Tom Woodnutt, Conversations Strategist
The biggest digital trend of 2011 will be turning programmes into conversations
What just sprang to mind when you read the phrase ‘digital trends’? If you work in marketing, then perhaps you’re seeing thousands of updating facebook statuses all talking about your brand in real-time? If you work in television, then maybe you have an image of someone leaning forward, streaming video on-demand while chatting online through their Internet-connected TV? Or if you’re a planner, you may be envisaging a highly accountable world of hyper-targeted advertising and opportunities for deeper brand engagement? Irrespective of what you do, digital trends - in all their guises - will no doubt have some effect on your strategy in 2011.
But just what is a digital trend? All too often supposed digital trends get talked about with excessive reverence and an overstated sense of their inevitability, as if the very circuitry of computers and mobiles were alive, relentlessly forcing the world to change with Terminator-like resolve. However, just because something is technologically possible, doesn’t necessarily make it appealing. Ultimately, it is of course people that make or break trends. So the digital trends worth focusing on are the ones that solve people’s problems, entertain them and generally provide them with some kind of benefit.
In today’s increasingly socialised world, it will be the quest for providing social benefits that is likely to have the biggest influence over what producers, broadcasters, advertisers and audiences do differently in 2011. TV has always been inherently social, as people naturally talk about what they watch. This allows them to express their point of view while connecting with others through a shared cultural experience. TV will become even more social, not just because of increased conversations across Twitter and facebook but also due to technological innovations like IPTV and the popularity of Video-On-Demand across devices.
I believe the extent to which socialforces are understood, listened to and influenced, will underpin some of the big TV successes in 2011. So which digital trends in 2011 are likely to be more like deep icebergs than superficial pieces of floating ice? Here are three big digital trends for 2011 that could drive change in TV.
1) Audiences will have a bigger say in how and what TV content they consume
The abundance of TV content and increased access to it, will breed a more spontaneous and autonomous TV audience. People will watch what they want on a whim and so more of them will turn to their social networks for suggestions, both by asking and observing what others think and have to say.
More people will embrace conspicuous ways of consuming TV by sharing their points of view and links to content whether it be via Facebook and Twitter updatesor Facebook Connect. The habit of talking about TV online will become even more normalised and widespread, because TV has such high social currency.
Audiences will start to expect programme makers and broadcasters to listen to what they think and to respond to what they have to say. And they’ll want more of a platform to share their points of view as reflected in the 200 000 that joined in the Election debate last year on ITV.com. The power of Mumsnet in changing the recent Eastenders plot is an extreme example of this also.
2) Broadcasters and producers will turn programmes into conversations, by inspiring people to talk about them on and offline
More programmes will have intrinsically social ideas at the heart of their production and promotion. Broadcasters and producers will think more about the kind of conversations they want to create and develop cross-platform commissioning processes and roles to encourage them. Examples of social TV ideas from 2010 include MTV’s teen show ‘The Hills’ which included an online game in which viewers wrote and scored others’ comments as they watched the show. Channel 4’s Million Pound Drop and X Factor on ITV Live also showed how Facebook can be integrated with the viewing experience.
There will also be more active listeningto and engagementof TV audiences online. Channel 4 showed the value of this in Skins as they used ideas from the crowd of fans online and fed their appetites for additional material beyond the broadcast. ITV.com’s recent Coronation Streetsocial media game is another example, as is the trans-media promotion of Supernatural across platforms. Deeper engagement and greater social currency means more appointments to view.
3) Advertisers will invest more in branded content, more accurate targeting and interactive brand experiences through TV
Brands will seek to benefit from the social currency created by the TV shows they sponsor and will increasingly want to create their own branded content. They will look for ways to engage people that are more rewarding than traditional exposure-led advertising and sponsorship strategies. For example, sponsored mobile apps around programmes will extend the brand experience beyond the live broadcast (as Hardy’s did with a ‘Come Dine With Me’ app).
Transmedia strategies will become increasingly relevant, like Nokia’s augmented reality drama ‘Conspiracy for Good’. This uses technology to enhance the story by providing different sections of it across multiple platforms and encouraging audiences to interact and talk about it.
TV apps will also allow brands to engage Internet Connected-TV audiences. For example it could allow people to buy what they see someone wear in a programme and share it with friends while watching. The fact that apps are often chosen because of their popularity in download charts, highlights how important social forces are to their success.
Finally, IPTV and watching TV online will provide greater opportunities to target individuals based on their viewing behaviour and profiles which will make advertising more accurate, relevant and accountable. Social online ad-targeting, could also become a tempting option for advertisers because they can target the friends of fans of particular TV shows or brands, who no doubt represent a soft target.
In conclusion, the likelihood that digital trends will fly or die in 2011will be largely determined by how well social forces are understood and influenced. Today more than ever, broadcasters, producers and brands need to listen to what people haveto say and turn what they do into conversations. They have to bring social strategy into the very core of TV productionand promotion and create the necessary roles and department restructuring to do so.This will maximise the likelihood that the TV experiences they produce will be appropriate for brands, popular for channels and entertaining for the audience.
Tom Woodnutt, Conversations Strategist