mr.brain

As I sit back and stream some of my favourite TV. programs from the comfort of my bed. I’ve been noticing an interesting trend. Technologies from the interwebs are making their way to TV. and they’re doing it in some interesting ways, well sort of. 

Let’s start with simple script integrations. Whether you’ll admit it or not you most likely watch Gossip Girl and if you’re anything like me you have a strange unexplainable man crush on Chuck Bass. Admissions aside you know the show has always had interwebs integration like their blogger / narrator namesake. However in recent episodes they’ve been using an interesting line, “Bing it”.  It seems the marketing folks over at Microsoft are trying to change the colloquial vernacular of interweb searches  from “Google it” to “Bing it”. All I can say is good luck. I think it will take much more than the fictional upper east siders of Gossip Girl to accomplish this vocabulary switch.

The more interesting example is the Twitter integration of ShowTime’s “Nurse Jackie”. If you don’t watch this show, do it. The show has cleverly integrated twitter into the script and the neurotic ticks of one the shows main characters Dr. Fitch Cooper. The show has successfully created online engagement by having  Dr. Cooper tweet during the show, the in show tweets are tweeted out in real time to the @DoctorCoop Twitter account. Not only do his tweets that happen on camera go live, he tweets between on camera appearances creating another level of engagement for fans during the episode. @DrCoop regularly responds to comments and ReTweets of his tweets. For me this type of engagement is genius. It allows fans to connect with a character on an entirely new level.

Robert Hayes, Showtime’s senior vice president and general manager for digital media explained; "We want the story to extend beyond the half-hour or hour that it lives on air and become ubiquitous with your life."

I believe we can safely say mission accomplished. After just one episode of @DoctorCoop tweeting he amassed over 8000 followers and now sits at 11,538 followers.

Good work ShowTime.

-Adam

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