by using Facebook Credits, PayPal, a credit card or a mobile phone number.
“Broadcasters, distributors and Hollywood studios can capitalize on the Social TV trend by using Ooyala Social to make premium on-demand and live video widely and easily available on Facebook,” suggests the press release. “The solution offers built-in social features and other tools that enable media companies to grow audiences, boost viewer engagement and realize new revenue streams.”
Just in time for the fall premiere season, NBC has updated two of its iPad apps. The network has enabled its NBC app to stream full episodes and has added new social features to its NBC Live second screen app.
The new NBC Live additions are based on lessons the network has learned about how viewers have been using the app.
They noticed, for example, that different shows (scripted, reality and live TV) produce different viewer interaction, which has helped the network decide which shows to focus on inside the app for the new season.
People expect to share comments on Facebook and Twitter, and log in via either service (features that have been added to the app).
Some users prefer if content and interaction (such as slideshows, video and polls) did not interrupt the app conversation, so the interface has been improved. They also found that during “The Voice” last season, fans wanted to vote for contestants via the app just like they could on NBC.com.
Vivi Zigler, president NBCUniversal Digital Entertainment says that there’s “an elegance” to building an app with a specific purpose.
As for whether NBC is considering TV Anywhere authentication like Fox, “at this point, it’s not part of the plan,” she said, explaining that NBCU’s distribution arm has been examining that approach.
Miso’s iPhone application has paired up with DirecTV receivers over Wi-Fi to provide users an experience beyond TV show checkins.
The application automatically shows users what is playing, allows them to share what they’re watching and rate it, chat with other viewers, and answer questions about the show.
Miso co-founder Somray Niyogi says, “Now that we know what you’re watching, we can explore what synchronization could really mean. To us, it’s about value — this may come in the form of simplicity of sharing, delivering you complementary content, getting answers to questions you might have while watching TV or a combination of all of the above.”
Miso has more than 225,000 users and competes with GetGlue and Yahoo-owned IntoNow. Earlier this year, the startup began beta tests of an Android app to work with programming on Boxee.
Shazam, an application that recognizes audio content, tags and shares it on social networking sites, has raised $32 million in an effort to expand integration with TV.
The company is currently working with Syfy, Bravo, Oxygen and Spike TV to allow viewers to tag and unlock content.
Shazam recently helped promote Lil Wayne’s new music video, which is currently at 4 million views.
During the MTV Video Music Awards, Bing ran ads that Shazam could recognize and brought users exclusive content related to the show.
It is also said to do the same for ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy” promos, allowing viewers to access new content such as music videos and exclusive scenes as the season progresses.
The app is already a big driver of iTunes downloads. Shazam PR manager Rica Squires said that there are “over 4 million tags each and every day that result in 300,000 song downloads across iTunes and other vendors.”
Half of all adults in the United States said they use a social networking site, which is up from a mere 5 percent from six years ago when Pew Research Center conducted a similar survey.
Not surprising, 83 percent of younger people (from the 18-29 age bracket) indicate they use social networking sites, compared with 51 percent of those in the 50-64 bracket. The report lists women ages 18 to 29 as “the power users.”
Asked for one word to describe their social networking experience, the most common response was “good.”
However, one in five respondents sounded less upbeat: they used words like “boring,” “time-consuming” and “overrated” to describe their experience.
Despite having no host on Sunday, MTV’s 2011 Video Music Awards ramped up audience engagement through social media.
MTV delivered pictures and videos to their audience in realtime through their second screen application and social media channels.
Fans could track what celebrities were tweeting about, and who was tweeting the most. The application also showed which celebrities and content generated the most buzz. (Celebrities who did not tweet during the event could have missed out in a big way.)
The awards program scored its highest-ever ratings, pulling in 12.4 million viewers. “Not only was this year’s show the most-watched in the history of the Video Music Awards’ 27-year history,” reports Rolling Stone, “but it was also the highest-rated telecast in the 30-year history of the network.”
