Gory Games Play-along App Surpass CBBC Expectations with 15% Viewer Conversion
London, United Kingdom, July 21st 2014 – SyncScreen™, innovators in the creation and delivery of harmonised two-screen TV experiences and Civolution, the leading provider of technology and solutions for identifying, managing and monetizing content, today announced that the Gory Games Play-Along app developed by SyncScreen and powered by Civolution’s Automatic Content Recognition (ACR) technology, SyncNow, has surpassed CBBC expectations.
Speaking at the recent Children’s Media Conference, BBC’s head of Children’s Joe Godwin was reported as saying: “We were thinking possibly 6% of the audience if they were playing along at home, that would be a good measure of success. But with Gory Games it was 15% per episode playing along, and for Ludus (Boom Pictures/Cube) it was between 10% and 15%.”
The BBC has also revealed that the Gory Games app, developed as a play-along app for the popular Horrible Histories series, has already been downloaded over 100,000 times.
Both the CBBC play-along apps, Gory Games and Ludus utilize the SyncScreen Framework and integrate Civolution’s audio watermarking based ACR technology. The play-along app for iOS and Android tablets and smartphones lets children take on the studio contestants, test their knowledge of gruesome facts and win virtual prizes whilst watching the show live, or on-demand on BBC iPlayer.
“With around 15% of audiences interacting with Gory Games, which is far in excess of BBC’s expectations, it’s clear that this bold decision to design a play-along app has really paid off,” said Andy Nobbs, CMO, Civolution. “We are very proud to work with SyncScreen on this innovative – and very successful – project”.
Marc Goodchild, Creative Director of SyncScreen explained the production workflow for the integrated 2nd screen play-along apps: “The whole point about a creating a well-designed and executed 2nd screen experience for children is to help them fall back in love with the TV, not distract them from it. The biggest challenges we face in designing for simultaneous 2nd screen usage is the battle for the attention of users added to then seamlessly teaching them how to take part in the game, to play-along without distracting from the show. This involves a major change in how shows are produced, such as the need to design in extra audio cues from the show host to allow time for the play-along element and the need for constant signposting to users to explain what is about to happen next, to keep them involved. We are sensing that this well-executed 2nd screen approach on Gory Games may be leading the way in driving repeat viewing of the TV show, which starts to prove the case for 2nd screen investment”.
