In the battle of the ratings, television companies are doing what they can to fight back, and with Twitter they might just have found the answer. By creating a third online dimension to television, networks are hoping to tempt viewers away from watching television on Sky+ or catch-up TV and back to scheduled air times.

Hashtags are making it easier for production teams to aggregate conversations about a specific programme and to help them to trend. We have seen this happen most recently with XFactor returning to our screens on Saturday night and Celebrity Big Brother monopolising trending topics during its daily highlights show. What we are now seeing is this phenomena driving viewers back to their televisions, as tweets signpost them to something ‘unmissable’.

A recent survey by Yahoo and Nielsen found 86% of mobile phone users are playing on their phones whilst watching TV, with 40% specifically using social networking sites. A further 53% of those surveyed are actively using their computers to check sites like Facebook and Twitter whilst tuned in to a TV programme.

So, as marketeers, what can we learn from this shift in behaviour? Well according to the research one in five 18- to 24-year-olds will buy a product because they have seen it on TV. This means it is the third most powerful factor driving purchase amongst this demographic. Product placement during popular TV slots and clever social media optimisation in television advertising and sponsorship idents could pay dividends for big brands as long as they remain sensitive to viewers. Too flagrant a plug could result in backlash from viewers who find branded activity intrusive.

Want to know more about Twitter #tags and the way they are used at Primetime? Check out the following video:

http://blog.twitter.com/2011/05/watching-together-twitter-and-tv.html

Lindsey Reaney
Social Media Consultant, Golley Engage

And it doesn’t get much more auspicious than that.

If Product Placement has been included within a programme – the programme must display a ‘P’ on screen.  The “P” to mark the fact that cash has changed hands to get a can of coke – no lager thank-you and certainly not Full Fat Coke! - included prominently in a drama or even a documentary must be there for a full three seconds at the beginning of such a programme and at the end.

Blink and you could miss it.

Like many battles that have gone on for years (5 years they have been fighting) it won’t be long before we wonder what all the fuss was about in the first place – I predict the argument will last until Wednesday.

The Coke can won’t be shoved in our face, otherwise we will switch over. The sums of money going to the television companies will be modest but the liberalisation of the rules will at least help to boost revenues in difficult times.

Lets get Kev’s garage in Coronation Street to become a Bosch Car Service Centre!

But “P Day” has got more than one innovation going for it.  Ofcom, with a nice sense of timing and determination to make an occasion out of it, has also decreed that from Monday, for at least a year, television channels will be able to show longer advertising breaks in films and dramas.

In the experiment, which will probably become permanent, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 will be able to show up to 12 minutes of ads an hour instead of the current 7. (Digital Channels can show 12 minutes per hour in ALL programming already - but I bet you have already noticed that!) This could have dangerous consequences!!

Younger audiences whose attention spans are notoriously short might wander off. The more mature might forget what they were watching. Everyone might be encouraged to reach for their PVR’s to teach the channels a lesson by fast-forwarding the ads.

But again, after a years worth of inflation on TV, it could bring the cost of TV DOWN again. The Ofcom decision comes after the Lords Select Committee on Communications last week decided to move in the opposite direction, rather perversely recommending that advertising time should be cut.  They will be recommending ad time is reduced to 7 minutes an hour instead of the current 12 across ALL platforms.  This reduces supply – while demand is maintained – hence prices increase for advertisers.

This was apparently to “improve the viewer experience” and to harmonise the rules in time for the completion of analogue switch-off next year. Once again the law of unintended consequences strikes.

The viewer experience in this case could be “improved” by reducing the amount of money available for original production and by pushing some satellite channels to the wall.

It looks as if their Lordships have fallen for the oldest logical flaw in the laws of television – that all channels are somehow born equal. There is an unstated assumption in the minds of their Lordships and their talk of harmonisation on minutage that somehow ITV is the same as a small satellite channel such as The Underwater Basket Weaving Channel. They are not and never will be and the only similarity is that both involve moving pictures.

Lets hope the 12 minute rule wins – it will bring in more revenue (which the TV contractors will be obliged to sink at least 50% into new ‘original’ programming – thats the deal), keep the choice we have available and keep costs down for advertisers - but the worry is that we will all be up in arms that our viewing will have been seriously compromised by having an extra 5 minutes of ads in a clock hour.

I don’t know about you – but I have never noticed my viewing experience being ruined when I have been watching ‘Dave’

Ian James, Media Director, Birmingham

The only sector of marketing in the UK that has not gone into reverse in terms of spend has been digital, all other sectors have suffered to one degree or more. It’s clear that marketer’s consider digital to be an essential part of the marketing spend. Numerous brands are now thinking more carefully about how they develop their creative assets to work best in alternative video platforms such as mobile, podcasts and YouTube and less likely to jump straight into TV production without these elements being considered up-front.

The big story this year is the up-coming general election and how each political party conducts itself with digital and social media. The digital marketers here have really been wowed by the Obama campaign’s use of digital and in particular social networking to connect with voters. Everyone seems to be watching how the main political parties will conduct themselves. We are seeing a serious take up of smart phones and clients are very interested in what can be done through apps. Clients are seeing the benefits of mobile; they still rightly want to make sure it’s having a positive impact on both brand measures and sales.

John Kinder, Digital Managing Director