MIPCOM Social TV Boot Camp: Lessons learned

Photo: Darewin’s Wale Gbadamosi Oyekanmi (right) gives his workshop group handy social TV advice

Spirit Digital Media’s Peter Cowley moderated an hour-long, hands-on social TV boot camp following Virginia Mouseler’s Fresh Social TV presentation at MIPCOM, October 11. The aim was to enable delegates to ask experts practical questions about making their TV activities more social.

Attendees were divided into three large groups, each led by a social TV expert: Laurent Maisonnave, CEO of Canada-based social TV firm Seevibes; Fabien Bareti, of Orange’s TV Check service; and Wale Gbadamosi Oyekanmi, of French social TV agency Darewin.

At the end of the boot camp, the leaders stood to describe the group’s primary concerns and learnings.

Oyekanmi’s group:

The takeaway philosophy was think about giving before you can receive. “If you want people to pay attention to you, you have to give something relevant to them,” Oyekanmi said.

One group member, formerly in broadcasting, observed, “I like the way he pointed out in very clear lines how to engage with your audience, and the way this engagement should be both ways. Usually the broadcaster things people are only couch potatoes, and we’re feeding them. I believe the broadcaster will need some time to get accustomed to engagement activity. It has to be a continuing relationship.”

Maisonnave’s group:

“Television is by definition social,” Maisonnave proclaimed to illustrate the focus of his group. Their primary questions were how can you control the audience, and how can you manage the second screen?

This struck up a conversation about (2screen app) Zeebox, which they apparently found lacking. “The main problem with apps like Zeebox is that both the company and broadcasters want to control the relationship with the customer. So broadcasters get concerned and make their own apps,” said Maisonnave.

“People say that producers are the best people to organise or offer a social experience because they know the content. So they are the best people to produce social content for the audience,” he added.

Another big question was: who pays for social media? The question was left open. “We used to talk about engagement, but what we’re talking about now is monetisation. Let’s face it: we all want to make more money,” Maisonnave said.

One monetisation option is brand integration: something producers can offer at the pre-production stage.

Bareti’s group:

Bareti’s group discussion revolved primarily around the following questions: What’s the audience objective? Is it to create audience or keep it?

One member described the use of “social cards” for accompanying people throughout the preproduction and production process. These little cards also included the scripting of Facebook posts in advance during production.

And that, as they say, was a wrap!

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