The future of Social TV

Social TV often falls short in matching technology to consumer needs. The success of Google Glass may be the key to the medium’s future, argues Paul Armstrong of Digital Orange Consulting

With social media ad format spend equating to around £250 million of the £3 billion total digital adspend (Jan-June

2013, IAB) – a growth of 53% – it’s easy to see why Social TV is increasingly getting people excited and nervous at the same time. What with the rise of binge viewing, streaming services like Netflix exploding and new disruptive technologies like Aereo emerging, TV is not having an easy ride as it struggles to move fully into digital, retain control and yet give the consumer what they want. Social TV (also referred to as ‘second-screening’), in particular, is on the lips of many people as we start 2014 and for good reason; mobile device penetration, tablet use and social platform ubiquity all continue to point northwards with increasingly complex

transactions previously saved for the desktop (including banking and shopping) now becoming commonplace while on the move or completing a second activity. At least, that’s what many are being led to believe.

Using the simple framework I devised – Technology, Behaviour, Data (TBD) – to evaluate ideas, platforms, campaigns – pretty much anything – it is clear to see that Social TV has some issues.

T ECHNOLOGY – CAN THE TECHNOLOGY DO WHAT YOU ARE ASKING IT TO?

Currently, the short answer to this is a soft yes (it is being refined and improved), although no app out there has the right mix to be close to being considered the killer app and show-specific apps don’t work for enough people to be significant sources of return (at least at the present time). Technology in this area, loosely, can be pushed into one of four areas: audio- recognition, image-recognition, motion- detection and augmented reality.

The issue is less around whether the technologies work – we know they do – it’s matching them with the need states of the consumer that appears to be the challenge. For example, Shazam could be said to be the perfect audio-recognition app but beyond this, its use is minimal. Most people don’t know it also works with TV programmes unless significant prompts are given. Between this and user experience – often with bafflingly cluttered interfaces – it’s not a pretty picture for most second-screen apps.

B EHAVIOUR – CAN THE PEOPLE DO WHAT YOU ARE ASKING THEM TO?

The technology is clunky and usually uninspiring to use – in essence, you have to be a superfan to follow the white rabbit down the hole. This is a big part of the issue many have with Social TV, it’s running before it can walk and, yet, while the technology is available it often requires overt actions, firing up a specific app or worse downloading a bespoke app from scratch in order to even begin the next step. The problem many have is that a) scaling any mobile technology is expensive, b) user understanding is often not there or c) the utility is overshadowed by content or usability issues.

D ATA – WILL ENOUGH PEOPLE DO WHAT YOU WANT THEM TO DO?

This is where context is key; Social TV has a lot of data floating around that isn’t comparable. A glaringly simple example of this is that Facebook is around five times the size of Twitter for active monthly users and has – shockingly – according to some interesting research from Trendrr (pre-acquisition), around five times the activity of Twitter. So the potential is certainly there, what about actual use? This picture is not so rosy. According to Ofcom, the data is telling a simple story: 25% of the UK regularly uses a second screen as they watch TV (44% for younger people), 22% of those with tablets watch different content in the same room as others and 10% watch in the bath. Diving deeper into actual observed behaviour, it is clear from the SecondSync’s Leaderboard (Twitter data) that there is a clear difference when it comes to the sexes and second-screen behaviour – a mere 20% of the top 10 shows listed between 28th October and 6th November 2013 had a male

majority tweet ratio. That’s significant insight for any marketer looking to understand and take advantage of an area. In essence, understanding where the person is, who they are with and why they are watching is as important as who they are and what they are watching.

While the technology is available, the vast majority of apps focus on awareness and emotional connections, not particularly surprising, considering the content that is currently most engaged with – but it does

show the potential and the need to be more ruthless when it comes to the sales process. People are willing to buy via mobile; there are understood, trusted paths (Amazon, Apple etc.), the issue is more about margins and rights and user-interface issues for many of these apps.

For an example of a product that passes TBD with flying colours, consider Shazam (the audio-recognition application). While much more now than a simple audio recognition platform, it balances the TBD

framework perfectly. Technologically, the product worked – it wasn’t perfect but it was mainly down to the user’s location rather than a poor system. Behaviour-wise it was bang on the money, people needed to know information and it fulfilled that need (Shazam says its users are currently tagging 10 million songs, shows and ads a day – 8% are even going through to purchase directly via the app). Data-wise it adds up, identifying music is a common need and, as of July 2013, more than 70 million use Shazam monthly (+350 million users in total). It’s a case of balance – an important one. One element cannot outweigh the others too much or it all falls down.

