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“Thanks for letting us watch where and when we want— no more illegal streams for me.”

With that comment, one sports fan and audience member at the “24 Hours Sports in the Age of Bite-Sized Content” panel perfectly illustrated how successfully sports networks have adapted to the new media ecosystem. In addition, many brands could learn from how NBC, Fox Sports, and the NFL Network have used social to their advantage:

Talent. Social media is an ideal channel for both finding new talent and establishing their credibility. Trustworthy, engaging personalities make it easier for audiences to connect and allow networks to provide authentic news and other content.

Audience Interest. Monitoring trending topics on social media helps networks understand and promote what fans want to talk about. The debate over the infamous Roger Sherman interview, for instance, started on social media but was quickly carried over into programming.

Participation. Not surprisingly, sporting events are perfect vehicles for fans to debate and trash-talk. Allowing people to chime in, whether through video or other media, makes them feel like they’re part of the greater community.

Flexibility. Sports networks understand that audiences are platform-agnostic: if a better way to access content emerges, they will happily switch. As a result, the networks are constantly testing new formats to see what best serves the fan.

Personalization. The more data people provide, the more networks can deliver information that is specific to them, including favorite players, teams, and regions.

All of this adds up to a stronger content package that is more valuable for both viewers and advertisers.

As we attended panels from various media companies, one theme became clear: now that consumers have more options as to when, where, and what type of content they view, media producers must become more savvy about planning the lifecycle of their content. Perhaps counter-intuitively, the shorter the consumer’s attention span, the more important the content’s potential for longevity.

For instance, short-form video YouTube clips would appear to be the most disposable: quick to watch and easy to forget. However, multichannel network Maker Studios has capitalized on it by promoting high-quality YouTube talent and guiding viewers towards similar content based on their interests. In fact, many television and movie stars are coming to them for help with this new format, and Disney may even be considering acquiring the studio.

Sports are another type of entertainment that are best consumed live, and would therefore have a seemingly short lifespan. As we mentioned in an earlier post (LINK to Paula’s post on Social/Sports), though careful programming around marquee events can create content that keeps people coming back and sharing with friends.

But what if the content you want to promote has already been created? It’s not too late: some properties can maintain and even grow their fanbase over time. For instance, many of Fathom Entertainment’s events are actually re-releases of old material; some of it thirty or forty years old, like Beatles and Rolling Stone concerts. Behind-the-scenes content and interviews created specifically for the event help keep it fresh and promote the material, but ultimately, fans return for the chance to participate in a communal experience with other fans.

Regardless of the type of content or initial platform, therefore, it’s essential to strategize the best way to keep content relevant. Whether it starts as a clip or an event, creators have multiple opportunities to keep viewers engaged over time.

We’re big believers in the idea that data can provide value to both consumers and companies (see our Outlook), so we were excited to hear from the panelists at “Big Data Inverted: the Best Candy from Strangers?” Some thought-provoking highlights:

• “Newness” isn’t always a need: data doesn’t have to be current to be relevant. Some content, like tying a tie, doesn’t change; it just needs to be available at the moment people are looking for it.
• Anonymity and ephemerality build trust: people feel more comfortable sharing their data when they know it can’t be traced back to them specifically.
• Big Data has to get small: as storage costs shrink and data-generating devices proliferate, it’s more difficult than ever to tease out the most relevant data. In order to truly help people, it must deliver the right data for the task at hand.

Can marketing truly serve and provide value to customers and consumers of both products and content? Great question.

People are similar in the way that they engage with content, but consumer behavior has changed because of big data being used to power their experiences.

Looking at attitudinal and behavioral data first will help filter through lack of context sometimes suffered by lack of context. To help us make sure we are talking to who we think we are talking to when targeting.

• There is a clear age gate in ability and want to share data. Digital natives have a lower barrier to entry for sharing all levels of data to marketers

Leveraging data to service or communicate is in two distinct buckets. Creepy or Cool.

• Using customer data from nowhere  = creepy
• Using customer data from a known relationship = cool

Takeaways from the panel were similar to the Lab’s POV on value exchange to fully capitalize across audiences:

• Tradeoff of utility for data will be based on more evaluation and balance of age and behavioral information to determine “true vaue”
• Loyalty is different. Easier to switch, more powerful voice from consumers
• Better inform customers before they hit the showroom or retail floor

Overall the use of digital data has changed customer culture and expectations of brands. Using Marketing as a Service is one of many ways the management of big data will improve the relationship between customer and brands.

During SXSW last month AARP is leveraging both the education of important content around the ACA and the connective history and faith-based initiative for Black Community to create and develop social, mobile, and digital activity as well as brand loyalty for the AARP brands and partners.

Using social media and mobile to educate on ACA. They actually turned a stereotype on its head in nudging 50+ users to educate Gen Xers and Millennials on the affordable care act. This effectively made the 50+ to influencers on a important topic to both parents and kids in medium where they are mostly non power users.

The program was done in English and Spanish and got a 16% engagement rate with  67% of mom’s comments with kids happening on social media.

See more on this at mom means it and at the AARP ACA site here

The success led into more socially infused programs like the new YouTube and TV spots for “You don’t know AARP” aimed at making the 70+ crowd more digitally fit an through their new program AARPTEK that leads with a Twitter hash tag of #loved.

See the video below or see it on You tube here

All in all it was great seeing that even late adopters and the brands that serve them, are doing very unique things with digital and social mediums and talking about it at SXSW.