Engagement is high and its television audience blows others out of the water.

Last fall, The Walking Dead was the highest rated show among the coveted 18-49 year old demographic. Looking at a single episode in March (2013) the show pulled in 12.3 million viewers…and that was when it was up against the Grammy Awards.

Even its episode follow-up “The Talking Dead”, which is a companion show discussing what just aired, garnered 2.8 million 18-49 year olds. This is more than NBC had for the entire month of February (source).

So what is the Walking Dead doing that we can learn from?

As one AMC executive admitted, there is a certain chemistry involved that is hard to replicate, but good writing and excellent storylines also factor in. Add to that, a comprehensive and active digital presence and you have all the ingredients for a smash hit online and off.  Just this week the show was nominated for Program of the Year by the Television Critics Association.

Aside from good content and compelling stories, The Walking Dead has taken steps to grow its fan base and to ensure fans stay engaged.  One of the most savvy moves, in my opinion, is AMC’s decision to sell the series to Netflix early on. This enables those hearing buzz about the show, to access it immediately. A few binge-watching sessions later and new fans can catch up with existing ones; adding more voices to the online chatter and building even more buzz.

Of course, The Walking Dead is also monitoring, nurturing and engaging 17-million fans on its Facebook Page. Consistent activity, interesting posts and enthusiastic admirers all contribute to the average post getting 30,000 “likes”.  But custom Facebook apps also help. The Walking Dead has a popular “Dead Yourself” app – allowing fans to upload photos of themselves and then affecting them so they look zombified.

There is also the…

• Dead Alert newsletter with exclusive content
• Ultimate Fan Game: featuring quizzes, prizes and friend-to-friend challenges

On Twitter, The Walking Dead has over a million followers. It uses show-specific #hashtags to keep conversations fresh and relevant to the latest developments. The hashtags change every week based on the most recent episode.

The Walking Dead also integrates more social into the viewing experience through its Story Sync app. Story Sync, as the name suggests, synchronizes a handheld device with the show as it airs. This facilitates supplemental content to enhance the story unfolding on the primary screen.

And if all these apps, online games and newsletters are just too much for some fans, there’s always The Walking Dead board game!

Here are 3 ways to change that.

1. Pin or Highlight Wall Posts

Pinning a wall post attaches it as the first post to appear on your Facebook Page’s timeline even when more recent posts are published. Pinned posts will automatically unpin after 7 days if it is not manually unpinned.

Highlighting a wall post enlarges the post to stretch across both columns of the timeline. Compared to pinned posts, highlighted posts still shift lower as new posts are published.

Both options increase the prominence of a post on the Page’s timeline.

2. Encourage Users to Comment or Interact

Newly published wall posts are typically seen by only a fraction of people who Like your Page. If a users comments, likes or shares your post, your post has the chance of appearing in the users’ friends’ news feeds. As a result, your post will be exposed to a secondary audience.

Users who regularly interact on your Facebook Page are more likely than others to see your wall posts on their news feeds.

3. Promoted Posts

Promoted Posts is a Facebook advertising option that lets Page Administrators pay to have specific posts displayed to users or friends of users who like the page. Facebook charges a flat fee based on the number of people the advertisers want to reach. Promoted posts are displayed within the news feeds of users.

Promoted posts may be a suitable option if you have an important event or conversion goal you want to promote.

Victor Chan
Digital Strategist

Kickstarter alone has generated $579 million in pledges since its launch in 2009.

In that time, 3.9 million people have pledged to fund nearly 40,000 projects.

So how do you launch a successful campaign on Kickstarter especially knowing the majority of projects don’t ever get funded?

There are many success stories (and candid tales of failure) that we can learn from.

Here are the highlights.

Looking at Kickstarter specifically, in order for a project to receive funding, a fundraising goal must be set and achieved. Approximately 44% of all Kickstarter projects achieve their goals. Funds raised may exceed the initial goal, but the goal is the baseline that must be accomplished. Therefore, it may be strategic to lower the goal amount (but not too low!). For example, if your project requires 150k and you set the funding goal accordingly, but only 120k is raised, you will receive nothing. Indiegogo, on the other hand, offers users the ability to accept funding even when their goals are not met. This comes at a higher percentage (9% underfunded versus 4% for fully-funded projects).

