Mobile – 2012: Social TV is a ‘massive opportunity’

Social TV is a “massive opportunity for the mobile market,” according to Steve Parker, managing director, MediaVest UK.

Speaking at MediaTel Group’s Mobile – 2012, The Year of Reckoning? event last week, Parker said mobile devices offer a very personal experience for consumers to engage and interact with other media, particularly TV. In the short term, he believes the focus is on improving the consumer experience, though he does wonder how the industry will be able to monetise this in the future.

Panellists were positive about services such as Zeebox. Tim Hussain, head of platform development and partnerships at BSkyB said “Zeebox is going to improve what people are already doing”; while Mark Halliday, head of mobile at Manning Gottlieb OMD, said the app (and website) enhances the TV experience.

“Certain programmes are definitely more amusing to watch with Twitter and Zeebox, such as The Apprentice,” he said. “It is a really interesting area, both for consumers and advertisers.”

Halliday talked about the opportunities for advertisers and brands to reach consumers on a second screen, by offering additional content and getting involved in conversations, as well as the potential for consumers to hold up their phone to the TV screen and link to more content from an ad – or be able to buy a product directly.

Hussain, meanwhile, believes that digital and mobile have helped grow TV audiences – (though not necessarily in the way the industry expected because viewers are “not all going online”) – by giving viewers more choice to access and engage with content. “People are just using different screens to watch even more programming,” he said.

“From a media owner point of view, it’s important to allow viewers to interact with your brand how ever they want to – whether that is through TV, mobile or online. You have to think about the consumer and give them what they want because the more engaged they are, the better.”

Helen Keegan, mobile specialist at Beep Marketing, agreed: “Technology should be invisible… consumers just want to consume.”