Mass Relevance has launched a major new product today that will help TV companies leverage their expertise in social TV visualizations. The Product Studio allows clients to “gain instant access to off-the-shelf visualizations in order to quickly and easily create engaging brand experiences with curated social data.” They’re launching the tool with Fox Sports Media Group, the first TV network to use the new platform. We spoke with Mass Relevance CEO Sam Decker and Chris Hannan, FOX Sports Media Group SVP of Marketing & Social Media Strategy.
When we interviewed Decker about their partnership with CNN for the election he described how important social TV visualizations were to their business. This new platform reaffirms how invested they are in making it easier for TV networks to create visualizations on their own with a toolbox built for their needs. “The Product Studio is launching with more than 30 social products and visualizations, including an interactive photo wall fueled by real-time social content and polls that update based on social voting and behavior,” their announcement described. They will be launching more products within the platform in the future.
Lost Remote: How does the new platform work? How will it affect the social TV world?
Sam Decker: Product Studio is built on the Mass Relevance platform and combines pre-built visualizations with custom filtering, moderation, and display capabilities. Brands, agencies, and media clients can now discover the most relevant real-time social content, ensure that it is safe, and immediately display social conversations in the form of dynamic visualizations.
Television is converging with the web, social media, and mobile, creating new opportunities to reach and engage consumers. With Product Studio, clients can now drive viewership and (moreover) audience participation by adding social relevancy with constantly fresh and dynamic on-air AND digital visualizations. Product Studio visualizations can live anywhere, connectingon-air experiences to mobile apps, online social hubs, or on-set digital displays to drive immersive consumer engagement.
LR: Why did you decide to launch it and why now?
Decker: As media clients mature we’re seeing the need to make social engagement more ‘operational’. While they could adjust the curation of content in real-time, they needed a way to make the visual integration more ‘real-time’ and integrate participation anywhere. Product Studio enables our clients’ greater speed to market with participatory visualizations fueled by real-time content. As a company, we want to empower brands to easily integrate socialconversations across all consumer touch-points, leveraging social to createengaging experiences anywhere a brand lives.
LR: How does this affect your business goals?
Decker: Mass Relevance’s growth is driven by innovation in technology. Product Studio will accelerate our client’s maturity and growthinto Social TV, thus helping us grow. It also increases our relevancy into consumer brands, retailers, and media outlets, allowing for all our clients to develop a paid > owned > earned media strategy. The platform will allow clients to be more nimble and effective in responding to the real-time market; in parallel we now have the ability to provide state-of-the art, flexible tools that cater some of the world’s largest brands, including Fox, GE, and Pepsi.
LR: Why are you using the new platform?
Chris Hannan: Mass Relevance has provided us with an effective tool foraggregating and curating content to better position our social efforts.
LR: How does it help your social TV needs?
Hannan: This aggregation of content and real time data provides us with unique insights to share with our viewers and fans. This data gives us the ability to provide a connected second screen experience for fans engaging with live sporting events and social platforms.
LR: How has Fox Sports grown their social TV footprint over the last year?
Hannan: FOX Sports social footprint has grown more in the past 6 months then it did in the previous 3years total. Through an aggressive expansion of resources to a more tactical execution on social platforms and social TV components, FOX Sports is well positioned for continued growth. Mass Relevance’s technology is one of the resources that have helped drive this increased social engagement.
LR: Anything else?
Hannan: Sports is the driving force behind social media. As more viewers continue to engage with multiple screens, FOX Sports’ partnerships with companies like Mass Relevance will be vital in our success. Social TV is not going away but we are also very mindful of protecting the integrity of our game broadcasts. We want to deliver the best experience on whatever device or platform that a fan wants to engage with FOX Sports.