All of this is Proximity Marketing too!
TV first. Everyone's working on it. Apple, Samsung, Microsoft, and Google are just a few examples. The digital war will soon take over our home TVs. As is happening with tablets and smartphones, technology on one side (the device) and content publishers on the other will win, opening up a vast potential market for anyone willing to create apps to increase interactivity between the show and the viewer. Whoever controls the technology will control the content!
After a few days spent under the covers with the flu, enjoying the finales of my favorite series Fringe and Walking Dead, and then rewatching Star Wars and Lord of the Rings for the umpteenth time, I started telling myself that commenting and participating in discussions or voting like on X Factor is a level of interaction that's starting to tire me out (what if you tried creating an internal chat next season? Making 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 movie or the show (whenever you can, otherwise you lose the real-time effect) and then resume watching. It's all too tiring and, above all, unconstructive for the content to be even vaguely "intelligent" and consistent with the show, free of various and meaningless profanities. Tomorrow, users won't be satisfied with interacting in these ways. It's too unstimulating, and not even the sense of protagonism in briefly seeing your tweet published will be enough. Tomorrow. We'd like to access additional information that complements my video viewing experience. We'd like to simultaneously view other content on the same screen that enhances reality and allows me to deepen my understanding. We'd like to purchase what we see! We'd like to actively interact with the show's plot! We'd like to choose to click on the actor, study their filmography, comment on it, and then continue watching! We'd like to change the ending of the story. Read the pages of the book the film is based on...
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 there are events. As with retail, TV is also a 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, the F1 Grand Prix, or even a concert? It could distract me from the show, but it could also bridge moments of tiredness or boredom by offering 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 television and real-world entertainment places the viewer at the center of a multidimensional experiential process. New companies are already emerging, developing interactive information services that expand the user experience (e.g., tok.tv ).
As with TV, events and shows still lack successful models with such advanced experiential applications. Users and potential customers are still lacking. But we'll get there very soon. Soon!