How are you feeling this morning? Everyone nursing a wicked hangover from the wild 'Nurse Jackie' viewing party you went to last night to celebrate its second season premiere on Showtime? No, me either. Did you at least read the tweets from one of the show's characters last night(@DoctorCoop)?'Nurse Jackie' is Showtime's latest attempt to launch a successor to the aging "comedy" 'Weeds.' It stars 'The Sopranos' Edie Falco as Jackie, a nurse in a NYC emergency room. Like all of the main characters in Showtime's half-hour shows, Jackie is a dysfunctional anti-hero. She's just your regular run of the mill no nonsense nurse, wife, and mother with a pill addiction and fidelity problems. There's also a ZANY cast of supporting characters that fill up the hospital with their own quirks and problems.
Yeah, it's about as lame as it sounds. Jackie is an annoying character that gives the viewer very little reason to root for her, and despite all the zaniness, the show is rather dull. I watched the entire first season assuming at some point things would get exciting and interesting. They never did. I was going to ignore the show's second season, which kicked off last night, but I had to see how their unique interactive Twitter marketing experiment would play out.
As the New York Times reported, in the episode the comic relief character Doctor Cooper (Peter Facinelli) would tweet about something in the episode, and his message would post to his Twitter account in real time, blurring the lines between fiction and reality. Kind of a cool idea, right? So how did it go down? Learn after the jump.
I'll set the scene for you. INT - HOSPITAL HALLWAY - DAY
About 10 minutes into the episode (so around 10:10 PM EST) Doctor Coop, who mistakenly believes that Jackie has a thing for him, asks Jackie out to a game that he has good tickets for. Jackie brushes Coop. We end the scene with a dejected Doctor Coop walking away and starting to pull out his phone. A few seconds later this message shows up on his Twitter account:
That's it. Nothing very earth shattering, but experiments like this do open the doors for more creative interactive marketing of television programs, and a great way to bring eyeballs (and therefore $$) to a particular show. A report issued by the Nielson Co yesterday found that multi-tasking is on the rise. The number of television viewers who simultaneously surf the Internet increased by 35% in 2009. The networks can use social media as an interactive TV Guide, reminding the viewer that 'How I Met Your Mother' is on now, and they should change the channel from 'House' to watch (and participate in) it. Plus, if you're on Facebook or Twitter and all of your friends are discussing what they're watching, don't you want to watch too and join in the conversation?
Extending the world of a fictional television series beyond the weekly episode and onto the Internet is not necessarily a new device. CBS' "How I Met Your Mother" has successfully used this marketing device by mentioning a website or video on the show, and then actually creating the "fictional" site mentioned, but it takes planning from both the creative forces behind the show and the CBS marketing department to do it effectively.
For example, did you catch the Super Bowl commercial with Neil Patrick Harris's character Barney Stinson holding up a sign in the stands with a phone number to call him? If you did in fact call that number, you would have heard a message from Barney asking you out on a date. On the program the next night, the characters on the show watched the Super Bowl wondering where their friend Barney was, until they saw him on TV, the same way you the viewer saw him. Barney's story in this episode was about how he was going crazy because all of these girls called his phone and now he has too many woman to choose from. If you were a woman who called that number the night before, Barney was talking about YOU!
Why go through all the effort to do this? To create a stronger connection between the viewer (consumer) and the program (brand). It builds brand loyalty. By interacting with these sites or videos, the viewer is essentially entering the fictional world of the program. They are seeing and experiencing the same things the characters are. Watching the show has transitioned from a passive activity to an active one. The fan or viewer feels they have a personal investment in the brand and will hopefully return to it week after week.
With fictional characters using Twitter in real time, the lines blur even further. The viewer is not only entering the world of the show, in their own way they are now experiencing the same things that are happening to these characters as it is happening to them.
This is a great way to market a show, and maybe even work in some paid product placement, but it also opens the door for a lot of creative opportunities.The success of 'Lost' has proven that when viewers are passionate about something they are willing to get online and dive deep into the world, all the while spreading positive word of mouth about the brand.
The networks should start experimenting more. How about a serialized show, a season long 'Twin Peaks'-style mystery, with every character and suspect tweeting their point of view and opinion in real time and throughout the week? The viewer would have to put together clues and cross reference stories to solve the big whodunit. I'd give it a shot, would you.
Extending the world of a fictional television series beyond the weekly episode and onto the Internet is not necessarily a new device. CBS' "How I Met Your Mother" has successfully used this marketing device by mentioning a website or video on the show, and then actually creating the "fictional" site mentioned, but it takes planning from both the creative forces behind the show and the CBS marketing department to do it effectively.
For example, did you catch the Super Bowl commercial with Neil Patrick Harris's character Barney Stinson holding up a sign in the stands with a phone number to call him? If you did in fact call that number, you would have heard a message from Barney asking you out on a date. On the program the next night, the characters on the show watched the Super Bowl wondering where their friend Barney was, until they saw him on TV, the same way you the viewer saw him. Barney's story in this episode was about how he was going crazy because all of these girls called his phone and now he has too many woman to choose from. If you were a woman who called that number the night before, Barney was talking about YOU!
Why go through all the effort to do this? To create a stronger connection between the viewer (consumer) and the program (brand). It builds brand loyalty. By interacting with these sites or videos, the viewer is essentially entering the fictional world of the program. They are seeing and experiencing the same things the characters are. Watching the show has transitioned from a passive activity to an active one. The fan or viewer feels they have a personal investment in the brand and will hopefully return to it week after week.
With fictional characters using Twitter in real time, the lines blur even further. The viewer is not only entering the world of the show, in their own way they are now experiencing the same things that are happening to these characters as it is happening to them.
This is a great way to market a show, and maybe even work in some paid product placement, but it also opens the door for a lot of creative opportunities.The success of 'Lost' has proven that when viewers are passionate about something they are willing to get online and dive deep into the world, all the while spreading positive word of mouth about the brand.
The networks should start experimenting more. How about a serialized show, a season long 'Twin Peaks'-style mystery, with every character and suspect tweeting their point of view and opinion in real time and throughout the week? The viewer would have to put together clues and cross reference stories to solve the big whodunit. I'd give it a shot, would you.
Or how about an SNL-type live improv sketch comedy show that allows the viewer to tweet suggestions to the cast just like if they were at a live Second City show?
There are a lot of cool marketing possibilities here. That being said, I don't think I'll keep up with 'Nurse Jackie.' It's still too boring. I will continue to follow @DoctorCoop though. If something interesting happens, I'm sure he'll tell me.
What do you think of scripted television shows incorporating real-time Twitter messages from characters? Would you participate or do you find it intrusive? How would you like this used in your favorite show (assuming Jack Bauer can find the time to tweet)?
There are a lot of cool marketing possibilities here. That being said, I don't think I'll keep up with 'Nurse Jackie.' It's still too boring. I will continue to follow @DoctorCoop though. If something interesting happens, I'm sure he'll tell me.
What do you think of scripted television shows incorporating real-time Twitter messages from characters? Would you participate or do you find it intrusive? How would you like this used in your favorite show (assuming Jack Bauer can find the time to tweet)?
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