The Social TV bandwagon is leaving the station, and a flock of startups are experimenting with multiple features and strategies to see what gains traction. With 2 million users that checked-in over 100 million times in 2011, GetGlue appears to be the most popular social network for entertainment. It offers not only an online site, but also Apps for Android and iOS. Think of GetGlue as a Foursquare-like check-in to TV, movies and music with the addition of a Facebook-like feed where you can interact with your friends and other users. A unique feature of the site is that you can earn virtual stickers for the shows or movies you watch and, once a month, you can request a hard copy of those stickers, which get delivered to you via post mail.

GetGlue has partnered with entertainment networks to reward users with discounts or swag from their favorite shows and movies for sharing their check-in. But just how effective has GetGlue been in increasing viewership? The GRAMMYs partnered and launched an integrated marketing campaign with GetGlue, offering a sweepstakes to win a pair of tickets to the awards ceremony and customized GRAMMYs stickers for checking-in. Moreover, during the GRAMMYs  live broadcast, the “first screen” prompted people to check-in and join the social conversation online on GetGlue.com and on the GRAMMYs’ online hub. These different elements in tandem generated “the highest rating in over a decade” for the 54th Annual Grammy Awards. This level of viewership turnout is a huge opportunity for marketers and advertisers to promote their products before a massive audience that is highly engaged with their content.

Umami a New York-based startup has taken a different approach. The Umami TV for iPad app aims to provide users with a more engaging experience than GetGlue by providing TV networks with a “new platform to brand and customize those experiences”. Umami uses proprietary “audio fingerprinting technology” that recognizes what show or movie a user is watching on TV. Then, the app provides a customized range of content from gossip, news, and social chatter to bios based on the show a viewer is watching. Its beta trial generated significant buzz, Mashable called it, “The ultimate TV companion” and Digital Hollywood called it, “The Two Screen Revolution”. Umami has since ended its beta trial period and is expecting to launch pretty soon.

Miso has been stirring up a Social TV storm, fusing elements from both GetGlue and Umami. It delivers interactive and user-generated content, check-in options, and a news feed feature that is embedded in a single social network. Moreover, Miso offers a differentiating feature that it calls SideShows, where fans can create their own second-screen content.

For example, USA created a White Collar-themed game whereas Mad Men fans created a drinking game . Miso also offers a feature where customers of AT&T U-Verse and DirecTV can sync the Miso app with their cable boxes. This opens the possibilities for advertisers to place ads during SideShows, but possibilities don’t stop there. In our previous post, Social TV & The Revival of TV Advertising, we explored other marketing opportunities such as such as synchronized advertisements and explained in depth what social TV is.

Stay tuned to BARS+TONE Static blog to stay ahead of trends!

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In our past  blog, The Future of Social TV , we described Social TV as “ a viewer…  engaging with a second screen while viewing TV”. This buzz topic, which has been  on the radar of marketers for a while, has now exploded into a full-blown trend. Just when advertisers were losing the battle to their nemesis, the DVR, Social TV came to their rescue, encouraging real-time tune in and engaging fans.

The conundrum epitomized by John Wanamaker’s iconic quote, “half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half” has always haunted advertisers.  This has been especially true with TV and print advertising because advertisers have had no way of  knowing how effective their campaigns were. However, the advent of social TV bridges media to data, generating a goldmine of statistics for marketers to profit from and to optimize campaigns with.

For example, Bluefin Labs, a social analytics firm, reports that the season finale of American Idol generated 5,956,134 social comments. Yes, that is 5 million comments in a few hours of TV! This powerful viewership data suggests that people are highly engaged with the show. As a result, advertisements stop being background noise and start becoming relevant to viewers.

Besides being a data-collecting machine, social TV is a mass reaching vehicle  that can  deliver innovative, and extremely engaging content while providing new avenues for people to interact with brands. Let’s see how Fox is raising the Social TV marketing bar.

• Fox has created online communities called hubs for Glee, American Idol, and X Factor where fans can interact live with  each other. Also, fan’s conversations across all social media platforms are captured, curated and delivered in the hub for the audience to engage with in real-time.

• The show Glee has a had its actors and even characters, like Rachel Berry Tweet during airtime engaging with  fans to encourage real-time tune in. As a result, they got over 20 million Facebook “likers” or “gleekers” as they are kindly dubbed by the network and about 1.5 million followers on Twitter.

• Idol created exclusive content to reward online engagement and direct people to its social media hub.  For example, the #idolbackstage hash tag unlocked exclusive content on AmericanIdol.com, but only after 10,000 fans joined in the conversation on Twitter!

