I’ve just returned from Crossing the Void in Bristol. There was an interesting session on Picture This, a cross-platform photography project.
The discussion was between Preloaded (the web producer) Renegade Productions (the TV producer) and Channel 4 (the commissioner). Here’s some notes:
- “I had hoped the web and the TV would be more integrated” said Alan Hayling from Renegade. This frustration was echoed throughout the team. He said that budget had been part of the problem but also there had been a conservatism on the part of the TV production crew. He would fight that harder next time.
- 11.4% of web sessions are 30 minutes or longer. The average session includes 14 page views. These stats are helping when Channel 4 considers whether to recommission.
- A community web site is a supportive environment. A modern TV show is conflict driven. It was hard to reconcile this tension. Flickr, who provided the web infrastructure, had to be handled with care. The TV show ran counter to their corporate belief that “no photo is better than another”.
- Flickr were keen to keep all branding and traffic off their core site. They care passionately about their community and wanted their members to have to deliberately opt-in.
- Preloaded repeatedly iterated designs with target users (in “lab conditions”). One surprising discovery is that many potential users were intimidated by Flickr and felt their work is somehow “not worthy”. Armed with this insight, Preloaded focused on making the website approachable, constructive and friendly.
- The plan for one sequence was to film the judges and the mentors reviewing web photos, and to incorporate this footage into the TV show. This didn’t work well in the edit. So it evolved into this budget being spent paying those people to comment directly on photos on the website. This proved popular.
On the train home everyone agreed that Katz, the organiser, is a great “curator of people”. In particular, it was inspiring to meet Monterosa (mass-participation TV) and Team Rubber (viral marketing).
I just spent 4 days in Las Vegas at the Consumer Electronics Show. It was a spectacular event.
With over 140,000 attendees, CES is the largest trade show in America.
In addition to the latest gadgetry, including the biggest and thinnest plasma screens and the smallest HD cameras, CES also hosted Digital Hollywood, a conference program dedicated to content, entertainment and technology.
Despite some interesting topics, the sessions consisted of the usual industry rhetoric and hyperbole. Cutting through this, one panel made some predictions for how digital media will evolve in the coming year:
Eyal Hertzog, Founder, Metacafe: “More content owners are going to realize the value of the long-tail and make their material available online. There are still millions of hours of content out there and there’s no reason not to make it available.”
(more…)
We are happy to announce the launch of Menthol TV. We are delighted to announce that Jeremy Lee, formerly Series Producer at Ricochet, will be Director of Programmes.
Jeremy has been involved in some of the biggest factual entertainment formats of recent years. Credits include Supernanny, Risking It All, It’s Me or the Dog and Can You Live Without? Menthol TV will specialise in Factual Entertainment and Entertainment formats, many with a multi-platform edge.
Jeremy says:
“Menthol has a unique understanding of how the web and TV can interact to deliver genuine cross-platform entertainment. In a year where we will see advances in TV production and the way broadcasters commission, Menthol TV will be leading the way with a new generation of break-out hits”
Over the last few years Mint has developed lots of cross-platform ideas (some of them award winners). It has proved difficult to take these further. A big problem has always been the number of stakeholders involved in making these ideas a reality. Over the last year, many key broadcasters have unified their cross-platform commissioning structure. Menthol TV means we have unified the delivery mechanism.
Check out the new Menthol TV site. It doesn’t say much but - with any luck - it conveys the vibe.
Press:
Supernanny’s Lee joins Mint Broadcast
Mint Digital breathes life into entertainment TV Guardian
Note: Menthol TV was initially Mint TV. Then we realised there was already a Mint Productions and we didn’t want any trouble.
Just before Christmas I watched all 20 episodes of the web series Rush’d on ABC Family’s Virtual Rush social website.
Mint built Virtual Rush to support ABC’s Greek. At the end of each show the stars laid down a challenge to the audience.
And boy did the audience respond… The amount of original and compelling content uploaded has been phenomenal. Over the 10 weeks of the show, a gargantuan battle to be crowned one of the six Virtual Rush finalists ensued.
But what happened since then is even more interesting. Once the six finalists were chosen, ABC Family flew them to LA from their homes in Ohio, Chicago, Florida, North Carolina, Wichita and New York. They were given the week of a lifetime. They hung out amongst the stars. They took acting lessons. They even met the cast of Greek.
Rush’d is a 20-webisode series charting the finalists’ journeys. It makes great viewing.
If you are a regular on Virtual Rush, you feel like you know them. You have a deep affinity with them as you have been with them since the beginning of their journey.
This is a genuine cross-platform, 360 degree (call it what you like) format. There’s been lots of talk, yet I am not aware of a single social website that has spawned a mini-series (talent and all). If there is another one, please tell me I’m wrong. ABC Family are true innovators in this much talked about space.
Note: Virtual Rush is geo-blocked outside the US. Europeans will have to take my word for it!
We’re very excited to announce that Paul Dix has joined Mint. We’re going to be helping him with his super-cool Tahiti project. He’s going to be lending us his super-hot Ruby skills.
He’s already survived his first hot pot (centre left). This is becoming the initiation ritual both in the UK (welcome Jeremy and Adam!) and in the US (welcome Ron!).
