VH1’s “Pop Up Video” empire doesn’t receive nearly enough recognition for how it changed TV. Their innovative use of added-value content on linear TV set a precedent for many exciting social TV and second screen initiatives that include Miso Sideshows and HBO Go’s wonderful “Interactive Features.”
Now in its second season since the reboot of the show last year, they’ve added some exciting social elements to their Create Your Own Pop Up Video web app. We spoke exclusively with VH1’s SVP of Digital Dan Sacher about the new features and strategy.
For the new season, VH1 is encouraging fans to collaborate to create a video together. “Instead of just sharing a link, fans can now embed the actual video on their site or Facebook,” VH1 told Lost Remote — and then friends can add pop-ups of their own. These new additions are really going to take this brand to the next level on the social web. Creating your own Pop Up Video is extremely fun and simple. After signing in with Twitter, I chose fun.’s We Are Young and added commentary. Watch here.
Lost Remote: How will the new features make pop up video more social?
Dan Sacher: This is a prime example of our storytelling without borders strategy which looks to engage fans before, during and after show…and even between seasons. The new features take the idea of making your own pop up video and multiply that across your entire social graph, so that you and your friends can collaborate on creating pop ups. We’re excited about the multiplier effect of several people working on a video together – it’s a great way to expose our audience to the pop-up creator and lower the barrier to entry.
LR: Who built the create your own pop up tool last season? Who worked on it this season and what are the new social features?
We worked with ClipSync on the project (for both seasons). The other feature we added this year is that popped-up video that are shared on Facebook now play in-line on the newsfeed and timeline.
Sacher added that, “we cleared 85 new videos for this season covering many genres and time periods.” This is one of the best examples of a strong TV brand not only adapting to the social web but growing with it and defining social TV along the way.