BUSINESS PROPOSAL

Romy Verstraeten // 324802 // EUR // Trends&Strategies in the Creative Sector // M. Leenderste // week 8 // final assignment

Management summaryMy proposal to BNN is to invest in registrational interactivity to research in what

way they can use the social media and to what extend BNN should alter their

programs, benefiting both their revenue and the ‘happiness’ of their consumers.

The business proposal will be discussing recent reasarch on television and

happiness more in dept, as well as the topics social media, ITV and interactivity.

All data collected from the BNN Hyves will be registered to give a more concrete

model of BNN’s main target group. This target-identity will be used as a main

example to see exactly how the individual would like to contribute to BNN’s

programs.

Data will be collected from Hyves and if possible and as an extent to this, online

and offline enquiries can be included as well. An analysis will be formulated on

the results and topics will be addressed to the target group. The topics will

contain a ‘personal power component’ to enhance the individual with the idea he

himself contributes to the TV-program and be projected on the preferences of the

target group. Individuals will be working together online on these topics,

increasing their social happiness level and BNN’s registrational interactivity. In

this way, BNN’s social network will be ranging wider and wider, leading to even

more data which can benefit BNN. Overall, the research project should take 8

weeks to be completed.

The background research that was used as a set up for this proposal is also

included in the total business proposal. The accompanying finance sheet will

provide an overview of all estimated costs.

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Content  page-number

Management summary

Research question 3

Recent research 4

Non-explored field 9

Finance sheet 12

Literature 13

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Research questionAs an introduction to this business proposal, I first

would first like to address the key question to my

research. ‘How can BNN use social media to enrich

their TV-programs?’

This will be answered due to defining social media

and connecting this to television. Although the ITV

(Interactive Television) is a relatively new research field, many broadcasters and

programmers are trying to integrate this phenomenon into their company. So

keeping up with the latest trend, how can BNN be sure of a positive impact?

There’s one simple answer. Happiness.

Success and most importantly, the continuation of being successful, is much

depended on the happiness of an individual. Therefore, it’s of upmost importance

to know about the correlation between TV and happiness.

As TV is a part of our home, it as well is part of our lives. In what way will TV

affect us even more, e.g. at work?

To investigate these topics, the first step will be filling our minds with recent

research in order to come up with ideas which are combining all gathered

information. The main business proposal will be discussed in more detail and

include all finances.

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Recent research

In recent years, the research on happiness in economics has been stimulated up

most. Happiness is considered to be a important issue in our daily life, if not the

most important one. Frey and Stutzer (2004) quote “How to gain, how to keep,

how to recover happiness is in fact for most men at all times the secret motive for

all they do” (James 1902, p. 76). From this they derive that the pursuit of

happiness is determining a large part of human behavior. Therefore, economics

should also partly be about happiness given it’s such an important factor within

the process of decision-making. The big question considering research within in

this field is how economic factors, such as economic growth, unemployment and

institutions affect individual well-being? (Frey and Stutzer; 2004: 2)

Up until now, economists have been holding back on direct research on

individual happiness. They do not feel the need to take utility measurement to a

higher level including happiness, because they can see the reactions to e.g. price

changes in other outcome factors such as purchasing power. Not taking

happiness into account means they miss out on why people react to these

changes in the way reported by outcome numbers. Economist keep on to the

tradition of making welfare decisions according to the Pareto criterion and

therefore no further division by welfare levels of individuals in considered

relevant.

Unfortunately, this remains to be the dominating view in economics. However,

this view is challenged numerous times and in numerous ways by scholars all

over the world. Non-objective economists incorporate emotions, self-signaling

(self-esteem), goal completion, mastery, meaning and status into their analyses.