A few important notes:

• Kickstarter takes 5% of all successfully funded projects.
• All projects are required to have US bank accounts and a US mailing address (Kickstarter is working to remove these restrictions to enable Canadians to use the platform more easily).
• There is a limited window in which to raise your funds (approx. 5 weeks). Choose your timing carefully.
• Your project is never removed from the Kickstarter site. It cannot be deleted.

Differences between IndieGoGo and Kickstarter

After funding goals and the reward structure have been determined, and slick multi-media assets have been produced (to post on the Kickstarter project page), it’s time to get down to strategy.

1. Create a compelling and engaging story about your project – connect and establish an emotional connection with Backers.
2. Raise awareness – identify Key Influencers and establish multiple channels to drive traffic to the Kickstarter project page.
3. Pay attention to metrics and adjust accordingly.
4. Pay for a PR blitz.
5. Empower your fans - consider incorporating fan feedback into the development of your project.
6. Consider offering Stretch Goals - it helps keep excitement levels high even after the original funding goal is reached.
7. Attract a celebrity popular with the target audience - the celebrity’s endorsement and network goes a long way.
8. Be prepared to live & breathe the campaign.

Do you have tips or lessons learned that you can share? Leave a comment.

Comedy Central, MTV and NBC Universal’s Syfy channel continue to muck about in the social TV sandbox – and are seeing successes.

Already there is considerable buzz about Comedy Central’s plan next week to hold a comedy festival exclusively on Twitter. The lineup can be seen here. The hashtag #ComedyFest will be the glue for all the disparate pieces.

Content will be short, to suit the social platform. Comedians (and there are some big names) will post jokes and short video clips – all using the #ComedyFest hashtag. At one point there will even be an online party called “Vine Dining” – leveraging comedic Vine videos for Twitter.

The whole festival will kick off on Twitter with a live stream of Mel Brooks talking about his life, answering questions from a live audience and of course – signing up to Twitter! This event will be moderated by Judd Apatow and Carl Reiner.

It’s interesting for traditional television properties to take bigger chances like this online. And they’re not alone.

MTV is considered one of the leaders of the pack. Most recently, MTV held its Movie Awards show. But to keep its young target audience engaged MTV had to develop several second-screen additions (distractions..? I’m not sure). One such arrangement saw Selena Gomez posting frequent MTV-Awards-Show-related content to her Facebook page. This began days leading up to the show, continued through-out the show and ended when the show concluded. This tactic tapped into Selena’s 42 million+ fans and gave the audience the equivalent of a backstage pass.

Facebook users were also given access to an exclusive Thank-You Cam where they could watch exclusive interviews of the MTV award winners as they came off stage. Additionally, for weeks leading up to the awards, fans could vote for their favourite movie hero using a designated hashtag on Instagram and Twitter: #besthero. In just two weeks, 3.2 million votes were counted.

Perhaps they’re onto something with all these second-screen additions. At a LostRemote conference this week in New York, a GetGlue executive was quoted as saying “Fans are distracted while watching your TV shows. Why not distract them with your second screen instead?”

MTV is constantly testing and innovating in the digital space. Its audience, consisting largely of  18-to-24 year olds, demands it. MTV launched a Tumblr blog dedicated exclusively to interpreting teen-speak. It also offers up a Facebook app that helps students calculate the cost of college.

Numerous other television networks are experimenting with expanding narrative online, and nurturing relationships between audience and cast, online.

HBO’s cast of Veep create and share “Vines” (short video loops for Twitter) on Twitter. NBC Universal’s Syfy Channel has green-lit a series called Fandemonium. When it premieres in the fall, part of the show will reportedly include regular Google Hangouts between cast and fans.

But the bigger attention getter on the Syfy Channel currently is Defiance.

What sets Defiance apart from other shows is its video game component which, when played, can affect events and characters in the show. This gives fans more than just a chance to further engage with the show, they can actually see how the game play alters its course. Syfy is pushing the social TV agenda hard in many of its shows.

