360i Reveals Insights on TV’s Integration of Emerging Media

With Viacom's virtual worlds efforts and CBS's investment in The Electric Sheep Company it might be worth a look at a new study from 360i, a search-focused agency. 360i analyzed the web sites of 35 of the top TV networks, 35 of the top network television shows, and 35 of the top cable television shows over the course of Q1 2007 to understand how each site incorporates different elements of interactive and social media into their web sites. The results and analysis are incorporated in a full report entitled “Tuning into Emerging Media: How Broadcast and Cable TV Networks Use Blogs, the Mobile Web, Mashups and Other Media,” revealing some key findings:

• Among the top 35 TV networks, the four most commonly implemented media formats (Email Alerts, Blogs, Audio Podcasts, and Mobile) are utilized by at least 80% of the networks, with the most common media, Email Alerts, used by nearly all the networks.
• The least commonly implemented media (Mashups, Virtual Worlds, Wikis, Widgets/Gadgets, and Tagging) are utilized by 8% of the networks.
• The short list of most frequently adopted media is fairly consistent between broadcast and cable shows; however, rates of adoption vary substantially. Moreover, there is no clear “winner,” as cable adoption levels exceed the broadcast networks in some formats, but trail in others.
• Among the least commonly used emerging media formats, cable and broadcast shows have identical adoption rates for some formats (Virtual Worlds and Wikis), while cable shows are the only adopters of other formats (Mashups and Widgets/Gadgets).

“Marketers typically run social media campaigns as separate entities, and often social networks, blogs, mobile marketing, and other channels are run by different people or groups. What’s clear from these results that marketers must learn to connect the channels so that the sum is greater than each of its parts. When all the channels are connected, it will be easier for consumers to navigate through the entire campaign and remain engaged with the brand,” said David Berkowitz, 360i’s Director of Emerging Media.

For a free copy of the report, visit http://www.360i.com/white-papers.php.