If you want to manage explaining human behavior through utility functions they

should be interdependent. Using independent, interpersonal ones do not make

up for personal factors which are left out. In behavioral economics it is

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discussable if you can or can not derive utility from observed decisions. By only

looking at the choice itself, rather then looking into why it was made, we can not

accurately judge the utility solely on those outcomes. (Frey and Stutzer; 2004: 3)

But how can we measure happiness? This is a challenge to the traditional

economic thinking. Economists put up one single question so the survey is

representative. The answer is rated as a score and indicates an individual’s

evaluation of their personal life satisfaction and happiness. A nice example would

be the question which the German Socio-Economic Panel asked. ‘How satisfied

are you with your life, all things considered?’ The responses range on a scale

from 0 “completely dissatisfied” to 10 “completely satisfied”. (Frey and Stutzer;

2004: 4)

The knowledge that loyal TV-watchers’ decisions are so much influenced by their

leisure-time investment, throws us directly into the world of advertising and

consumer behavior, a thoroughly researched field by economists. Although

economists are digging deep into this particular topic, they have largely ignored

the effects of television on individual happiness from an economic perspective.

L. Bruni and L. Stanca (2008) have researched this topic though, and argue that

viewing television has a negative impact on individual happiness by harming and

(partially) replacing relationships with other people. The inclusion and importance

of happiness within economic research is a fairly new way of integrating

economics with psychology and is represented by the behavioral economics

nowadays. According to this behavioral economics approach, the use of

television does not have a good impact on ones level of happiness. Bruni and

Stanca (2008) for example, claim that by watching television, time spend with

family and friends decreases, the communication level within households drops

and material aspirations increase significantly due to the overload of images that

consist of luxury items. So it seems that consumers’ build up desire for better

cars, jewelry, houses, electronic devices and other material assets which they

cannot purchase.

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This is primarily making them more miserable and less contented then they

would be without watching television and television ads. (Bruni and Stanza;

2008: 510)

The creative industries are fighting for the leisure time which is decreasing

among employees, especially in the time of crisis. It also seems everyone’s to

busy scheduling their lives, how to put everything into so little time?

Watching television is a huge part of leisure time consumption, on average it

absorbs the same amount of an individual’s working time. Little economic

research has been done within this matter. (Corneo, 2005:110)

Corneo (2005) found out that the time people spend on work and the time they

spend on watching television are positively correlated (Corneo, 2005: 110).

When the amount of working hours goe up, the time that is left for leisure

decreases. Surprisingly enough, the hours of watching television still rise.

Television still is an important aspect in everyday life and therefore has great

impact on the economic and social life of its users. It can shape, adjust and

influence the (economic) decisions of its loyal users.

But why do we choose watching television over other leisure activities?

Individuals seem to enjoy TV as a ‘rest’ from their long day at work. Laying on

your couch appeals more then a intensive work-out with a friend, going shopping

with your mother-in-law or attending dance-lessons. The effort we need to put in

the solely activity of watching TV is much less then the effort we need to put in

into other more intensive activities and therefore our first choice, even though it

actually doesn’t increase our happiness level. (Corneo, 2005:111)

Up until now, it has been assumed that the self-control problems concerning TV

consumption has affected everyone in the same way. Recent research has

pointed out that different types of individuals suffer more from unnecessary time-

loss while watching TV than others. In particular individuals who can make up

their own working hours/leisure time schedule, like the self-employed or high

positions, have high opportunity costs when it comes to time. Wasting time on TV

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means losing time which could have been more profitable (e.g. could have raised

profit). Therefore, an important footnote is ‘that TV consumption lowers the life

satisfaction of individuals with high opportunity costs of time, while it has a

smaller negative effect on the life satisfaction of individuals with low opportunity

costs of time.’ (Frey et al; 2007: 296)

Social media is the term used referring to all the applications which are

concentrated on the sharing of information between people. Social networks on

the Internet are accessing individuals to send instant messages to each other.