Then there are the pseudo-networks that are now creating original “television” programming, like Netflix and Amazon. Even they’re making headlines with innovative approaches to audience engagement. To help Amazon.com develop bullseye programming for its Prime Instant Video portal, it will first post 14 TV pilots online. This means before any show makes the cut, it must first pass muster with online audiences. All pilots will be free to watch – and judge.

The parameters of the social TV sandbox have yet to be defined. Until that time – if it ever comes – it’s fun to watch the dance between the traditional land of lean-back-and-watch TV with the lean-in-and-engage online space.

There’s also an important factor to consider, which I like to call the “magnification potential”. By magnification potential, I mean the expected multiplication factor of a dollar spent.

Faced with limited resources, you’ll need to determine which marketing tactics will help you achieve your objectives within the given time. If your objective is to gain as much exposure as you can for your product in the next 2 months, tactics with a high magnification potential will be more beneficial. However, if your objective is to make as many sales as possible, a tactic with a lower magnification potential, but a stronger, more targeted message may be more beneficial.

So what determines a tactic’s magnification potential? It’s quite simple. The likelihood that the target audience will share your message with a secondary audience.

For example a pay-per-click campaign on Google Adwords has a lower magnification potential. A fixed dollar amount spent on Adwords will attract 1 visitor via 1 ad click. It is highly unlikely that this visitor will “share” or discuss the ad with someone else.

An email campaign has a moderate magnification potential. There is a low chance an email will be shared, unless it is requested. The number of people reached in the secondary audience will also be limited because the original email recipient will need to manually add each person to the forwarded email.

A contest that requires public voting has a higher magnification potential because contestants are encouraged to ask their friends to vote for them, hence increasing the motivation to share the message.

A Facebook wall post, depending on the content, has an even higher magnification potential because users are able to Like, comment or share the specific post. Any one of these actions will potentially expose the post to the users’ friends. A popular post may reach a secondary or even a tertiary audience. This is the key benefit of social networks.

When creating your next digital strategy, consider your objectives and the magnification potential of each tactic to ensure your campaign will reach the desired number of people.

Victor Chan
Digital Strategist

Photo Credit: StockMonkeys.com

• Posterity – never forget an adorable phrase or expression your kid says again. Posterity saves it, dates it, and allows you to add a photo from the moment.
• MyFitnessPal – exercise and calorie tracker extraordinaire
• Starbucks app – (if you go to Starbucks) this app allows you to use your phone to pay for drinks; handy!
• UrbanSpoon – identifies good restaurants in your area and shows you what other people have tried and liked/hated
• Uber – (you have to subscribe to this service but it’s essentially a personal driver that will pick you wherever you are + take you where you need to go. You don’t have to pay at the time of the ride, rather you pay online) Use the app to tell the Uber driver where you are and find out how far away your ride is.  UPDATE: Thanks to @kcclaveria for letting me know Uber has been shut down in Vancouver – but is still alive and well in other cities. Read more here.
• Songza – incredible selection of music playlists at your fingertips. Every type of music is represented. This app is my personal favourite!
• TuneIn Radio – allows you to listen to any radio station in the world
• Smule – cheesy, fun karaoke with a twist: you can choose to sing with other users or solo; people find you and follow you if they like your singing. This one is a guilty pleasure of mine.
• KidArt – no longer do you have to feel guilty about throwing out that wonderful painting your son did. Snap a photo of it, date it and start creating a file of your kid’s art.
• Instagram – if you’re into that sort of thing.. which I am. Makes your photos look amazing but keep in mind, every photo is public. (And Instagram is now owned by Facebook.. which likely means nefarious changes are on the horizon)
• Percolator – a fun, mess-around-with-your-photos app
• Mosaic – make a quick and snappy mini photo album with select photos on your phone. Easy. Cheap.
• DuckDuckGo – a search engine I highly recommend you use. Unlike Google and Bing, DuckDuckGo won’t track your activities or serve you up filtered search results.
• Foodie – grocery list app; as you shop you can check off what you’ve purchased, then shake your phone. All still-to-get items will rise to the top.
• Google Maps – even though your phone comes with a pre-installed map – it’s <ahem> less than good. You want Google Maps.
• Last but not least: “Reminders”. You don’t have to download this one from the app store, it’s already on your phone. I can’t praise this feature enough. It’s literally the sole reason my life doesn’t fall to pieces. Any and every little detail goes into my reminders. When I input something new, I also set a time & date to be reminded. This app is a blessing for school-related forget-me-nots, and anything else you can’t afford to forget.