Agency C-suite executives I have spoken with recently all agree Social TV is an area they are keeping a watchful eye over as we move into 2014 and expect both Facebook

“ There are many independent apps that… in some ways, provide more opportunities for brands beyond reach”

Google Glass: has yet to become a commercial project, but presents the biggest opportunity to the Social TV market

and Twitter to make great strides in the coming months, once the numerous ducks they have acquired or announced recently align. Twitter has moved aggressively in this field, recently buying Bluefin Labs, Trendrr and announced a partnership with Nielsen that certainly got brands and agencies excited. In the other corner, Facebook has created new ad types, introduced hashtags and created new data-streams for broadcast and online outlets to use, to show what is happening on Facebook.

The issue with these technologies and products is that they focus on identifying the programme and not the need state (or place) the person is in. Instead the individual becomes a somewhat faceless person that is lumped into generalised buckets. I’d like to see an app ask a person where he or she is and appropriately target, based on being out and about, at home, in an airport. It’s more of an nudge than a disruption – easy to say and hard to do, but don’t forget people’s relationship with their tablet is possibly more intimate than their smartphone, based on Gartner research that says 45% of people do not share their tablet with others.

Thinking Twitter and Facebook are the only players worth considering would be a mistake. There are many independent apps that are an integral part of the ecosystem and, in some ways, provide more opportunities for brands beyond reach. As with Social Commerce – the richest opportunities often lie outside the big guy’s sandpit. For Social TV, the opportunities lie in two key areas: 1) brands engaging with viewers, extending the ad (or service) experience, perhaps through gamification or additional content and 2) direct commerce transactions using various formats of cues or metadata (both hidden or overtly provided by the user).

Buying through your smartphone totally fits the TBD model – you are in the right state, the technology is there and all is well. This isn’t the case for Social TV – it’s an interruption and, most importantly, it requires massive back-end integration with the retailer. Think about buying a jumper… a person needs to be specific about size, colour, delivery and quite a few other things before that item is on its way. In time, I suspect, all these things are able to be overcome but, for now (and I suspect

for the foreseeable future), the Social TV purchase route will be a reminder and/or showrooming experience for the majority. In this case, product placement has a significant future ahead of it.

CONCLUSIONS

Data is the best and worst thing about Social TVThe biggest boon to making things social is the data that can be gleaned from it, the trouble is, according to IPA Touchpoint data, not everyone is actively participating and those that do, over-index massively. Approximately 10 million people are currently using Twitter each month, according to comScore, that’s less than 20% of the UK’s population. While nothing to sniff at, it’s hardly a representative sample and when you factor in the internet ‘Law’ (90:9:1 – whereby for websites where users can both create and edit content, 1% of people create content, 9% edit or modify that content, and 90% view the content without contributing )you begin to have a real issue when you make decisions based on a sample like this.

Reward (or gamification) may sadly be the future for the majorityViggle has created an interesting model – in essence, TV watching equals points, points equals real-world giftcards and other experiences. It’s a smart model that is being

watched closely by many in the industry as – while it’s perhaps not the most original (or scalable) idea – it just may become the most adopted. Who doesn’t like to be rewarded and choose that reward based on behaviour they don’t have to alter too much? For Social TV, the future is Amara’s LawThe future for Social TV is much hyped and anything but certain, however the promise is huge; Gartner predicts the ‘infotainment’ market will swell to $3 trillion by 2015. However, there are numerous and significant obstacles for Social TV to overcome before it becomes mainstream and enters its Primetime. The truth is second-screening is nothing new, people have been tuning out, switching over, discussing, finding ads and content in other places for years – Social TV is simply an evolution of this behaviour. Instead of discussing the second-screen, we should be talking about the best screen available.

Project Glass from Google has yet to become a commercial product and, yet, presents the biggest opportunity to this market by far if adopted en masse (and that’s a big if). If this scenario is the case then the future most certainly is TBD.

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This article was first published in Admap magazine January 2014 ©Warc www.warc.com/admap