RSS tempts viewers

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Anyone in media will have read a host of articles about convergence in recent years, the meeting and merging of TV and online.

While much of the talk has, as ever, been premature, there are signs that consumer behaviour is starting to alter and more importantly that marketers are also responding to it.

In Japan one trend is known as Double Screen, the practice of keeping the PC switched on in the living room as well as the TV, thus if the TV fails to appeal, they are always ready to surf.

To take advantage of this trend the Nagoya Broadcasting Network used real time RSS messaging to let surfers know that a programme worth watching was about to start.

The key to the campaign was to get consumers to download the special RSS reader onto their desktops. Large posters with CD-Roms were installed at Nagoya City Subway stations and 12,000 discs were distributed during the seven days of the activity.

A further 160,000 CD-Roms were distributed via Tokai Walker magazine and announcements in NBN TV shows encouraged consumers to download the reader from the website.

The RSS reader is updated every two seconds so that consumers can not only find out when a programme is about to start but also what’s happening during the programme such as sports coverage. Surfers can be notified of goals scored to get them to switch on to watch the replay.

NBN wasn’t the first company to use RSS to promote its shows but the broadcaster claims a first for dissemination of real time programme content information in addition to programme announcements. The approach has paid clear dividends in the ratings and information is still being sent to the RSS readers.

The RSS reader was part of a range of initiatives that have helped boost ratings for NBN by 2.4% in peak time and by 0.8% across the day.

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