I would love to hear what apps you use and why. I need some new goodies!

Erin

The spammy tweet came from an application that had permission to access my Twitter account. I granted the permission a while ago, but forgot.  Granting access to a Twitter or Facebook account happens easily.  When signing up for a new tool, if you use your Twitter of Facebook accounts to log in, you’ve granted permission to the tool. In my case, I had granted access to Pinterest, foursquare, Instagram and a long list of other apps.

The problem is many of us grant access to these apps and then neglect to give them another thought. After a while, a long list of apps builds up and this can make your account vulnerable. For this reason you should regularly review which apps are accessing your Twitter account and revoke access to the apps you no longer use, trust, or don’t otherwise wish to grant access.

Here’s how to do it.

Log in to your Twitter account.

Find the “Edit Profile” symbol (far right) and click on it.

Select “Settings” from the dropdown list.

Select “Apps” from the Settings menu. Now you will see all applications that currently access your Twitter account. From here, you can decide to revoke access or maintain select applications.

If you select “Revoke access” and later change your mind, you can “undo revoke access”.

Good luck and be safe.

Cheers,
Erin

@eringarrity

First, about the show… Operation Transformation is a weight loss competition between Irish residents (aka: normal people, not celebrities, or extraordinarily large people). These overweight contestants (referred to as leaders) are each put on a specific weight loss plan that covers everything from meal planning to exercise regimes.

Using the online tools established for the show, viewers can “follow” a leader. Each leader has his/her own web page that includes their full-body 360 photo, their age, weight, height and personal story. When a viewer follows a leader, they get access to that leader’s weight loss plan as well as:

• the leader’s detailed weight loss journey (a week by week account)
• online videos of that leader’s daily workouts
• online weight loss tools to calculate own body measurements
• daily meal plans for that leader
• PDFs of weekly shopping lists to support the corresponding meal plans (so the viewer can follow along at home)
• online coupons for local grocer
• access to expert weight loss coaches and physicians through the show’s Facebook Page

Operation Transformation also features the successes and pitfalls of audience members following along at home, while an RTÉ Radio show keeps viewers of Operation Transformation up to date on the leaders’ progress in between broadcasts.

In addition to the list above, other online components include:

• downloads of motivational music (to keep you going in your workouts)
• videos of dance troupes and/or other community-based physically active groups
• mobile app to support weight loss and calorie tracking
• listings of local runs and other health-conscious events

And of course, all programs can be watched online.

RTÉ is Ireland’s national broadcaster (think Ireland’s BBC or CBC). It stands for Raidió Teilifís Éireann (pronouced, Rad-eo Tella-feesh Air-ann) which means, Radio & Television in Ireland. Operation Tranformation is the broadcaster’s first crossmedia / 360 degree project.

1. A marketing initiative needs to yield positive returns, otherwise it should be discontinued.
2. Tracking and measuring helps you make better business and marketing decisions. For example, see the post about Using Google Analytics to Help Make Business Decisions.
3. You need to be accountable to your clients, managers, investors, etc. You need solid metrics to report to stakeholders.

Relevant marketing metrics (especially online marketing metrics) have evolved in the past few years.

