At the recent Facebook developer conference, Mark Zuckerberg revealed his vision for Facebook; a media and entertainment hub – offering a rich user experience powered by the Open Graph (social discovery, social interaction, social decisions).
Companies are only just beginning to explore the possibilities of using Facebook as an entertainment hub – but here are five pioneers leading the charge.
1. Paramount – Transformers 3
To promote the 2011 CGI blockbuster, Paramount released a ticketing app on Facebook with 8thBridge allowing fans not only to buy tickets from the movie fan page, but also from a viral wall app – allowing people to view the trailer, buy tickets and share the wall-app directly from their newsfeed. To make it happen, Paramount teamed up with online ticketing agents Fandango and MovieTickets.com. The movie studio has also released a VOD microsite for Transformers – although not yet integrated into Facebook.
2. 20th Century Fox – What’s Your Number?
Moving the Facebook ticketing idea on, 20th Century Fox not only released a canvas-app and a viral wall-app built by 8thBridge, but also a Facebook event page – rewarding movie-goers for RSVP’ing to an open invite to see the movie. An innovative twist on group-buy, escalating rewards were offered as more people RSPV’d – 2,000 triggered a draw for Gilt gift certificates, 5,000 a 10% discount for all at SpaFinder, and 10,000 a 15% discount at 7 For All Mankind.
3. Warner Bothers – The Dark Knight
The first in a wave of movie studios (Warner Bros, Paramount, Universal, Miramax) to use Facebook as a VOD fan-streaming platform, launching with Batman, The Dark Knight – and accepting Facebook Credits as payment with a Like-gate to ensure word of mouth. More recently, Universal has looked to harness the viral potential of Facebook VOD streaming with Facebook referral programs – 1/3 off for friends if they rent a movie on Facebook after you. Meanwhile, Warner Bros has begun selling special-edition DVDs for fans on Facebook, and movie merchandise.
4. Hulu – Facebook Streaming
Showcased at this year’s Facebook Developers conference, the Hulu canvas app for Facebook allows customers to stream content directly within Facebook, comment (at moment-specific times) and share what they’re watching. It’s very early integration – and many of the Hulu site features have yet to be ported to Facebook page – but it’s a slick experience, and showcases the shape of things to come.
5. Global Live Events - Forever Michael Tribute Concert
The Facebook PPV event-streaming that never was. The October 2011 memorial gig was plagued with problems – including top bands pulling out at the last minute, and a legal wrangle meant that Global Live Events closed down its PPV live streaming app on Facebook before the event. Worthy of note though, because PPV event streaming on Facebook – with Facebook Credits payments – is innovative and could be genuinely disruptive.
by Dr Paul Marsden
