Three easy steps:
- Watch on TV
- Download the App
- Play Along at Home
Canada’s Smartest Person represents a new wave in reality television: integrating Digital Media for a truly interactive experience. Described by Konrad Group, the developers of the Canada’s Smartest Person app, the show is “a groundbreaking format and interactive television experience redefining what it means to be smart.”
The app allows for real-time viewer engagement wherein users can compete alongside the show’s contestants while the show airs. Konrad posted some interesting stats following the season finale: the app reached 30,000 downloads during the show’s first season, of which 50% followed through with every challenge. The hashtag #smartestperson hit 1,800 tweets estimated at over 1 million impressions. Konrad also noted that CSP app downloaders were three times as likely to watch the show for its entire duration. This is an interesting boost for televised media, representing the possibility of leveraging media impressions across a multitude of platforms – in real time. Statistics are indicating a schism in attention in the home – consumers are multitasking media, with 80% engaged in online and mobile activity while watching TV according to a recent Razorfish Outlook Report. A healthy 38% of respondents reported that using the internet on mobile or tablet devices while watching TV enhances the viewing experience – a digital media phenomena the CSP venture successfully capitalized on.
Second-screen engagement, or social TV, is peaking the interest of TV networks, ad agencies and brands hoping to gain an advantage. Social media behaviour is seeing exponential growth – the 2012 Super Bowl hit 12.2 million social media comments, a 578% increase from 2011. Interested parties are itching to develop ways to capture and monetize social TV.
Interactive app development is incentivized through digital media tax credits like the OIDMTC. Companies like Konrad Group, creating interactive social TV experiences, are eligible for up to 40% tax credit refunds for associated labour – on top of bridging the booming demand for social TV interaction. Furthermore, projects that aim to integrate the television and digital media experience are being backed through initiatives like the Canada Media Fund’s Convergent Stream of funding, which supports projects providing content on at least two distribution platforms, one of which must be television. The Digital Media industry is at a height for return on investment. Contact us if your company is in the digital media business and would like to learn more about potential funding and tax credit potential.