In a recent AdAge article, Jack Wakshlag, Chief Research Officer at Turner Broadcasting said: “The most important overall finding is to understand that people use media to optimize their levels of interest and excitement“. The magnitude of online buzz generated as a result of these social media engagement strategies is  simple proof of that.  This is great news for advertisers because people who engage in social media while viewing TV are now paying attention to it and not skipping commercials! In fact, people engaging in social TV “proved 1.2 times more engaged than those viewing alone without a social app”.

This media opens the door to innumerable possibilities, such as synchronized advertisements, where a commercial is displayed on TV and on the second screen at the same time. But it also increases complexity for marketers, for example designing a cohesive social ecosystem for brands gets challenging when considering all screens— tablets, online, mobile and streaming media— that viewers are using.  Social TV is here to stay and the faster marketers implement it in their strategies, the faster they can monetize this trend.

Stay abreast of trends by following us on Twitter.

Check out our Facebook page to see some cool infographics on Social TV.

By: Angela Romero, Marketing Associate

Angela@bars-tone.com

@AngelaLRomero

By: Justin Gonzalez

justin@bars-tone.com

@justinSF

We’ve been talking about Facebook a lot lately, but really, who isn’t these days? The fact is Facebook has landed the No. 2 spot for Online Video Referrals to websites, surpassing search engines Yahoo and Bing.

The report was completed by Tubemogul and Brightcove to, “identify key industry trends and answer questions about the state of the industry.” An interesting fact about the report is the types of videos that see the most engagement via the different referral sites. People who find online video content via Facebook are more interested in watching for entertainment value while users of Google have more interest in trending news stories. It makes a lot of sense when you consider the use of Facebook as a point of social sharing and that of Google as a timely news source. Interestingly, Twitter users seem to be overall more engaged across all types of video content than the other referral sites in spite of its low referral rate.

The report will continue to be useful for marketers as the team updates it quarterly. We’ve already seen drastic differences between Q2 and Q3: the average minutes watched per stream either saw a drop in Q3 or no change at all from Q2. This could be due to cluttering of online content – or just poor content in general. Either way, it means that you need to ensure that you are using the right platforms to seed your online video content and guarantee that you are at the top of search results for your preferred referral site. As we enter 2011, keep these nuggets of knowledge in the back of your mind, and definitely find your following on Twitter. It’s an easy and informative read (probably something you could knock out while waiting to go through security checkpoints) but the value is worth the time spent.

By: Justin Gonzalez

justin@bars-tone.com

@justinSF

You may remember him from The Hangover and Pineapple Express, but now Ken Jeong wants you to buy Pepto Bismol. If you haven’t checked out Pepto’s newly integrated campaign, you should. Covering all social spheres, the age old brand is on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube and making huge strides in the social realm. I had a chance to chat with Elizabeth Ming (P&G)and Kristen Stutz (Assistant Brand Manager, Pepto Bismol) to learn a little more about their project, and it’s obvious the brand is changing the way people think about their stomach problems. Why worry yourself with under indulging when you have Pepto – and Ken Jeong – at your side? The funny and informative, or as Pepto is calling them “Funformative”, videos encourage viewers to have fun this holiday season and grab an extra spoonful of spinach dip knowing that Pepto has your back. Or stomach. The Procter & Gamble brand sees itself as being fun and witty, so choosing Ken for the job was a no brainer.

Immediately after checking out their page I was reminded of another popular P&G brand, Old Spice. I think by now everyone knows the success Old Spice had this year with The Old Spice Guy on YouTube so I won’t hash out the details. If you’ve been living under a rock for the past year, you can check out our blog post on it here. Suffice it to say, I think we will see a resurgence of P&G brands increasing their market penetration via integrated campaigns like Old Spice and now Pepto in the coming year. Mashable actually wrote a great article on this last week after marketing chief Marc Pritchard held a meeting with the Associated Press.

Being over a century old (Yes, 108 years old. Take that Cher!) Pepto Bismol has definitely found a new voice for itself in social media. Recognizing that conversations were happening about the brand on social networks, it was an obvious choice for them to join in on the fun and become a bigger part of people’s lives. What’s great about their strategy is that in spite of being relatively new to the social game (a Facebook page was started around June of 2010) they have a clear voice, a strong following and a fully integrated campaign (using online and traditional media). According to Ming, since the campaign launched in early December they’ve tracked over 75 million impressions, Facebook “Likes” increased by 25% and the initial commercial has hit 25,000 views on YouTube. This week they’ve launched their second video, “Tummy Time 2” and expect to see another surge of views in the coming weeks. My suggestion: check it out, take notes and devour some chili cheese fries in the process. Web videos like these can go viral easily and change the game immediately.

If your campaign doesn’t have online integration you’re missing out on huge market potential.

