MODERN FAMILY: MOFY NATION (USA NETWORK, USA)
In anticipation of their Modern Family premiere on September 24, 2013, USA Network, which has acquired the syndication rights to ABC’s comedy back in 2010, launched “MOFY Nation“, a central digital hub for Modern Family, for fans who want to engage with the show. The network airs the first four seasons of Modern Family five nights a week.
‘MOFY’ stands for “Make Our Family Yours” and is the network’s acronym for fans of the series. They are encouraged to become testimonials for the show by uploading photos of themselves or family members who have been inspired by the show and its characters. The photos are featured on a fan collage, the website’s front page and some of them may even be featured on-air.
Other features on the website include a meme generator as well as the option to officially join the ‘MOFY Nation’ and to “declare allegiance”.
The website also hosts a RebelMouse social wall where fans can follow the discussion about the show on various social networks.
When the episodes air on TV, USA Network provides fans with synced live additional content and commercial integration. Fans can watch related videos such as interviews with the show’s writers or play-along with the ‘Modern Family Live’ app participating in polls or answering trivia questions. Players that logged in with their Facebook accounts automatically get the chance to win a ‘Modern Family Prize Pack’ if they make it to the leaderboard of the night’s top scorers. Additionally, the Facebook profile pictures and names of the top 5 players are displayed on-air at the end of the broadcast. The bonus content can be accessed within the USA Anywhere App, via ‘Modern Family Sync’ at www.modernfamilysync.com, or inside various Social TV apps such as Shazam, zeebox, NextGuide and Viggle.
In addition, USA Network has themed nights. On Fridays, the network encourages fans to watch the episodes with their whole family, labeling the night as “TGIMF” (Thank Goodness It’s Modern Family). On Sunday nights, USA Network rolls out “Modern Family Live“, an app that lets fans play along with the series. The results of the polls and fan-o-meters, as well as the names of the top ranked players, are displayed on-air in real-time during and after the broadcast.
On October 28, the network will host a ‘Fan Appreciation Day’ in Los Angeles, where the cast members of the series will do a table read of the fans’ favorite episode, which they can vote for online beforehand. The table read will be followed by a Q&A with cast and producers and exclusive fan giveaways. The red carpet and selected interviews from the event will be streaming live on mofynation.com.
In November, the network will travel around the USA and set up photo booths in major cities like Chicago, Atlanta, Boston and Philadelphia. In these booths, fans can take show-related photos or create animated GIFs and share them with their friends on social media.
Access MOFY Nation: http://mofynation.usanetwork.com
CRAZY BEACHES: TWITTER VOTING (ITV2, UK)
On September 17, 2013, ITV2 launched “Crazy Beaches”, a new interactive reality show that lets viewers play along. The show follows a different group of young Brits on holiday each week, partying somewhere in Europe, and invites viewers to predict what will happen next.
At various points during the show, the characters (the British holiday makers as well as locals such as e.g. hotel owners) find themselves in certain situations. The show is paused at these points and viewers are then given three options of possible outcomes (e.g. What will the cleaning ladies find under the mattress?).
Viewers can predict what will happen next via Twitter by retweeting the tweet of the official “Crazy Beaches” Twitter account featuring the respective hashtag. After each situation has been resolved, the funniest comments on Twitter from the viewers are read out live on the show.
Crazy Beaches on Twitter: https://twitter.com/crazybeachesITV
PROMI BIG BROTHER: CONNECT APP WITH WEB SHOW (SAT.1, GERMANY)
The celebrity version of “Big Brother” premiered on Sat.1 on September 13, 2013. The broadcaster integrated its Social TV platform Sat.1 Connect, providing a live stream, fan chats, voting options influencing the events in the house and a web show.
For the first time ever, viewers could influence the events in the “Big Brother” house through the second-screen app, e.g. by voting on which candidate had to participate in live matches.
Sat.1 also launched a specially produced web show for “Big Brother” which is featured on the social platform before and after the broadcast of the original show as well as during commercial breaks. Two hosts provided exclusive insights into the house, latest insider news and interviews with departing candidates. The daily web show (called Intro) began 15 minute before the original show in the Sat.1 Connect app. The official hashtag #PromoBB was in the worldwide trending topics on Twitter during its premiere show.
Promi Big Brother web show: http://www.sat1.de/tv/promi-big-brother/video/webshow
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