“Tablets are for catch-up and on demand content, and people can take it around the home with them,” said David Gibbs, General Manager, Mobile at BSkyB. “There is no shift away from a TV screen; instead, people are consuming more content.” These remarks came at yesterday’s mobile summit, chaired by David Sidebottom of Futuresource, which preceded the main DCM Europe conference. Gibbs, along with Ian Mullins, CEO of Yamgo TV, provided some lively discussions on the panel topic ‘How can you satisfy your users' requirement for more content on their mobile phone?’
The two different perspectives were premium content that needs to be secure (Sky), and that which the content owners want as many people as possible to access (Yamgo), but there was some agreement on the hot topic of Social TV aired by Sidebottom. “We are about to invest a lot into connected devices,” said Mullins, “Having more social interaction and more engaging content is the way to go.”
Gibbs agreed cautiously: “Statistics show that a lot of people have connected TVs - but do they really use them? Yes, for reality TV, there is a lot of activity, but it is important to pick shows that will work. Social TV is an important part but it is just one tool to engage the customer. It’s only worth doing if it makes watching TV better.”
True, Mullins agreed: “Social TV is growing but it is not as easy as everyone thinks. There is an art to making it work properly.”
One company that claims to make social work properly is music social network Flowd, marketing director Wilhelm Taht explained. “Not all fans are created equal,” he stressed. “Super fans matter.” By giving those super fans something special it encourages loyalty - and helps with revenue. By turning up early to concerts or signing into Flowd, fans can meet the bands, receive free posters, or otherwise be rewarded. In one instance 31% spent additional money on merchandise, Taht pointed out.
You have to know who fans are to reward them, was the message: “Funny that the music industry hadn't woken up to location-based marketing before.” Or, Taht said, quoting Mark Zuckerberg: “If I had to guess social commerce is the next area to really blow up up.”
