…MY TOOTH FAIRY CHAT is now on Android, with Updates to additional devices posted below.

Now in the Google Play Android Store

And in Amazon Apps

So, after about 15 years of the term “convergence” being bandied about, the audience are converged.

But, the content is lacking.

Each study talks to the massive growth opportunity for 2nd Screen apps.

We have little doubt there will be a mad-rush to fill in this gap with aggregated content apps and superfluous layers of data streamed to the 2nd Screen.

But, what interests us (and where the contentAI platform is perfectly well suited), is to create personalized, extended story experiences on the 2nd screen that are indigenous to the television screen content.

For drama or any fictional content, the audience are already in a “suspension of disbelief” mode, as they are emotionally engaged in characters and story.  Creating seamless experiences that are personalized and interactive, that deepen the engagement in the television content, is where this all gets fascinating.

So it was interesting to see this statement from their CEO, Chris Dodd:

http://www.homemediamagazine.com/piracy/mpaa-ceo-hollywood-must-get-connected-27074

“Our business has become much more than simply making a great movie and inviting our customers to a theater,” Dodd said. “This new age of the connected consumer is here, and so we must adapt.”

Driving more movie attendance through deeper audience connections with story and character (from their 2nd Screens) is our favorite topic.

Now, the issue for “Hollywood” really focuses on the Unions and their abilities to adapt to incorporate Talent (Writers, Directors, Actors) across multiple screens beyond “marketing” spends, but where it’s inherent to the Production and story itself.

*****

UPDATE:  Some additional Nielsen numbers on “2nd Screen” concurrent engagement with TV:

http://techcrunch.com/2012/04/27/report-69-of-tablet-owners-watch-tv-and-surf-the-web-simultaneously/

According to Nielsen, 45% of tablet owners watch TV and use their tablet together at least once a day. A whopping 69% say they do so at least several times a week and only 12% say they never do this.

It was terrific to read a NY Times story about “Conversational Writing” here:

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/23/talking-with-your-fingers/

Where the author defines “Conversational Writing” as being different from “writing.”  There are some great quotes, one take-away is:

 Not surprisingly, then, the earliest writing was based on the way people talk, and that meant short sentences with a direct logical throughline. Researchers have found that even educated people today speak in word packets of 7 to 10 words a pop.

How does this related to “connected TV” experiences?

Nearly 1/2 of the Audience are engaged in “conversational writing” on their 2nd Screens while consuming television.

http://econsultancy.com/us/blog/9685-the-five-cs-of-connected-tv

So, how about directing their “conversational writing” to include the on-screen characters?

In one case, this was so that the in-store shopper could instantly connect with any of the store employees who are on the Floor, but they can’t find.

The answer?

Sure.  Why not?

No apps to download.  No messaging costs.  The user’s privacy is safe.  

Instead of talking to a bot, you talk to a person, through our XMPP to HTTP platform and engine.

The only variable we need to include is a “push notification” to the “live agent” so they know there is an incoming message for them.

If you’d like to get on our early Beta test list, just CONTACT US and request “live agent beta.”

Of course, for volume and high concurrent user engagement, the personalized experiences we create with “bots” is the most cost effective and provides a great user experience.

Heck, we’re human too…we understand…sometimes you just want to talk to a person…quickly!

Here’s the ‘in a nutshell’ version. . .

The studies are now in…audiences now participate in concurrent, multi-screen experiences – Prime-tme is multi-screen time — But, that doesn’t mean the content, stories and brand stories are migrating between screens to create seamless and deeper engagement.

How to naturally engage and extend television to digital-device-on-the-couch?

Extend the reason television remains the First Screen to 2nd Screen content applications:  Extend the story.

Whether extending a :30 second television spot, a children’s animated series or a Prime Time drama, creating interactive narrative experiences taps into and deepens the audiences’ emotional connection to the First Screen.

2nd Screen experiences should be seen as a remarkable opportunity for television advertising and content production ventures…not to get clicks and Likes…but, to involve the audience within a personalized, conversational interaction.  This is why we built the contentAI studios’ platform.

Chat with Gossip Girl to uncover hidden clues and story material?

