When people are in front of the TV, they don’t just watch TV.
The pioneering Middletown Media Study conducted in the pre-iPhone and pre-iPad era of 2005 showed that, at the time, 28.5% of 240.9 daily TV viewing minutes were accompanied by exposure to at least one other medium. (Talking on the phone and texting were the most frequent sources of interruption). In addition, about half of all TV minutes were accompanied by non-media life activities, such as caring for others, eating and cleaning.
The competition for TV viewer’s attention has hardly subsided. Since the study, smartphone penetration in the US soared from 3.8% in 2006 to 44% by the end of 2011. Today, for many tablet and smartphone owners (45% and 41%, respectively) using their mobile device while watching TV is a daily activity.
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Since 1950, Nielsen has been the industry standard for television audience measurement. And, as such, the company’s practices go through a rigorous auditing process to ensure accountability. The dollars and cents that are traded within the TV industry are based on Nielsen ratings. And networks turn to Nielsen as the de facto “report card” that ultimately determines the fate of their programming.
In today’s social TV world, a second data source (viewers’ own “social impressions” that they create while they watch TV) is being measured and reported by companies including Bluefin Labs, Trendrr, SocialGuide, Networked Insights, and Crimson Hexagon. They each have a proprietary measurement methodology and, as such, their results can often differ when compared.
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Between an in-person audience of over 300 people, and 8,700 unique viewers on Ustream, yesterday’s second-annual #TVnext summit caused a stir in the social sphere- and our consumer insights team was busy tracking the conversations happening throughout the day.
Real-Time Social Listening: Top-line Results
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Yesterday, we saw a move in the pharma industry that we’ve seen before: taking matters into our own hands.
With social and digital media technologies (along with usage and adoption rates) changing daily – the pharma industry has been largely hesitant to actually make a solid move into the social space. This void paired with the complete absence of an FDA “what-and-what-not-to-do” mandate has pharma marketers simmering with fears that an FDA warning letter will land at their desks.
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I am a bona fide creative mind with a balanced left/right brain. I’ve gotten good at challenging (read: picking debates) with colleagues and friends. One of which, about a year back, revolved around the merits and downfalls of the once popular and pre-Yahoo! acquisition bookmarking service, del.ico.us, and the need for it to evolve to the next level or just die off slowly.
At the core of my argument lay this: there lies a human need, no matter which side of the brain you fall, to adapt a visual context to the informational landscape you would attempt to organize. It’s crucial in defining a valuable and inherently usable service. After all, we are in some way or form, visual beings. Tags and text just weren’t cutting it. I needed a quick visual symbol that summarized my bookmarking intent. We needed a service that picked up where del.ico.us fell flat: one that would allow me to actually find my bookmarks easily, share them directly with my friends, and organize my interests in a cogent manner.
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There’s a lot of debate as to whether or not people today tune-in to TV spots. For over 70 years, the medium had no instant response mechanism we’ve all come to enjoy from the digital space. In the world of social TV, the game has changed – and TV, today, indeed has a measurable feedback loop.
At approximately 4pm (Eastern Time) yesterday, during the AFC championship game, Dr. Pepper ran its “Always One of a Kind” TV spot – ending with an #ImA hashtag:
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Last week, Spotify announced that their popular music service would become an application platform. While some critics have been underwhelmed by early limitations of the initiative – the platform is not yet available on mobile devices and does not offer interoperability with other similar services – we found ourselves rather excited by the potential future of what can be called Music As a Platform.
We are confident that one day a personal digital DJ will follow us and select the perfect song for every moment, scoring a soundtrack for our lives. Here are our twelve ideas for how this future could unfold:
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