MTV has clearly elevated the concept of socializing while watching television to an artfully modern parlor game. It’s called Backchannel.
Here’s the nutshell. Micro-blog funny or snarky comments in real time
with others online while watching The Hills on MTV (you probably already do that).
To play, log into a specialized MTV Backchannel game “chat room” while
you are tuned into the tv show. Viewers make comments (called tags)
about what is happening in the show to the 100 other people or so in
that room. Other people click on the comments floating around that they
like - a la an arcade game. Players get points as both a clicker and
tagger with the goal of becoming a Backchannel superstar. It is all
timed and limited pretty ingeniously so the tagging and clicking isn’t
overwhelming. It’s way more compelling than it might sound, trust me.
The commenting goes on right through the commercials – yes, I hear the ad-people gears turning on the potential advertising metrics on that one…. Advertisers, are you ready to hear what people think of you?
Social media concepts personified. MTV connects the audience to each other (one of our well-worn mantras here), and makes their TV shows interactive, more fun and socially powered. But just think about the insight MTV is gathering from the audience on the content of the show – not to mention a new value they can offer their advertisers.
MTV has mashed up TV with Twitter with gaming with social networking – they’ve done equally interesting things with virtual worlds, but that's another story.
I tell you. MTV are ones to follow (even if their programming may not always be).
Original Post: The Modohood: http://modohood.marcominteractive.com/2008/10/backchanneling.html
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