When I say that I like to watch TV I’m not talking about drivel like the X Factor or Survivor! I’m talking about pure escapist programs following an ensemble cast and exploring the depths of each character within various situations and trials.
My favourite all time example of this has to be the remake of Battlestar Galactica, which sported the best ensemble and quality acting that has graced our screens for many years. If you thought that program was just about spaceships and robots you would be very mistaken!
So what has got me on the subject of Television you may ask?…. Well it’s more a lead-in to the use of digital streams as an interactive marketing medium for television shows!
As new media evolves we will continue to see the use of digital delivery to bolster television audiences and promote consumer interaction. Battlestar did it with “webisodes” (mini episodes streamed on the main website) to bridge the events between series, and television programs like True Blood and Haven are reaching out from behind the screen with Twitter accounts for the main characters for us to follow and maybe gleam a bit more insight into the episodes we watch!
Haven in particular caught my eye as I saw the first season and they have just finished airing the second season.
SyFi’s use of twitter to promote the show includes two characters, newspapermen Vince (@VinceHaven) and Dave (@DaveHaven). They join Twitter and begin interacting with an unknown Twitter user, @ColdInHaven, who has an extremely wide knowledge of the town. Viewers can follow the action on the Twitter stream, and will be able to catch mentions of the tweet-based storyline on the show itself.
This was a great idea and a refreshing change compared to other shows use of Twitter for promotion. In True Blood’s case they just created streams for each character and tweeted random stuff which was not great. But seeing the character Dave from Haven putting up a poster with his Twitter details in an episode for extra insight was great!
Nice work SyFi!!!!