Traditional interaction media such as newspapers are much less multifunctional

compared to the Internet. By means of social platforms, podcasts, music, videos

and pictures can easily be transferred to each other online. Some examples of

international social internet media are YouTube and Facebook, but also

Wikipedia and MySpace. A good Dutch example is Hyves, but BNN already

discovered this and is covering the field. Social Network Sites (SNS) can be

defined as web-based services that allow individuals to construct a public profile

within a bounded system. This kind of system displays a list of other users, which

share the same interests. Mostly, these persons can be added to your personal

‘buddy’ list, constructing a social network. (Boyd & Ellison, 2007)

Peter Hirschberg (2009) is an entrepreneur and marketing specialist who has a

lot of know-how about content production and both online and offline media. He

has published his opinion in a TEDtalk about the battle of attention between the

television and the computer. In this talk he asked three little girls about they felt

about the use of internet on one hand and watching television on the other.

They answered: "Internet is more fun then TV. Nowadays, we have TV shows on

the computer and you can download them onto your iPod. I wouldn’t like to be

the president of a TV network because eventually they’re going to lose all their

money" (Hirshberg, P. TED, 2009)

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Interactivity has become the key factor when it comes down to new media.

Traditional media don’t offer enough versatility and possibilities to consumers no

more; it’s all about as much as possible in as less as possible devices. The term

interactivity referrers to ‘more powerful sense of user engagement with media

texts, a more independent relation to sources of knowledge, individualized media

use, and greater user choice’ (Lister et al., 2009: 25) There are different forms of

interactivity: hypertextual, immersive navigation, immersive interaction and

registrational interactivity. The one we’ll address to is registrational interactivity,

it’s the ability of individuals to add to, change or synthesize text received or

already published by others. (Lister et al., 2009: 22)

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Non-explored fieldBNN has to connect this information to their own company structure. As BNN has

developed a certain social online network at Hyves, they can directly access their

response group. All the data that’s provided by personal profiles can benefit BNN

to understand the needs of their consumers.

Bruni and Stanza (2008) concluded that watching television actually decreases

our individual happiness. Relational interaction with other people goes down due

to the fact we’d rather watch television in that scarce free time. Even if our

working hours increase, we keep on watching television, actually it increases just

the same. Let’s say we gain more happiness from work by interacting with

colleagues, we immediately turn in that happiness by watching television.

(Corneo; 2005: 112) It may not benefit us as individuals, but how can BNN turn

this knowledge into profit?

First of all, Corneo (2005) already showed us that, despite of the competition,

individuals are quite loyal to their television, even if their leisure time is

decreasing. Second, the negative correlation between happiness and watching

television can be altered into a positive correlation by increasing people’s

interpersonal relationships and therefore their communication level.

Interactive TV is able to switch the pressured relationship between television and

happiness into an uplifting one. BNN should not try to invent new ways of

interacting themselves but should take advantage of the already existing

distribution channels and integrate these social components such as games,

(live) discussion platforms and consumer video broadcasting within their

programs. These social interactions can increase communication levels either

within one household of between multiple households.

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With this, individuals will now gain more happiness from watching TV by

upgrading their social interaction with others. Off course, relationships can not be

replaced, but can be found on Television-Text applications.

The consumer needs to have the idea that he can (partially) alter and control

television input and output and therefore is able to add a personal touch, instead

of being controlled via the boundaries of his remote control.

BNN should not try to come up with clever, but also costly inventions of their own

to secure their position within the interactive media field, but they should use

interactive components which their audience is already familiar with and

contribute to the individual’s happiness.

My proposal to BNN is to invest in registrational interactivity to research in what

way they can use the social media and to what extend BNN should alter their

programs, benefiting both their revenue and the ‘happiness’ of their consumers.

As said before, BNN has got some assets to start developments in their own

structure.

All data collected from Hyves will be registered to give a more concrete model of

BNN’s main target group. This target-identity will be used as a main example to

see exactly how the individual would like to contribute to BNN’s programs.

The inter-medium use is the most important part of my proposal. The individual

should actively be involved into the production process. Via the internet website,

individuals should meet up, construct their opinion and actually see the results

from their ‘work’ on television.

Also, I emphasize the interaction between more individuals as an extent to the

research of Corneo (2005) as well as Frey et al. (2007). The ‘happiness’ factor

isn’t integrated into TV-programming yet. Therefore I suggest further research on

how the individuals linking in to BNN through Hyves, can work together as a part

of BNN. In a way, BNN ‘employs’ their consumers to their own benefit, without

paying any costs over that process.

