Second screens bring rich TV interactivity finally into the mainstream. However, there are many pitfalls when implementing great second screen experiences. Foremost the mental and technological gap between program makers and (web) developers needs to be bridged. Who should you design for? How can we hook into the traditional TV production chain? What works and truly augments the story told on the first screen. What’s a fad? Supported by data that was gathered from over 200 TV shows. Presented at MOBX Berlin 16th of Movember 2012

1. hendrik@smalltownheroes.be
www.smalltownheroes.be
Hi I am Hendrik, I run a startup called Small Town Heroes

2. We’re making second screen apps for TV programs and visualize all the realtime data in the live TV show.

3. Second Screens - Blending
TV and the web
Hendrik Dacquin
But I am here to talk about second screens. And how TV and the web might be blended to create a new visual language.

4. MY DAD
This is a picture of my dad, my dad used to be an old school journalist.

5. Heavily smoking over his typewriter. True Mad Men style. He was constantly busy calling people, asking rough ques=ons. I am just assuming this.

6. The man was rough on me,

7. I assume he was also rough on poli=cians and demeaning people.

8. He gathered data and hard evidence in order to tell breaking stories. Every week his work was published, not in the Huffington Post but in a well regarded local newspaper. Why I am telling all
this? Besides my father's preference for Belgian beers and MILFS, I share with him the genes

9. HIS GENES
that code for collecting data and telling great stories.

10. REALLY, HIS GENES
I diverted from this genetically predetermined path when I enlisted at the University to study a Medicine and Biology.

11. Together with my Biology degree and a print-out of my first website I was able to secure a job at Alcatel, a high-tech multinational that marketed
itself as "the internet company."

12. RESEARCH
It was fun time. It was the perfect playground, I worked really hard on new TV experiences and social TV prototypes.

13. One of the things we learned is that user interface is key.
I also made horrible TV interfaces. Our wings of imagination were clipped by sluggish, energy absorbing, closed platforms, running on a
80386 processor.

14. Aka the set-top-box.

15. True, not as ugly as today’s smart tv’s but still...ugly

16. BROADCASTER
Swapped jobs and went working for a TV broadcaster. First couple of years

17. SAD PANDA
I wasn't happy.

18. We were Internet geeks hired to reinvent television. Yet, the company housed us not only in a different building but also in a different city.
The first two years I worked a new media guy, I never talked to a program maker.

19. BREAKTHROUGH
In 2010 I got my first meeting with a content guy. Just because we had a similar taste of music and were friends on Last.FM.

20. "The future of TV won’t be here
until people who make TV are in
these conversations!"
Jacob Shwirtz
Broadcasters don't talk to technology people and technology people are not really listening to broadcasters. Sure, they're is a lot of
technological innovations by second screen app makers. And there are beautiful designs too. But are they

21. ARE THEY MISSING
THE POINT?
not missing the point? Sure...

22. I can discover recommended content

23. I can "checkin" to media

24. I can tweet seamlessly about the show

25. can have live curated activity streams

26. can consult rich, related metadata

27. synced with the stream

28. over-the-top

29. integrated with my Xbox

30. receive auto-generated zee tags

31. voice controlling my TV. SURE. But.. what do the Broadcasters get?

32. They get demographic and sentiment information from Social interactions.

33. A whole technology hype cycle to generate better CRM, instead of better stories.

34. EYEBALLS
Sure, Eyeballs are the glue of the TV business but story always go first. You guys are Information architects, so you must know that.

35. I keep asking to myself. Did these ever have sit-down with the television makers?

36. Demo
FIRST STEPS AND FALSE ALARMS
One of the first second screen projects I worked on was a companion app for TV programs, Zeebox style.

37. People could check-in, have aggregated activity streams,

38. FEATURITIS
consult rich, related metadata. Usual second screen featuritis. It wasn't a success

39. SCHIZOPHRENIC
It addressed two types of users but neither really well.

40. FAMILY TV VIEWER
#1 The family TV viewers, who really wanted to participate with the show. They were asking questions to the guests, wanted to have an impact on the narrative.

41. TV CRITIC
#2 The over served Social commentators who like to comment and discuss

42. IT’S NOT ABOUT THIS
It's not about building a better water-cooler, it's about building new stories based on a fundamentally different relationship between viewers and
creators.

43. "TV isn’t about work, it isn’t
about search, it isn’t about
finding things and effort - it’s
about escape."
Jeremy Toeman
The user really is the TV viewer. Who knows this user best is not Nielsen. It's the program makers. So in order to succeed at making great
experiences for TV we'll need to take them into the equation.

44. Thou shall not create second
screen experiences as an afterthought.

46. LOOK, SOME TIPS

47. #1 SIMPLICITY
They need to be simple

49. TOO DIFFICULT
49

50. #2 ADD VALUE
Must be valuable for all viewers.

51. CLOSE THE FEEBACK LOOP
Close the feedback loop

52. TOO LOW

53. #3 SOCIAL IS A FEATURE
Social is a feature, not the goal.

54. #4 EXPLORE EARLY
Second screen elements should be explored at the planning stage,
Digital teams and creative teams should be put together.

56. #5 NO FAIL WHALES
It must be scalable, never fail, just like what we'd expect from TV

57. call to action call to action
trailer 1
#6 TWIN PEAKS

58. #7 MAKE MORE MONEY
The business might not be that scalable. we must say NO to the generic poll. Like good TV, it should be tailor made. Who said second
screen had to be cheap.

59. #8 BE CREATIVE

60. #9 must be creative

61. It must blend with the story told on the first screen

62. But foremost they must be crafted together with the storytellers, the dreamers. When technology really
helped storytellers forward, it was of symbiotic nature.

63. MY DAD
Because truly, we need to craM new narra=ves.
We have to put back storytellers, like my father, in front of the viewer

64. THANK YOU

65. hendrik@smalltownheroes.be
www.smalltownheroes.be
@studiomuscle