Time recently observed that a bunch of marquee television events managed to avoid the prevailing ratings slump affecting many shows. This year’s Super Bowl, it noted, was the highest-watched television program ever. The Winter Olympics had more viewers this year than in 2006. And the Emmys, Grammys, and Oscars all enjoyed ratings boosts. Part of the explanation, wrote James Poniewozik, is social media. “Along with the decline of evening-news, drama and sitcom ratings, the fall of water cooler TV has been playing out for years,” he said. “When that happens, you can try to make better TV. Or you can find a better water cooler.”
One of the companies taking the lead in building a better water cooler is Bravo, whose vice president of emerging media, Aimee Viles, will be speaking at Mediabistro’s upcoming Think Mobile conference. The network started mobile fan clubs years ago, and in 2007, it launched a Top Chef game for mobile. Earlier this year, it partnered with Foursquare to enable fans to collect badges when they visit locations recommended by cast members from their reality shows. And last year, the network started hosting live “viewing parties” which enabled fans to interact — via Twitter, Facebook, and mobile chat — with cast members during the finales of the Real Housewives of New York and Top Chef. The events were so successful that they are now taking place weekly during the current season of RHNY.
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Viles came to Bravo in 2008 from Portland, Ore.-based Ensequence, where, as director of creative services, she helped build interactive TV authoring solutions for the likes of NBC, MTV, and ESPN. Before that she was at UK-based Vodafone, where she worked on the mobile provider’s Internet applications and strategies.
mediabistro.com caught up with Viles to ask her how Bravo is using social media to stoke viewers’ passions for the network’s shows and, ultimately, contribute to the bottom line.
What are the viewing parties like?
We’ve just recently rebranded them as the “Talk Bubble.” They’re really a social media hub for fans. Viewers can go to one destination, either on BravoTV.com or on the mobile Web site. They can Tweet in comments as they’re following the show (using the hashtag #realhousewives). Same thing with Facebook — they can log in and see who of their friends are there during the event. They can post comments to the RHNY Facebook page, which then automatically get posted to their Walls. We’re going to have different Housewives join us on a weekly basis, and we’ll Tweet their exclusive thoughts about what’s happening in the episode. We’ve had fun comments in the past like, “I totally forgot that that happened. Here’s what I was thinking at the time.”
We’re going to have polls, so fans can vote for things like which Housewife is their favorite, which Housewife they think will be in the most drama scenes that week, or which Housewife is the most fashion-forward at the moment. There will be a little slider on the bottom so you can see how the feelings about the Housewives change during the course of the episode. And there are going to be viral videos you can share, so that after a moment happens on air, you can see it online and immediately send it to your friends.
| “If somebody Tweets out, what’s the end social reach of that Tweet? One person might be able to affect the awareness of 20,000 other people.” |
How many people participate in the viewing parties?
For the Real Housewives and Top Chef finales, we had tens of thousands of people. But one of the things we’re trying to understand is the “social reach.” We’re working with Twitter to really understand, for example: If a fan Tweets a comment, and they have 500 followers, so 500 of their followers saw it, and maybe 25 percent of those retweeted out, so then it reached another X percentage.
Are you working directly with the Twitter team on that?
Yes, we’re working directly with them. They’ve been really fantastic in terms of giving us feedback about what works best with their audience. We started the experience internally. But more recently, we’ve had a deeper relationship with Twitter and have been getting deeper feedback.
All of this costs money. How are you evaluating the impact and the success of the social media projects?
There are a couple of top-line engagement factors: How it enhances fan loyalty and how it drives ratings. Secondarily, we’re looking at buzz and the social reach. Things we’ve measured in the past include the number of people coming to the Facebook group who then send an invite to friends during the event. We look at how many friends that brought in. Same thing on the Twitter side. If somebody Tweets out, what’s the end social reach of that Tweet? One person might be able to affect the awareness of 20,000 other people.
As for buzz, during the Top Chef finale, we had three of the top Trending Topics on Twitter. That tells us a lot of people are out there talking about it. We’re going to be measuring that on an ongoing basis: How many Trending Topics do we have? And what exactly are the topics? For example, is the buzz about the Real Housewives show in general, or is it around a particular Housewife?
All of that is in addition to the general performance metrics, like page views, growth in Twitter followers, and growth in Facebook fans.
Do you have the algorithms down for figuring this all out? Or is it still a work in progress?
We’re working with a partner on the algorithms for things like social reach.
| “My team has to be a profit center. It can’t just be about doing cool things.” |
What has been the impact of the mobile fan clubs?
We found that that was one of the strongest platforms to get engaged fans. They could sign on, and then once they signed up, they remained a loyal follower.
People in this business are increasingly talking about the need to focus on the “engaged user,” the person who can potentially influence many others through social media. What’s Bravo’s philosophy on that?
We’ve always thought about our fans as passionate and loyal about their shows. We’re thinking about what we can do that enhances that passion. It’s been a philosophy that Bravo has had for a long time. It’s just part of how we relate to our fan and how we give them a deeper relationship with us as a brand. It’s understanding what they love about the show, and then understanding what you should then do with them. [In addition to social media interactions,] it might be merchandise, or it might be a Top Chef tour, where fans can meet Top Chef contestants.
How does all this drive revenue?
My team has to be a profit center. It can’t just be about doing cool things. One of the great things about Bravo is that many of our sponsors and advertisers come to us because we do these new things. We are seen as innovators and leaders. Brands that want to be seen as doing something that’s new and unique and interesting come to us because they know that we create those types of experiences.
What’s the key to doing mobile right?
At a certain point in their day, people are looking for bite-sized content. So you don’t want to just repurpose things you have elsewhere. You should be smart about your consumer and what they’re looking for from mobile. The big question right now is whether you should build a specific app or simply use mobile Web. To me, the answer is you use them differently to achieve different goals.
| “Mobile games are showing that, if you give consumers the right experience, they will participate — either with micro payments or by looking at little bits of content.” |
Such as?
We’re still working on that. One of the things we look at is: Is what we want to do entertainment? Or is it utility? Will an app allow me to do something that I can’t do with the mobile Web? If you’re looking at the iPhone or some of the new Google phones, you ask: Does the touch display allow me to do something that really adds to the experience? If so, I probably need to build it as an app. If it’s something I want to make more broad-based accessible, I’m probably going to need to build it as a mobile Web site. In some cases, we’ll build both and see what our audience responds to.
What else is on the horizon for Bravo?
You’ll see more things like the partnership we recently announced with Foursquare. We’ll be partnering with some innovators in this space. There will be a few other things like that that will be coming out in the next few months.
Where do you get your inspiration?
I find gaming really fascinating. Gaming on mobile phones used to be a really painful, slow experience, but there are some really fantastic things that are going on out there, that I look at as an entertainment brand and go, Hmm… there’re some interesting things I could do, whether it’s the social gaming or the virtual goods side of things. Mobile games are showing that, if you give consumers the right experience, they will participate — either with micro payments or by looking at little bits of content.
Tips for using mobile platforms to extend your entertainment brand
1. Know your audience and know your brand. “If you start there and stay true to what those values are, it’s easier to understand the direction you should go.”
2. Less is more. “Pick one or two areas you want to try out, and then innovate and play in that space. Don’t try to do everything. Pick one or two things, do them really well, and learn from them.”
3. Look at it from the business perspective. “It’s great to put out cool things but you have to ask yourself: How does it bring value to an advertiser? How does it bring value to a sponsor? How does it bring value back to your consumer?”
E.B. Boyd is a WebNewser contributor and San Francisco-based freelance writer.
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