Developing digital content is much different – and often times infinitely more challenging – than creating traditional entertainment. You often have a less focused audience with multiple tabs, ads and videos competing for their attention, and even with recent reports touting longer form consumption on the rise, you still have a smaller amount of time to compel your audience and develop your characters. Not to mention pique their interest enough to return each week (or sometimes, several weeks) for a new episode.
No matter how you slice it, it’s a tall order, and in a media saturated space, it’s more critical than ever to engage users at the point of consumption, which is why many content creators are exploring mobile as either a complementary experience, or an entirely made-for-mobile series. In fact, I’ve been recommending that my content creator clients include a mobile component to their web series to bridge the story transmedially and blend IRL experiences. Mobile is also an excellent vehicle for activating behaviors, especially with the array of technology available to enrich and personalize the experience, such as augmented reality and geo-location-based interactions.
TV Goes Mobile
Most mobile engagements to date have been developed by studios to augment their television programming and tap into a digital audience. Marc Ostrick, founder of eGuiders, was working on original scripted mobisodes as a spin-off for Fox’s 24 back in 2006 that were intended to simulate the high drama/action experience for those who wanted to watch video on their phones. A partnership Fox struck with Verizon to promote their new 3G technology spawned a pay-for-content experience, which was pretty ambitious at that time, especially considering the miniscule mobile budgets didn’t even allow for using the actual cast in the series. “But it did offer some valuable learnings,” said Ostrick. “Just because the technology is there, doesn’t mean people really want to watch TV on their cell phones unless there is something that is truly unique about experiencing mobile content than on any other medium.”
NBC is also attempting to assert a leadership position in this arena with their recent foray into a fully integrated multi-platform experience for Heroes boasting some impressive initial results. Sponsored by Sprint, the campaign began on September 28, and runs through December 30, with the story unfolding across the web and mobile, giving viewers deeper character interactions and original scripted mobile content in the form of games, stories and clues for Sprint subscribers to solve a mystery and enter to win a $25,000 interactive storyline contest. The companion content has already resulted in a rise in viewership for the show, combined with several million mobile streams and hundreds of thousands of sweepstakes entrants.
