Talk about engaged fans, the Super Bowl serves them up like melted Velveeta on a corn chip (it was good). Typically one of the year's most watched programs and set of commercials, you'd think that the Super Bowl is perfect for engaging fans in interactive television.
Industry players certainly moved the ball forward, first and foremost the folks from Shazam, who enabled one in three ads. Meanwhile, Chevy promoted its Game Time app with thousands of prizes, including 20 trucks, NBC trumped it's Sports Talk app and you could fantasize about being at Detroit's Lucas Oil Stadium via the Super Bowl XLVI Guide.
Four Reasons Why iTV Didn't Score a TD
1. Thirty seconds to Shazam and no time outs: I love that so many ads were Shazam enabled (17, 7 of which had promotions). But the playbook still asks a lot of amateur viewers. I ended up Shazaming most commercials and leaving web pages open in my browser to review post show.
- Download and have Shazam app open on iPad or smartphone.
- Keep eyes glued to screen for small calls-to-action.
- Hit Listening button...listen.
- Scan Shazam delivered page & choose next action.
- Read web page / enter contest / get song download.
- Grab another beer and return to play in progress.
2. "How about socializing with your friends, Will?": I'm nerdy enough without having my jock friends rag on me for ignoring them during the big game. Live sports viewing lends itself to group viewing. The Super Bowl and it's accompanying high profile ads push this social point to an extreme. What to do? I'd devote more Shazam screen space to enabling social sharing. Some Shazam enabled ads did just that once you got past Shazam's home page (see Pepsi's Sound Off).
3. Live sports is already fully engaging: From multiple camera angles, to non-stop commentary to slow motion replays to the best team winning (says this New Yorker...), I was as engaged as I've ever been watching the big screen. Knock the game down a few pegs and I'd still argue that a mid-season NFL game (or NHL or NBA - don't ask me about MLB) is high on the viewer engagement scale. The higher the program engagement, the higher the hurdle to get viewers to engage interactively. As important, the higher the annoyance factor at being interrupted. We've seen this conundrum with engaging dramas (Grey's Anatomy). So design your sports engagement experience to be incredibly simple and to take advantage of breaks in the action.
4. Working up a sweat to get a reward: I'm obviously exaggerating a bit here and want to take care as I am a big fan of rewarding viewers for engaging. Plenty of advertisers did just that but again I faced multi-step dual and sometimes triple screen work-outs to obtain my modest rewards. Take Madonna for example. I definitely wanted the free remix of her new single but it took more than 99 cents of my time to make it happen. That said, I thought Teleflora's 30% off coupon (enter Shazam at check-out) was well timed as was Chevy's 20% off NFL Shop coupon (a reward for answering some trivia correctly).
You'd think the Giants lost from all my criticisms above! So consider them a 2 minute warning that gives you time to ponder live sport's unique challenges to engaging viewers in additional interactivity. To overcome these challenges think simple. Think social. Think pre, post and halftime shows.
(For more, check out two great blogs from my [itvt] colleagues: Zachary Weiner and Rick Howe, The iTV Doctor.)
Did you Shazam during this year's Super Bowl. If so, who do you think won?
Will Keller is president of WE Keller Group, a consulting firm that advises corporate executives on interactive television marketing strategy and execution. For more iTV insights, follow Will on Twitter and subscribe to Inside the Screen, his monthly summary of the latest iTV trends and strategies.
