This is all too Proximity Marketing!
#TV first. Everyone is working on it. Apple, Samsung, Microsoft, Google are some examples. The war driven by digital will soon take over our home TVs. As is happening on the tablet and smartphone front, technology on the one hand (the device) and content publishers on the other will win, opening up a very large potential market for all those who intend to create apps to increase interactivity between entertainment and spectators. Whoever has the technology in their hands will have control of the contents!
After a few days spent under the covers due to the flu and enjoying the finales of my favorite series Fringe, Walking Dead and then watching Star Wars and Lord of the Rings for the umpteenth time, I started telling myself that commenting and participate in discussions or vote as in Xfactor is a level of interaction that is starting to tire me (what if in the next edition you tried to create an internal chat? doing entertainment gaming, perhaps adding a real-time rating system or a threaded messenger system...?). Today. I have to watch two screens. Switch between apps. Sometimes pause the film, the broadcast (when you can because otherwise you lose the real time effect) and then resume watching. All too tiring and above all not very constructive for the contents to be vaguely "intelligent" and coherent with the show and free from various and senseless scurrilities. Tomorrow it will no longer be enough for users to interact in these forms. It's too unstimulating and not even the sense of protagonism in seeing your tweet published for an instant will be enough. Tomorrow. We would like to access additional information that completes my experience as a video viewer. We would like to see simultaneously and on the same screen other contents that increase reality and allow me to increase understanding. We will want to buy what we see! We would like to interact with the plot of the show in an active way! We would like to choose to click the actor, study his filmography, comment on it and then continue watching! We would like to change the ending of the story. Read the pages of the book on which the film is based...
The Xbox One, for example, has introduced a voice service that allows you to place specially designed apps on the screen with which you can interact directly on the TV. This example could be the path that Apple and Samsung will also follow in their future.
Why are we not yet experiencing real active interactivity with TV and its contents?
The reason is that all the key factors are still being put in order and then we will be ready for a new experiential level which is certainly expected to be as exciting as the one experienced thanks to the iPhone with the transition from the mobile phone to the smartphone. We then just have to wait for a new Customer Experience model to be developed that brings interaction with the show directly onto the screen because the second screen in the living room is tiring and above all isolates the family unit and does not make them participate. Furthermore, if you see content on demand or do "binge watching" (i.e. you see a series of recorded episodes of your series) social TV makes no sense. New economic models will arrive.
Then the events. As in the case of retail, even for TV we can talk about convergence between online and offline. What if I could use an App that allows me to access interactive services in real time while I'm at the stadium, at the F1 Grand Prix or at a concert? it could distract me from the show but it could also fill moments of tiredness or boredom by giving me new experiences.
Let me explain with some examples:
– at the AC Milan-Inter derby: have live commentary of the match via earphones; review the reply of an action on my smartphone; have match statistics in real time; study training from the screen; bet on exchange rates and the result with friends; …
– at the F1 Grand Prix: follow the main scenes of the race live even when they don't take place in front of my seat; have technical data on the race; connect to my favorite pilot's room; …
– at the concert: access the lyrics of the song; connect to a camera closest to the group.
The convergence of TV and real entertainment places the viewer at the center of a multi-dimensional experiential process. Newcos are already being created that develop interactive information services that broaden the user experience (e.g. tok.tv).
As with TV, events and shows are still lacking winning models with such advanced experiential applications. Users and potential customers are still missing. But we'll get there very soon. Soon!
