Social TV: How The Second Screen Is Connecting Fans & Advertisers

Elisabeth Osmeloski on October 22, 2014

 

Even though we’re just a few short weeks into the 2014 fall television season, Hollywood is closely tracking the success (and failures) of fresh sitcoms and dramas, plus keeping on an eye on returning fan favorites  like The Walking Dead, American Horror Scandal and Scandal.  Reality TV and competition series like DWTS, The Voice and the WWE are continuing to drive highly engaged fans week to week. Meanwhile, special events like annual award shows and weekly sports match ups battle it out for eyeballs and second-screen fan interaction in real-time. So far, we haven’t seen the dreaded cancellation news for this year’s crop of freshman TV shows, but the axe will undoubtedly fall for shows under-performing in the ratings, which in turn affect traditional ad dollars in upcoming seasons. It’s interesting to think about how the networks may be starting to view digital engagement as an added layer of opportunity for fan viewing, supported by impression and click based advertising. In the age of Social TV and the second-screen phenomena, the Twitter TV ratings from Nielsen Social tell an interesting story about what’s resonating most with network and cable TV viewers from week to week:

 Chart Legend:

Nielsen Twitter TV Ratings Weekly Top Ten lists are ranked by Unique Audience and include four metrics:

• Tweets – Tweets ascribed to a linear TV episode.
• Unique Authors – Unique Twitter accounts that have sent at least one Tweet ascribed to a specific TV episode.
• Impressions – The number of times any Tweets ascribed to a TV episode were seen.
• Unique Audience – The total number of distinct Twitter accounts accruing at least one impression of one or more different Tweets ascribed to a TV episode.

Analyzing Viewer Demographics & Digital Behavior

Previously on Marketing Land, we covered some highlights from a recent Nielsen Social report outlining how Social Media Drives TV Viewers Awareness, Enjoyment Of Programs, which also included some interesting insights around second screen activities and audience demographics.   Next month at Marketing Land’s SMX Social Media Marketing Conference in Las Vegas, Deirdre Thomas, Vice President of Product from @NielsenSocial will dive into the demographics and social audience data to share insights about how fans are engaging in real-time surrounding television shows as well as special media and sports events. In conjunction with the insights from Nielsen, Marc Heedt (@mheedt), Head of Social TV at Twitter, will also be on hand to talk about some of the trends they’ve seen with respect to fan chatter and talk about how #FOMO has contributed to more engaged fans, watching in real-time to avoid spoilers. Read up on some of the past news related to social tv and popular culture events they’ve covered on the Twitter blog. In related news, Nielsen and Adobe also announced a new cross-platform ratings system to measure audiences across digital devices, signaling yet another step deeper into converged media buying and consumer engagement. The opportunity to shift ad dollars to digital units and run integrated paid social advertising campaigns around traditional content is not an opportunity lost on major brand advertisers and their media buying agencies. Social media demographics is here, and it’s the next wave of audience targeting and a new frontier for content marketing.

Comedy Central: Home Of The #HashtagWars

Comedy Central stands out as one of the cable TV networks able to connect the pixels between on-air and social media fan interaction. The network is particularly in a great position to do so with its wildly popular late night shows The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report, both of which regularly reference tech and social media culture, as we often report here on Marketing Land and our sister site, Search Engine Land. Beyond those two, Comedy Central’s line up of edgy series includes several with a digital focus and loyal fanbase, namely Tosh.O, which is famous for combing internet video sites like YouTube, Instagram and Vine to poke fun at others’ unfortunate blunders immortalized on social media. The weeknight game show @Midnight hosted by hysterical Chris Hardwick (@Nerdist himself) brings social media to TV with a unique twist of celebrities and comedians competing for points in various segments: hashtag based answers, Instagram caption contests and other tie-ins to social media memes. The show’s main website encourages fans to interact and participate at its Facebook fan page or playing along on Twitter:   Don Steele (@DonSteele), the SVP of Fan Engagement/Multi Platform Marketing at Comedy Central will be joining the panel to highlight how the network approaches social media across its variety of regular shows and digital entertainment platforms. Join us Wednesday, November 19, 2014 at the ARIA Las Vegas for the #FOMO: Social As The Second Screen session. View the entire agenda or register for the SMX Social Media Marketing Conference now.