By: Justin Gonzalez

justin@bars-tone.com

@justinSF

Having been a part of The Noun Project’s production, our team was pretty excited to see they were getting some great traction and publicity via TechCrunch this week! If you’re not familiar, “The Noun Project collects, organizes and adds to the highly recognizable symbols that form the world’s visual language, so we may share them in a fun and meaningful way,” (TheNounProject.com). Working on this premise, The Noun Project is a collaborative effort to provide a universal language that is free, simple and fun.

Here is the promotional video we did for the team at TNP. I wonder what symbol could represent a “Creative Video Agency”… Any ideas?

“I always knew the web needed an easy to use, fun symbol library, but the support and exposure we have gotten up to this point is bigger than anything we expected. We are very excited to move forward and add additional features that will make the site even easier to use.”
- Edward Boatman, Founder of The Noun Project

BARS+TONE is often asked about B-roll Packages.  So what is a B-roll Package?  Briefly, a B-roll Package is a set of raw video clips, contact information, and story overview that can be sent to broadcast media outlets.  The idea is that these clips will make it easier for the news desk to see your client’s story and move forward with reporting on it.  They are normally distributed via satellite playout or tape duplication.  While B-roll packages are still an effective communications tool for Public Relations professionals, there are a lot of unknowns.  We thought we’d use this post to clear up some of the issues.

In the past, editors referred to A-roll and B-roll.  A-roll was the primary audio track consisting of the journalists’ voiceover or stand-up.  B-roll referred to the supporting material that was edited over the voiceover.  B-roll is used to show what the A-Roll isn’t telling.  Good storytelling in video production is essential; a B-roll clip gives context to a voiceover.    By providing a newsroom with these raw clips, you make their job of crafting a story easier.

There are various times when a B-roll Package can be utilized, but the most common one that we encounter is when a client is unveiling a new product or service.  We create footage of the product that demonstrates why it is groundbreaking.  Another instance when B-roll can be effective is when a client is part of a special event, which could be a corporate announcement, a trade show, or a fundraiser.  These are often timely events and need to be produced with quick turnaround.  Finally, many clients keep a “Corporate B-roll Package” on hand.  Typically, these are evergreen clips that showcase their client, in the event a news story comes up that requires more generic video clips.

The agencies we work with are not in clear agreement on what to put into a B-roll Package and how long it should be.  That’s ok, but here are some key elements that should be included:

* Title Slate- This tells the newsdesk editor what the story is and what they might expect.  It might also include a suggested lead.

* Contact Slate- This tells them who to contact for additional information.  Both the Title Slate and Contact Slate are created so that if the B-roll Package is all the editor has before them, they will have sufficient information to research and run the story.

* Table of Contents- We recommend that the B-roll Package has a Table of Contents that notes the coming clips and the Time Code.  This makes it easy for the editor to shuttle through the material and find what they are looking for.  Since the package is usually in the hands of a news editor, time is of the essence.  Anything you can do to make the editors life easier is a good thing.

* B-roll Content- Finally, the actual clips.  Traditionally B-roll Packages include product clips if it’s a product roll-out; event footage if it’s a special event or show; corporate signage, especially if it’s a high-profile client; interview clips, which may include executives and/or subject matter specialists discussing the client’s product, service or event.

There can be more that gets included in a B-roll Package, but these are some of the basics. Keep in mind that frequently, interview clips are not used in the news story.  However, it can still be a good idea to include these clips for two reasons.  It helps demonstrate in your words what the story is about.   Additionally, if your spokesperson or subject matter specialist is available to the media, it demonstrates their media readiness.  Most of the B-roll Packages we produce are around 7-10 minutes in length, but we’ve created shorter and longer packages in the past. It really depends on how much material you feel you need to provide.

Finally, a value that we provide to our clients, is a Teaser Package. We edit a few of the key sound bites, along with some of the essential B-roll, into a 90-second piece that can be used to pitch your story.  It’s not really meant to be used as anything but a pitch piece, but demonstrates to the newsdesk editor the possibilities.  This site has more great information about B-roll.

The following is a recent B-roll Package we created for a product roll-out.  We think it’s a good example and in this instance, the client got particularly good media coverage from it.

Feel free to email us with questions!

info@bars-tone.com

See behind the scenes of BARS+TONE. Meet our amazing team that brings ideas to life.

Inside the SUITE with Executive Producer, Eric Steckel, Director of Photography, Ben Lunden, Production Coordinator, Michael Haley, and Editor, Julie Dominguez. Learn about the stages of a corporate communication video and the team involved that brings the stories to life.

Behind the scenes of the Simon Pearce Brand Video. Hear from Executive Producer Eric Steckel and Senior Editor, Brian T. Nowac on the process of creating this brand video. Learn about the importance of a Brand Video and how it can help with your marketing initiatives.

http://www.mediabistro.com/agencyspy/online/cool_video_prod_co_moves_blows_up_old_office_138642.asp