Holler
Chat Nav
Channel 4
Brief
Turn an ambitious reality documentary series into a ground
breaking cross-platform project.
The Opportunity
The opportunity for ChatNav was to create the ultimate way of
shouting at the telly. Allowing the audience, for the first time,
not only to be heard but giving them an active role within the
show.
The Approach
Each episode of Seven Days was broadcast in the same week it was
filmed, and viewers could provide advice to the characters and
could even influence the choices they make through social
interaction on ChatNav.
As the lives of characters featured came under ever-increasing scrutiny, the watching audience was able to vent their opinions through the tool, which would then aggregate this noise and act as a 'collective conscience' for those on-screen.
In this way, Seven Days' live viewing experience could be enriched through constant engagement with peers and the feeling that every audience member was part of a social experience – in effect, a feedback loop working in the content's favour.
The Activity
As each programme was filmed in the week before it aired, the
ChatNav platform provided the programme-makers with an invaluable
and unprecedented source of dynamic, real-time audience feedback.
The production could then use the social platform to help bridge
this initial barrier between characters and audience.
Results
16,168 thoughts were posted on the site along with 9,652
responses; 43,870 Tweets were aggregated, and 235 pictures.
Seven Days was widely praised for its groundbreaking approach in integrated web and TV content, and for generating and harnessing TV-themed social interaction. It is an approach Holler is now developing in partnership with other clients.
ChatNav provides the blueprint model for the growing number of social TV two-screen experiences that will now emerge in coming months. In an era of on-demand time shift TV viewing it is a groundbreaking development, which is putting the live TV viewing experience back on the map.
But don't just take it from us:
“I sat at home last Wednesday, watching my TV with my laptop, watching someone else reading about themselves on a laptop, whilst thousands of other people were doing the same. This is the world we're in now, and Seven Days is an innovative and ambitious attempt to represent this world” said Matt Locke, Head of Cross-Platform at Channel 4.
“Channel 4 reality show Seven Days is a leap forward in audience interactivity” according to Twofour Executive Producer, multiplatform, James Abraham (Broadcast October 28).
“It should be applauded for having the guts to experiment, to learn lessons from it and to continue trying to push the boundaries of cross-platform content” Broadcast editor Lisa Campbell wrote.