Grown Up Thinking

I remember when watching TV used to be a sociable experience.  My friends and I would base our Friday night plans around ABC’s TGIF line-up, a bowl of popcorn and our parent’s carpool schedule.  These days watching TV is my “me” time, curling up in my bed with my laptop and catching up on a week’s worth of TV via Hulu.

I’m happy to report your TV viewing experience is about to, once again, revolutionize with a so-called “second screen” experience.  The concept is being fueled predominately by the growth of mobile and sites like Foursquare and GoWalla, and will take your on-screen viewing experience to your social networks where you can connect with friends (and strangers) who share similar viewing interests.

Two start-ups forecasted by Mashable caught my eye:

Miso, the self-described “Foursquare for TV”, allows users to check into the show they are watching and push notifications live to both Facebook and Twitter.  Badges and check-ins work very similarly to Foursquare which in turn, socialize your TV viewing experience.  A simple concept, but does it have the ability to take-off like Foursquare?

i.tv takes socializing television to a whole new level.  The app aggregates conversations happening around shows and can provide the user with these conversations no matter what time they are watching.  This is particularly helpful for people like me who watch TV shows several days after they air, and then wants to see what everyone has to say about the latest episode.  The app allows for additional functionality such as remotely scheduling your TiVo, using your iPhone as your remote control, manage your Netflix and more.

No matter which startup wins this war, I think it’s safe to say things are about to change.  As social media evolves and more and more people jump on the bandwagon things we’ve become accustomed to, like watching TV or a movie, are going to change.  Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing?  Well, that’s up for you to decide.

An hour-long high school dramedy series that’s a musical? Let’s face it: Glee initially had everything going against it. Time will ultimately tell, but skeptics be damned. This year’s Golden Globe winner for Best Comedy Series turned out to be a runaway hit that has yet to lose steam as it heads into the second part of its freshman season. Above all, the show’s writing is top notch by melding a perfect blend of edgy dark humor and a lot of heart. The talent of the young cast is undeniable. And Jane Lynch turns anything into comic gold. But producers were faced with some tough challenges right from the start. How to get people to actually tune in? Enter social media and a relatively risky gamble on an aggressive interactive marketing campaign.

First of all, Fox chose to debut the pilot episode months before its actual season debut in order to capitalize on its 20+ million captive audience from American Idol. They then utilized the down time to really gain traction online by engaging with their most passionate fans (or ‘Gleeks’). Currently, @gleeks has a nearly 50,000 person following on Twitter and almost 2 million fans on Facebook. Mix that with its very own YouTube channel with exclusive content, PR-worthy appearances (Oprah!) and even nationwide mall performances. Yep, everyone’s all abuzz over the little show that could.

Blurring the line between fan and fiction even further, Glee has since launched a national casting campaign for new characters to appear on the series. Fox also recently released an interactive “hypertrailer” allowing viewers to click and “fan” the show’s cast members on Facebook, who also participate live on-air in weekly re-run episodes (or “Tweetpeats”) much like the cast commentary on today’s DVD and Blu-ray discs.

So what’s so significant about Glee’s marketing strategy, anyway? At its core, it is truly a niche show. But a very enthusiastic niche crowd at that. And Glee is giving that very core audience exactly what they want: access and interaction. At a time when studios are shuttering unauthorized playback of content and guarding creative copyrights like a fortress, this show is practically shooting it across America through a t-shirt cannon. Whether it be the show’s music content (consistently charting week after week on iTunes) or capturing that “underdog” spirit in everyone, Glee has succeeded in truly crossing all media types, including a forthcoming iPhone/iPad app. That makes it one of the very first scripted shows to actually achieve results in reaching out to a young, digital audience with significant viral success. That’s definitely a social media coup to be gleeful about. I, for one, am proud to be a Gleek. Who’s with me?

Glee resumes its season on Tuesday,  April 13 on Fox.

HBO’s new hit show True Blood, a show about vampires, just got renewed for a second season. The show was no doubt spurred by an innovative marketing campaign that took a lot of chances and is now reaping the rewards. Rather than a traditional approach of plastering showtimes and trailers in attempt to broadly reach as many potential viewers as possible, True Blood chose to focus on creating deeper engagements built around intrigue and buzz.

And what better subject to create an illusion of mystery around but vampires? HBO created a fake blood based beverage, vampire dating site and vampire blog all of which have a surreal feel causing the viewer to at least pause and think and most likely discuss with friends. Just as Vampires infiltrate and integrate with human lives, True Blood infiltrated the crowded consumer consciousness and is now likely integrated in many viewers’ lives.

Twitter has teamed up with Current TV  to allow viewers of the presidential and vice presidential debates to Tweet  their opinions and have them appear live onscreen, giving the TV audience unprecedented access to commenting on the nation’s political discourse.
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