second screens - blending tv and the web

hendrik@smalltownheroes.be

www.smalltownheroes.be

Hi I am Hendrik, I run a startup called Small Town Heroes

We’re making second screen apps for TV programs and visualize all the realtime data in the live TV show.

Second Screens - Blending

TV and the web

He!"#i$ D%c&'i!

But I am here to talk about second screens. And how TV and the web might be blended to create a new visual language.

MY DAD

This  is  a  picture  of  my  dad,  my  dad  used  to  be  an  old  school  journalist.  

Heavily  smoking  over  his  typewriter.  True  Mad  Men  style.  He  was  constantly  busy  calling  people,  asking  rough  ques=ons.  I  am  just  assuming  this.

The man was rough on me,

 I  assume  he  was  also  rough  on  poli=cians  and  demeaning  people.  

He  gathered  data  and  hard  evidence  in  order  to  tell  breaking  stories.  Every  week  his  work  was  published,  not  in  the  Huffington  Post  but  in  a  well  regarded  local  newspaper.  Why  I  am  telling  all  this?  Besides  my  father's  preference  for  Belgian  beers  and  MILFS,  I  share  with  him  the  genes  

HIS GENES

that code for collecting data and telling great stories.

REALLY, HIS GENES

I diverted from this genetically predetermined path when I enlisted at the University to study a Medicine and Biology.

Together with my Biology degree and a print-out of my first website I was able to secure a job at Alcatel, a high-tech multinational that marketed itself as "the internet company."

RESEARCH

It was fun time. It was the perfect playground, I worked really hard on new TV experiences and social TV prototypes.

One of the things we learned is that user interface is key. I also made horrible TV interfaces. Our wings of imagination were clipped by sluggish, energy absorbing, closed platforms, running on a 80386 processor.

Aka the set-top-box.

True, not as ugly as today’s smart tv’s but still...ugly

BROADCASTER

Swapped jobs and went working for a TV broadcaster. First couple of years

SAD PANDA

I wasn't happy.

We were Internet geeks hired to reinvent television. Yet, the company housed us not only in a different building but also in a different city. The first two years I worked a new media guy, I never talked to a program maker.

BREAKTHROUGH

In 2010 I got my first meeting with a content guy. Just because we had a similar taste of music and were friends on Last.FM.

"The future of TV won’t be here

until people who make TV are in

these conversations!"

J%c() S*+i#,-

Broadcasters don't talk to technology people and technology people are not really listening to broadcasters. Sure, they're is a lot of technological innovations by second screen app makers. And there are beautiful designs too. But are they

ARE THEY MISSING THE POINT?

not missing the point? Sure...

I can discover recommended content

I can "checkin" to media

I can tweet seamlessly about the show

can have live curated activity streams

can consult rich, related metadata

synced with the stream

over-the-top

integrated with my Xbox

receive auto-generated zee tags

voice controlling my TV. SURE. But.. what do the Broadcasters get?

They get demographic and sentiment information from Social interactions.

A whole technology hype cycle to generate better CRM, instead of better stories.

EYEBALLS

Sure, Eyeballs are the glue of the TV business but story always go first. You guys are Information architects, so you must know that.

I keep asking to myself. Did these ever have sit-down with the television makers?

Demo

FIRST STEPS AND FALSE ALARMS

One of the first second screen projects I worked on was a companion app for TV programs, Zeebox style.

People could check-in, have aggregated activity streams,

FEATURITIS

consult rich, related metadata. Usual second screen featuritis. It wasn't a success

SCHIZOPHRENIC

It addressed two types of users but neither really well.

FAMILY TV VIEWER

#1 The family TV viewers, who really wanted to participate with the show. They were asking questions to the guests, wanted to have an impact on the narrative.

TV CRITIC

#2 The over served Social commentators who like to comment and discuss

IT’S NOT ABOUT THIS

It's not about building a better water-cooler, it's about building new stories based on a fundamentally different relationship between viewers and creators.

"TV isn’t about work, it isn’t

about search, it isn’t about

finding things and effort - it’s

about escape." Je#e./ T(e.%!

The user really is the TV viewer. Who knows this user best is not Nielsen. It's the program makers. So in order to succeed at making great experiences for TV we'll need to take them into the equation.

Thou shall not create second screen experiences as an afterthought.

LOOK, SOME TIPS

#1 SIMPLICITY

They need to be simple

49

TOO DIFFICULT

#2 ADD VALUE

Must be valuable for all viewers.

CLOSE THE FEEBACK LOOP

Close the feedback loop

TOO LOW

#3 SOCIAL IS A FEATURE

Social is a feature, not the goal.

#4 EXPLORE EARLY

Second screen elements should be explored at the planning stage,Digital teams and creative teams should be put together.

#5 NO FAIL WHALES

It must be scalable, never fail, just like what we'd expect from TV

trailer 1

call to action call to action

#6 TWIN PEAKS

#7 MAKE MORE MONEY

The business might not be that scalable. we must say NO to the generic poll. Like good TV, it should be tailor made. Who said second screen had to be cheap.

#8 BE CREATIVE

#9 must be creative

It must blend with the story told on the first screen

But foremost they must be crafted together with the storytellers, the dreamers. When technology really helped storytellers forward, it was of symbiotic nature.

MY DAD

Because  truly,  we  need  to  craM  new  narra=ves.  We  have  to  put  back  storytellers,  like  my  father,  in  front  of  the  viewer

THANK YOU

hendrik@smalltownheroes.be

www.smalltownheroes.be

@studiomuscle