Gone are the days when pseudo-intellectual debates at the bar or coffee shop escalate to fisticuffs. Long before it comes to blows, we whip out our smart phones to confirm that Steve Buscemi was the guy in Fargo, or it is Ulysses Grant on the 50 dollar bill (assuming no one has one in their wallet – in my group of friends, we’d certainly need the assistance of Google mobile).
It speaks to a culture of multi-media stimulus. We are plugged in. We watch, surf, post, tag, snap, scroll, click, check-in, look up and download, often simultaneously. And for a time, it looked as if watching would be accompanied by “Second Screen” apps designed to supplement specific watching experiences – looking up products, playing games to coincide with programming, “checking-in” for rewards. A recent study, however, found that use of these apps are uncommon. Much more frequently are second-screeners looking up actors they just know they’ve seen before on IMDB or Wikipedia, or posting apropos status updates about the latest-eliminated Idol on facebook or other social networks. This puts advertisers dependant on specific second screen apps like Quips, Zeebox, Viggle and others in an awkward spot. The use of independent, standard websites during viewing do nothing for added-value cache, which we will likely see encourage a revamp of the second screen apps to become more attractive to viewers.
But for every drought in this modern life, we seem to see a comparable rise. This week, Vine reached the top spot in free downloaded apps from the App Store. Overcoming early porn-related hurdles, the 6-second video posting service is now a clear contender in supplemental social networking, allowing users to tag experiences and proving once more that life love and laughter can all be captured in a brief clip.
In related tech news, Twitter’s latest attempt at Vine-esque product expansion looks to be coming in the form of a music service. With its recent acquisition of We Are Hunted, an online music trend tracker and discovery service, the new live but as of yet unavailable app will allow users to listen to trending and favorite tunes, and also discover new music. According to mashable.com, the app launch is rumored to coincide with the Coachella music festival in Indio, CA, which kicks off this Friday.
So as blossoms begin to bloom, and the birds and bees make their springtime homecoming, so does the season of social technology bring us new ways to tag and be tagged, listen and be listened to, catch up and keep up, providing myriad opportunities for marketers to add value, trace trends, and cultivate the online experience.
What do you think of a new Twitter music app? Sound off in the comments section below.
