Viggle recently acquired Wetpaint for $30 million, expanding its capabilities in second-screen marketing and enabling it to grow its loyal audience and provide them with content 24 hours a day.

The Viggle second-screen application rewards consumers for watching TV and listening to music, and now that it has picked up Wetpaint, it will also be able to provide original content related to the TV shows consumers watch. Wetpaint is an online site that covers top TV shows, stars, entertainment news and fashion, producing more than 150 new articles, videos and galleries a day.

?The Viggle brand is about the promotion and marketing of entertainment content, and rewarding users when they watch TV and now when they discover music,? said Greg Consiglio, president/chief operating officer at Viggle, New York.

?Wetpaint specializes in building massive loyal entertainment audiences around entertainment properties,? he said. ?The expertise in entertainment publishing and social media marketing is a perfect complement to help us engage loyal entertainment audiences.

?In addition, the fusion of the two companies allows users to be engaged with the content they love not only during its broadcast, but also between episodes.?

Consolidation
While Viggle and Wetpaint each offered a different product for consumers, by partnering up they will be a stronger force in television.

Wetpaint will continue to offer its content to fans, but the companies will begin collaborating immediately. Wetpaint users will gain access to Viggle?s rewards program, and Viggle users will be able to see Wetpaint content.

One of the assets Wetpaint offers Viggle is its large social media presence.

Wetpaint has more than 12 million monthly unique users and 90 million page views a month. It also has more than seven million "Likes" and followers on Facebook and Twitter.

?With Wetpaint, we have a larger audience, great content and patented technology for social media distribution, which brings scale to our TV network and brand partners both on web and in mobile,? Mr. Consiglio said. ?Over time you can expect us to leverage the expertise Wetpaint has developed to further grow our audience in new entertainment verticals.?

Viggle has 316 million confirmed check-ins since it launched last year and more than 3.5 million registered users. The company reached 3 million registered users in June (see story).

Marketing opportunity
Now that Viggle and Wetpaint have joined forces, there will be an even bigger engaged audience for marketers to tap into.

These TV fans will be available to marketers via the rewards program, in-app advertising and through Wetpaint?s online content and social media streams.

A number of brands have already tapped into Viggle?s audience, and this acquisition will only expand their reach.

For instance, Clorox used Viggle to add some digital components to its advertising around ABC?s ?The Bachelorette" with a campaign that resulted in a high percentage of consumers interacting with the app?s content (see story).

Wetpaint is smart to get in on this game as well.

?Wetpaint has big aspirations to revolutionize media and combining with Viggle, the leader in mobile entertainment marketing with a strong track record in monetization, mobile user engagement rates and an impressive management team, will allow us to accelerate our vision,? said Ben Elowitz, CEO of Wetpaint, Seattle. ?Early on in our discussions, both sides quickly realized that we complement each other. 

?Viggle's strengths are on generating revenue via its national sales force and on building consumer loyalty during TV broadcasts,? he said. ?Wetpaint's strengths are in creating amazing content, and in building and engaging huge audiences of fans who visit all week long via our platform. 

?By combining, Viggle and Wetpaint can continue to focus on their strengths and together can expand from TV to all forms of media.?

Final Take
Rebecca Borison is editorial assistant on Mobile Marketer, New York