Still sad that the Royal Wedding was only a one time event? The marriage of the century, as some called it, captivated social buzz for days as every major news organizations focused on the big event. Now, before the London Olympics, another royal event is captivating audiences.
The Diamond Jubilee, marking Queen Elizabeth’s 60 year reign of the United Kingdom and Commonwealth, is being celebrated and CNN has built an extensive social TV strategy to complement their broadcast from England. We spoke with Steve Krakauer CNN’s Senior Digital Producer.
Lost Remote: What is CNN’s social TV strategy for this event?
Steve Krakauer: CNN’s TV coverage will be on Sunday and Tuesday morning, and our social TV strategy will serve as a close companion to that. All this week we’ve been rolling out web videos that serve to explain the Jubilee events, and Piers Morgan and Brooke Baldwin have delved into why they’re excited to cover the festivities. The highlight of our strategy will be a robust live blog tied to the TV coverage, which will bring in social media (Twitter, Facebook, iReports) and a lot of pictures and videos during the festivities on Sunday and Tuesday. It’s great that we have such social anchors at the forefront of our coverage with Piers and Brooke. We’ll bring in their tweets, as well as the reporting of our correspondents on the ground, and those of viewers who use our #JubileeCNN hashtag.
LR: Will this event be as big as the Royal Wedding on social?
Krakauer: I don’t think we know yet. The Royal Wedding was enormous for CNN and news networks around the world when it came to interest on social and in general. While London expects more than a million people to come to the Diamond Jubilee events, we have yet to see if it will resonate as much with the U.S. audience as the Royal Wedding did. The key players in the wedding – William, Kate, Prince Charles – will all be involved again, and I expect there to be a tremendous interest on social again.
LR: What did the Royal Wedding event teach you about social TV and the royal family?
Krakauer: While I wasn’t directly involved with the Royal Wedding social TV plans (although I was in London with the Piers Morgan Tonightstaff producing web content based around the festivities), Janelle Rodriguez, served as EP last time and serves as EP again for the Jubilee. She has a great interest in cross-platform opportunities, and shepherded the integrated social plans for royal wedding that were a huge success. We know that there is a major interest in the royal family from those that are active on social media, and more importantly, among CNN viewers.
LR: Which platform do you think will see the most activity?
Krakauer: I’m sure we’ll see Twitter light up as it has in the past for other big events. That said, we are housing our live blog at CNN.com/Jubilee, where viewers can find so much additional content in addition to the live blog. It is for this reason I think iReports will be imperative for us, as the citizen journalists at the events will provide a steady stream of pictures and videos that help tell the story. At CNN we are in the unique position to capitalize on that and provide our cross-platform viewers with a broader experience.