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Connecting people together, through the medium BNN is providing them, should

increase their happiness. The direct effect will be more and more people in

BNN’s social network, causing more interaction. Overall, this interaction should

help BNN to construct more interesting TV-programs and lead to higher viewing

rates. The financial issues related to the cost and the team which should be

formatted is all discussed further more in the finance sheet which is included in

this business proposal.

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Finance sheet

To execute the proposed research BNN should appoint both senior and junior

researchers. The junior researcher, for instance project-based internship, will

cover the arranging of all data collected from Hyves. If possible, the junior

researcher can also extent the data with online and offline enquiries. The senior

researcher will give an analysis on the results and come up with topics that will

be addressed to the target group. The topics will contain a ‘personal power

component’ to enhance the individual with the idea he himself contributes to the

TV-program and be projected on the preferences of the target group.

Individuals will be working together online on these topics, increasing their social

happiness level and BNN’s registrational interactivity. In this way, BNN’s social

network will be ranging wider and wider, leading to even more data which can

benefit BNN.

The medior researchers will be supervising the online projects; they will report

upcoming results and pass them to the senior researchers. It’s the senior

researchers’ job to integrate the results as a component of a TV-program of

BNN, so the target group will actually see their influences. The research project

will take place over an period of 8 weeks.

Working hours per week

Tarif per hour Total per week

Total all weeks

Junior researchers

10 € 21 € 210 € 1680

Medior researchers

6 € 44 € 264 € 2112

Senior researchers

8 € 83 € 664 € 5312

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Estimated additional costs

€ 1100

Project total € 10. 204

Literature  

1.    Bruni, L. & Stanza, L. 2008. Watching alone: Relational goods, television and

happiness. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization 65. 506-528

2.    Corneo, G. 2005. Work and television. European Journal of Political Economy

21. 99-113

3.    Frey, B & Stutzer, A. 2004. Happiness Research: State and Prospects. Review of

Social Economy 62. 207-228

4.    Frey, B, Benesch, C & Stutzer, A. 2007. Does watching television make us

happy? Journal of Economic Psychology  28. 283–313

5.    Shirky, C. 2008. Gin, television and cognitive surplus. www.shirky.com

6.    Hirschberg, P. 2009. Peter Hirschberg on TV and the web. TEDtalk. www.ted.com

7.    Lister, A. Dovey, J. Giddings, S. Grant, I & Kelly, K. (2009). New media. A Critical Introduction. New York: Routledge

8.    Boyd, D. M. & Ellison, N. B. (2007). Social network sites: Definition, history, and scholarship. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 13(1), article 11. http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol13/issue1/boyd.ellison.html /

9.    Dijk, van J. The network society: social aspects of new media. Jan van Dijk. London, New Delhi and Thousand Oaks California: 2006.

10.  Social Media Televsion. www.youtube.com/user/SocialMediaTV & www.socialmediatelevision.com

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11. Jensen, J. F. Interactive Television: New Genres, New Format, New Content. DiMedia

Self reflection

Collecting all literature wasn’t that hard at all, even though it seemed so much at

first. The main problem was pointing out all correlations between the researches.

Maybe, this hasn’t been done to the fullest extent, but in I think it becomes

clearer in the actual business proposal and the finance sheet.

The hardest part of this business proposal to me was coming up with the

estimated costs. I really had no idea and you can’t find anything about it on the

internet. I can imagine that my calculations will be ridiculous compared to ‘the

real world’, I hope we’ll discuss this in class.

When I started writing, I thought I’d never managed to come up with 10 pages of

empirical writing. During my writing, it became clear to me that I couldn’t use all

my ideas, some sources even made the overall structure of the proposal less

clear. The point I did not address was citizen journalism. The main reason for this

was that I personally thought my research was also complete without it.

Overall I really enjoyed this assignment; it was completely new to me. I’m happy

with the end-result and I hope I’ve matched up the realistic lay-out of a business

proposal.

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