Mobile and social should complement broadcast initiatives: MTV

By Lauren Johnson

January 20, 2012

Backstage access

NEW YORK – Mobile and social are increasingly being tied to broadcast, an MTV executive speaking at yesterday's Mobile FirstLook: Strategy 2012 conference told attendees. 

During the “Viacom Media Networks: How mobile is television’s best friend” panel, attendees got an overview of how advertising works on Viacom Media Networks' mobile products.

“When we design a tablet site, we have to make it so that when tablet ad standards are more clearly defined down the road, we do not have to redesign it,” said Sol Masch, director of Viacom Media Networks, New York.

“We have to make sure there are innovative experiences for advertising right off the bat,” he said.

Mobile FirstLook: Strategy 2012 was a presentation of Napean, parent to Mobile Marketer and Mobile Commerce Daily. 

Mobile Web rules
When developing a tablet site, marketers need to think about features that are large and will not accidentally be tapped by users, per Mr. Masch.

Mr. Masch explained how the publisher’s tablet advertising slots are flexible and look differently depending on how the tablet is oriented. Mr. Masch said that Viacom Media Networks' tablet ads generate an average of 3.5 percent click-through-rate.

For brands looking to test mobile, Mr. Masch recommends to develop a mobile Web site over apps because of its relatively lower cost of production.

“When you put out an app, you are competing with tons of other apps in the App Store, so you have to do media buys to get it promoted, and there are also high costs of building the app itself. Generally,  the ROI is not there for brand marketers who attempt to publish their own apps," Mr. Masch said.

“A handful of apps become successful and have resonated with consumers, but some get lost in the app market,” he said.

To help marketers looking to advertise across multiple channels, Viacom Media Networks is rolling out a new tool that will let advertisers design a rich media experience that adapts to each platform and device – across desktop, tablet and mobile.

“The more real estate the user bites across all three platforms at once can help advertisers boost engagement,” Mr. Masch said.

However, apps can be effective for particular companies that are able to consistently keep their apps engaging.

Mr. Masch at the Mobile FirstLook: Strategy 2012 conference

For example, the MTV News app is opened an average of seven times per week, per Mr. Masch, showing how consumers depend on mobile for everyday items, such as news.

“App downloads do not matter at the end of the day, instead you are looking for long-term value with consumers coming back,” Mr. Masch said.

As another example, Viacom Media Networks' Addicting Games recently launched an app as a spin-off of its popular Web site.

To entice users to keep coming back to the app, users automatically receive 20 games and content and games are added weekly. To date, Mr. Masch claims that the app has been downloaded 3 million times.

Multichannel mobile
Additionally, the Viacom Media Networks executive discussed how mobile is increasingly being tied into on-air, social and Web.

For example, Nickelodeon recently partnered with Sony Pictures on their Arthur Christmas film for a holiday-themed rich media experience that let users scan their finger and find out if they have been naughty or nice.

To promote the mobile destination, Nickelodeon ran TV spots with a mobile call-to-action with a URL link at the end.

After running the spots for two days, the campaign saw one million interactions to the landing page.

Social media is already a natural tie with mobile, but it plays a particularly significant opportunity with TV. Viacom Media Networks is primarily using social media to tie in with on-air awards shows.

According to a study from eMarketer, 70 percent of tablet users watch TV while on their device, and 68 percent of smartphone owners use the devices in conjunction.

During MTV awards shows, the publisher live streams parts of the show that users can access via mobile and is meant to be used while watching the show on-air.

Additionally, MTV’s Watchwith app aggregates tweets and places them in order for users to watch a TV show while viewing a stream of tweets that match what the users are watching.

Mobile video is relatively new for Viacom Media Networks, but it is an area that the company has its eye on for 2012.

Similar to other areas of mobile, the key to video is to keep it short and sweet. Per Mr. Masch, 15-second spots have higher completion rates than 30-second videos.

For video, mobile apps are the main driver for users with 50 percent of Viacom Media Network's video traffic coming in via apps, said Mr. Masch.

“We want to put video in as many places as possible so that it is accessible for consumers,” Mr. Mausch said.

“There are not a lot of places for agencies and brands to find premium video inventory on mobile,” he said.

"We see an opportunity to fulfill the demand from the market.”

Final Take
Sol Masch is director of Viacom Media Networks, New York