In this week’s egtabite, El Cartel Media and its channel RTL II share a success story illustrating the considerable efforts made by their teams over the past months to be at the vanguard of cross-media entertainment.
The pre-prime time soap Berlin - Tag & Nacht in particular has been successful in appealing to the target audience of young people above and beyond the medium of TV. From Facebook and RTL II's own mobile apps all the way to the channel's online presence at rtl2.de and its catch-up service, RTL II NOW, the station’s format brands are delivering success stories across all platforms.
The concept
A prime example of successful second-screen audience engagement is the cross-media event Dirty Dancing Double Date, staged in cooperation with BILD.de and including the protagonists of another RTL II programme – the docu-soap Tag & Nacht.
RTL II broadcasted the classic movie Dirty Dancing as part of its programme schedule, whilst at the same time BILD.de and rtl2.de hosted a livestream that enabled viewers to peek over the shoulder of the inhabitants of the famous shared flat in Berlin that features in Tag & Nacht, who happened to be watching the same film. A fan of the show who watched the livestream on a second screen could therefore see that the show’s protagonists had switched the television in their flat on to watch Dirty Dancing, in effect mirroring the activities of RTL II’s own viewers in real time.
Fans could therefore share the TV couch with the TV stars in the virtual realm. Viewers were also able to have a direct impact on what was happening in the shared flat via the Facebook site of Berlin - Tag & Nacht (which currently has 2.7 million fans). This major happening was also promoted in advance on the show itself.
 The lively interaction on Facebook underlines the success of this innovative cross-media event. 184,000 people made comments about the content on Facebook, hitting the like button and sharing it with others. Postings registered a total of 328,000 likes and 65,000 comments. On television, Dirty Dancing achieved an audience share of 10.8%, some 1.27 million viewers (aged 14 to 49). Among females aged 14 to 24 - a target group among which Berlin - Tag & Nacht is especially popular - the audience ratings for the film skyrocketed 22% above the previous airing in February 2012. Thanks to this unique online event, RTL II won the top prize for German Online Communication.
 Strong support through an engaged audience such as this offers a wide range of possibilities for monetisation and is very attractive to advertisers. This second-screen event was by no means the end of the project for El Cartel, and the sales house continues to develop advertising opportunities across a variety of platforms. Clients can buy advertising space within the Berlin - Tag & Nacht mobile app, on the show’s website (sponsor banners, wallpaper, pre-roll) and product placement on the show (for example TicTac). Most recently, the telecom provider BASE signed a deal from September 2013 to January 2014 to become the main sponsor of the mobile app and to be integrated into the show through a product placement, whereby one of the characters has recently started a job at a BASE shop.
Why does this matter to egta members?
This innovative campaign shows the possibilities of synergy between TV and online platforms. If the two are connected successfully, they create a whole new range of opportunities to engage the audience and attract new viewers. The available advertising inventory grows, as it no longer includes the TV spots alone, but also physical and digital product placements, website, the online catch-up service, smartphone apps and social media. All of these can be connected, providing a source of audience interaction and additional sales house revenues, as well as greater visibility for the client, which should of course translate into a higher ROI. |
