Taking It to the Teens
MTV Networks’ The N network targets its young audience members on their favorite device – the mobile phone
Teenagers have always loved the telephone, and now that the mobile phone can be taken almost anywhere, anytime, offering texting and picture messaging, as well as Internet surfing, it’s a teen’s best friend.
When The N, MTV Networks’ TV networks for teens, launched its first college-based, one-hour drama, The Best Years, executives knew they had to meet their teen audience on their turf – the mobile handset. The series premiered June 29, 2007, and follows Samantha Best, a young woman who survived a series of foster homes to make it to an Ivy League university in Boston.
To focus on the show's key demographic - high school and college-aged viewers - The N incorporated a mobile program as part of its overall marketing efforts. Enpocket is powering the show's mobile advertising and mobile Internet experience. The mobile program went live June 15, and will run the 13 weeks of the series.
The goal of the program is to offer viewers a multi-faceted mobile Web experience to make them familiar with the new show and with The N as a network. The Enpocket Solutions team worked closely with representatives from The N to ensure the creation of a compelling built-for-mobile experience while maintaining the show’s brand ‘voice.’
To drive traffic to the mobile Web site, Enpocket created mobile banner ads that are running on carrier-grade media. Consumers browsing the mobile Web can click on a banner promoting the series to experience The Best Years mobile site.
The Enpocket Platform powers the mobile Web site, which includes a number of interactive mechanics. One of the most popular and innovative facets of the site is the “Are You a Mean Girl?” personality quiz. Consumers are able to read biographies of each of the main characters in one section, and in another, they are able to not only take a quiz to see which character they most resemble, but also forward the quiz on to a friend, making this mechanic viral as well. Browsers can also sign up for tune-in reminders, which are text messages sent the day of the show.
Results of the program have been very favorable. Tens of thousands of people visited the mobile site since its launch in mid-June. The show premiered as one of the network’s highest ranking shows in history, with 78 percent of site visitors using the station finder mechanic to see when and on what channel the show airs. About 50 percent of those visitors signed up to receive weekly text alerts for the show, enabling The N to establish an ongoing dialogue with fans and also drive tune-in.
The N is reaching its target audience’s favorite device – the mobile phone – to drive viewership and knowledge of the network and its show, contributing in part to making The Best Years a top rated show on the network.