Monetise this: the connected experience
Sky Go
There are opportunities for different players in this space to generate revenue or defend existing revenues from rivals. Sky Go is a great example of combining both.
Sky’s second screen app allows their customers to consume Sky content on a range of connected devices away from the main screen in the home, or on the move outside of the home.
This ‘TV Anywhere’ model allows Sky to generate additional incremental revenue through advertising on the second screen service and to increase its ARPU (additional revenue per user) through its Multiroom subscription option.
It also enhances customer retention by providing a valued additional service that leads to increased TV content consumption through Sky services. Non-Sky customers can also subscribe to Sky Go, or pay-to-view, without signing up for a dish installation.
This opens up opportunities in the 16million non-Sky homes.
Sky is committed to using its customer data to support a new addressable advertising product in 2013 which will use household level data to deliver relevant ads.
The personal nature of the second screen experience, be it on smartphone or tablet, where the consumer is signed-in to the service, allows for advertising to be targeted to the individual, rather than at the household level.
This should result in more effective advertising as consumers receive adverts they feel are relevant to them, which should lead to better advertising rates for the broadcaster.
Providing seamless ‘TV Anywhere’ services and addressable or targeted advertising is one approach for broadcasters to increment their advertising or subscription revenues, and defend against churn.
Another is to give consumers second screen experiences which enhance specific programmes or events and raise revenue incrementally through in-app advertising.
CBS’s Super Bowl 2013 companion
CBS’s Super Bowl 2013 companion (second screen) app provided consumers with features they desired. Five different camera angles viewers could choose from provided unique content for viewers watching the game on TV.
One was voted for by fans and changed throughout the game, another – the “all 22” camera angle – allowed football fans to see the entire field of play for the first time, footage that previously had only been available to NFL teams after games.
A pause and replay feature allowed viewers to replay moments they wanted to see again, rather than only those chosen by the broadcaster. Providing detailed stats in the app gave fans access to a wealth of realtime stats that the main TV experience could not deliver.
Showing all televised adverts and Beyonce’s half-time performance on the second screen provided content which viewers outside of the sports audience could also consume without being in the home sports TV ‘arena’.
These enhanced services attracted viewers to engage with the second screen application and allowed CBS to charge rates for second screen advertising estimated to be between the high six and low seven figures. It was expected to generate between $10 and $12m.
New Look
In 2011, an ad funded programme (AFP), New Look’s Style The Nation ,successfully enhanced key brand metrics and generated purchases via an integrated second screen experience.
The live reality fashion show was commissioned for C4’s T4 weekend youth strand and was developed and delivered by TwoFour Productions, Monterosa Productions* and Mother.
Though New Look product placement within the show had to be diluted with products from rivals, the second screen featured exclusively New Look items and rewarded increasing levels of engagement with increasing value discount vouchers.
Viewers were encouraged to put together themed outfits and submit them to the show for a live catwalk, as well as participating in a competition and voting for contestants on a weekly basis.
Using an interactive mannequin, viewers ‘tried on’ over 700,000 New Look items. They could also ‘Get The Look’ at specific moments in the show as the second screen app integrated with New Look’s ecommerce site, and deep links in the app allowed the purchase of any item.
Online purchasing was complemented by discount vouchers to drive in-store purchasing. The primary goal for this AFP was in fact not sales, but brand fame. After a six-week run key brand metrics were shown to have improved by up to 20% in independent research by SPA Future Thinking.
However, significant sales were generated.
Coca-Cola Chase
Returning to this year’s Super Bowl, 30-second TV spots were estimated to cost $3.75m. Coca-Cola extracted the maximum value from its spots by extending the adverts via an engaging second screen application.
The Coca-Cola Chase advert kicked-off with a slapstick race through the desert by Showgirls, Badlanders and Cowboys to win a giant bottle of Coke. Viewers were pointed to the CokeChase.com website, which was optimised for smartphones, and encouraged to back one team, and sabotage the others.
The silent second-screen clips were ideal for the football game focused viewer environment. The pay-off for participants was a final TV spot at the end of the game that showed the ending that won the most votes.
TV Anywhere services, enhanced second screen programme features and second screen extensions of TV ad spots are a few of the ways in which the connected experience is being successfully monetised.
* During my time as Head of Production for Monterosa at the time, I played a key role in the development and delivery of the TV format and second screen experience.
The show was developed in the light of Ofcom regulations changing to allow paid-for references to brands and services in programmes for the first time, i.e. product placement. There were some invaluable lessons learnt, so if you’d like to know more drop me a line at tony.duarte@fluxx.uk.com
Fluxx’s white paper explores other monetisation options already in practice, and points to future models for monetising the increasingly popular second screen.