1. In the early days, a basic ad impression or the number of eyeballs that saw your ad, was the ultimate marketing metric. This measurement was especially important on the broadcast medium (ie. television and radio) because it indicated how much exposure the ad received and subsequently the value of the ad space.
2. Next came the ad click or a basic response (eg. newsletter sign up) from the audience. This was a better measurement because it tracked a reaction from the audience, meaning the audience was actually moved-to-action by an ad or message.
3. Next came social media and the pursuit to “engage” with the audience. This greatly fragmented the number and types of metrics that could be tracked and reported. Each social media channel and digital property had its own terminology and way of measuring user interactions.
4. Finally and most recently, has come the quest to measure user sentiment. Based on the tools I’ve seen and tried, that claim to measure sentiment for you… Let’s just say, we’re not there yet. The English language is complex. How would a computer account for idioms, slang, context and cultural expressions? For example, would you interpret the following statement as positive or negative, “That’s sick!”

As marketing professionals in the ever changing digital marketing space, we are faced with the challenge of making sense of all these metrics and conveying to our clients what really matters. Life would be a lot easier if there was one universal metric that can be used to measure all marketing initiatives.

However, in order to have a universal metric, there needs to be a common factor in every type of marketing initiative imaginable. As it stands, a user could click on a banner ad, or a user could click play on a video, or a user could compose and post a comment on a blog or a user could explore an interactive website — the list of actions and measurables are diverse,  and go on and on…

The only common factor is — the user!

No matter what the marketing initiative, online or off, the user is at the heart of it all.  Therefore, the universal metric must be measuring the human being.

If we wanted to measure a user’s level of engagement with a marketing message, we’d likely need to measure their level of brain activity. The more engaging the task, the more neuro impulses triggered in the brain. For example, a simple click of an ad wouldn’t require much thinking power, but writing a comment or navigating through an interactive website would. If human emotion could be monitored, we might even be able to accurately track sentiment. All marketing initiatives could then be measured against the level of positive brain activity from its audience.

So… Is there any hope of truly and accurately tracking this elusive and complicated universal marketing metric? With the progression of wearable technology (eg. Google Glasses) and brain scanning technology (eg. EEG), measuring brain activity may actually become a reality. We’ll just have to see where science, technology and society takes us.

Victor Chan
Digital Strategist

Photo Credit: MikeBlogs

The biggest battle for TV-relevance lies between the two largest social media networks on the planet: Facebook and Twitter. Both networks have made it publicly known each is seeking to become more closely tied with television. Twitter has now forged a partnership with Nielsen, a global information and measurement company with a division (Nielsen Watch) dedicated to measuring television viewing. During the Olympic Summer Games this past August, Facebook launched a new feature called the “Talk Meter“. The Talk Meter measured which athletes and events garnered the most Facebook activity. This information was shared with, and on, NBC. Now Talk Meter is used to measure the most chat-worthy news events, rated on a scale of 1-10, and shared widely on many news networks.

What’s curious is the imbalance between which network sees the most TV-related activity (Twitter) versus which one holds the biggest influence over television watching (Facebook).

According to Trendrr Twitter generates 3/4 of the social media activity related to television whereas Facebook only generates 16%.

However, when it comes to influence, this survey showed Facebook had more, particularly over which shows people would watch. The survey showed that 49% of women and 43% of men would start watching a television program based on Facebook posts. Despite Twitter having more TV-related activity, according to this survey, Twitter only influenced 16% of men and 14% of women to start watching a new TV show. The numbers shift even more dramatically for 18-34 year olds:  

“The demographic that advertisers covet, viewers 18 to 34 years old, were the most influenced by social media chatter. Among those in this age group, 54% said they were enticed to tune in to a show because of Facebook comments, and about 21% said they were swayed by tweets.” (source)

The question is what kind of effect this surge in TV-related activity will have on TV-specific social networks like GetGlue, Miso and the like. Viggle’s recent acquisition of GetGlue combined with Nielsen’s recent acquisition of SocialGuide suggests confidence in these social TV applications. However, given most of the online world is already on Twitter and Facebook, and considering the study and survey results above, it makes one wonder what the future holds for these more niche networks. For now though, it appears GetGlue, for one, is keeping ahead of Twitter for scripted programmes anyway. (source)

As we enter a new year, it will be interesting to see how much more social media will influence our television watching choices, be it via Twitter, Facebook, GetGlue, SocialGuide or some yet-to-be introduced network.

Any predictions?

Erin

@eringarrity