TV shows are increasingly trying to keep the audience’s attention after broadcast—and, with much of the population seemingly unable to keep their eyes off their mobile devices for more than ten seconds, often during it. Sponsors associated with shows also want their share of the eyeballs. So, following on from Kiwibank’s attempt to increase audience engagement with its Block Out Live Bingo-style game for The Block NZ, Genesis Energy has added another string to MKR NZ’s bow with an online quiz called Guess the Ingredients.
While there’s plenty of talk by broadcasters about audience engagement via social media, a recent survey by Colmar Brunton showed just one in five New Zealanders ever talked about a TV show on Facebook (15-24s were 43 percent) and 25-34s were 33) and just three percent of New Zealanders and six percent of 15-34s had ever used Twitter to talk to about a TV show. Most news shows have a social media presence and the comments occasionally inform the content. But broadcasters have also had some success recently in the realm of trans-media with specific online extensions of shows, such as Shortland St’s tribute site to Sarah Potts, Jono and Ben’s interactive pick-a-path and 7 Day’s election Bingo. MKR NZ has already attempted to get the audience more involved with a voting app, and Guess the Ingredients, which was created .99, adds to that list of shows trying to use other platforms to increase engagement.
The game was launched to coincide with the show’s move to Kitchen HQ and, mimicking the pressure tests featured on the show, it gives viewers the chance to see how well they perform in a race against the clock. Players are given 20 seconds to identify from a shortlist the correct ingredients and cooking techniques used in recipes recently featured on the show. Only those that get 100 percent correct are entered into weekly prize draws for top-of-the-range kitchenware products, or the grand prize, an ultimate foodie experience for two in Paris.
“The brief was to give viewers and fans the chance to engage with the show like never before, and we think we’ve delivered on that in spades,” says Ben Goodale, managing director .99 and justONE. “We’ve worked with TVNZ and de-construct to develop the quiz on a responsive platform, ensuring it works optimally not just on desktop, but on the smart phones and tablets of viewers ‘dual screening’ during the show.”
Martin Gillman called the battle between MKR NZ and The Block NZ kamikaze programming (here’s a comparison of ratings from week five). So how’s is the battle of the online extensions going?
Within the first day following its launch, Guess the Ingredients was played over 4,000 times and, as of today, approximately 55,000 games have been played, there were 10,000 click-throughs from the first Facebook promoted post and an “astoundingly low page bounce rate of only two percent, proving the content is proving very relevant with our audience.”
MediaWorks has been asked to provide numbers on Block Out Live, but we have yet to hear back.
Guess the Ingredients will be live until the end of October, with featured recipes updated regularly as the show progresses.
The campaign has launched primarily via a new TVC (screened on-air as well as during TVNZ On Demand playback), and it is supported through social and digital channels on the TVNZ website and social media pages.