Chat with Astral from Yu-Gi-Oh for advice?

Chat with Mr. Clean, the Skittle’s Rainbow or a myriad of other Brand Characters?

Next time you talk to a television character, they should also talk back to you.

Because the Audience is doing a lot more than just listening.

UPDATE:  In addition to the Forrester Reports (Links in Post below), here is additional supporting evidence of the growing dual-screen phenomena:  http://www.screenmediadaily.com/news-viacom-tablets-tapping-into-tabletomics-study-television-consumer-behavior-tablet-user-experiences-airplay-0014001843.shtml

We’ll send you one.   While there’s often someone from our team at a conference or off doing demos…we can’t be everywhere…so, we’ll mail you one.  Just ask.

We are big believer’s in NFC.  Once you’ve created one, tapped one and experienced the mindless/seamless gesture…something that seems natural…well, we hope you’ll agree that NFC will play a major role in connecting the world to the internet…making objects speak!

We’re extremely pleased with TAGSTAND and their NFC tags (as well as their App:  NFC  TASK LAUNCHER)…which is where we source our NFC tags; we’d be pleased to send you one, that connects to one of our Interactive Mobile Virtual Agents…Just CONTACT US and ask.

BTW:  If you’re on LINKEDIN, please join the NFC CREATIVE Group and join the conversation.

But, after listening to numerous developer and developer service discussions on this topic, the over-emphasis on the technical tends to diminish the heart of the issue:  Mobile experiences are DIFFERENT than desktop.  I’d include the expanding ultrabook engagement format in this as well…

When someone finds you on a smaller screen, even if 50% of the prospects do this from their home (on the couch, while watching TV; see blog posts below), that consumer inherently has a different ENGAGEMENT FORMAT they are expecting.  They don’t need to access 100% of your data…they need to quickly pull up the data they want…

The experience needs to be controlled by the User…and responded to by the data/design (the User’s in control).

Small screens — Even medium screens (and virtual keyboards) — Are increasingly reducing “time on site” for Consumers.  Delivering ONLY the desired “experience,” quickly and efficiently, is paramount.

Therefore, the phrase “responsive experience design” – Where the User’s input shapes the data/content experience (intuitively, not through complex navigation) seems to be the Holy Grail of mobile design…Let the User define “context,” and then let the data flow specific to that context.

Obviously, we believe that natural language processing plays a big part of allowing the User to shape their content experience…Navigating and acquiring content through a User’s input…not forcing pre-set navigation…results in “responsive experience design.”

Here’s a partial list of what’s in our toolbox to address these issues:

In no particular order:

http://tools.pingdom.com    (General speed tests and breakdown of problem areas)

http://www.howtogomo.com/en/d/    (Go at least 2x levels deep for in-depth reporting; this is from Google)

http://www.laurencegellert.com/software/css-responsive-design-testing-tool/  (New responsive design emulator)

http://quirktools.com/screenfly/

http://responsive.is/

This  just came out for testing Android (additional OS support pending), on real devices and emulators with one click – It’s extraordinary:

http://www.appthwack.com/

The de facto standard for “site agents” has been to include a rather simple 256 color animated character that lip syncs to the voice (text to speech).  The quality here again is less than stellar.

While surprised it’s taken so long, we are now seeing some of those companies starting to package up their product for “mobile.”

What’s really surprising is that they are porting their exact same product – Delivering links or complex/dense text data — And, including those simplistic animated characters and audio (just on HTML.5 instead of Flash).

Hmmmm?

At contentAI studios, where we’ve been thinking about “mobile user experiences with virtual agents” for over two years, we decided long ago that including animated visual faces and audio was counter-intuitive to the average mobile user experience.  Often, the user is not in a location where they can hear.  Also, they don’t want to have to keep their visual focus on the small screen – they are “scan/viewing” across products, the world around them, a television AND their mobile screen…not singularly focused on one screen.

In that respect, we decided to focus our delivery of interactive narrative accompanied by still images that could “establish” the personality of the engagement, without requiring more than a fraction of a second of User Attention.  And, to deliver short, conversational engagements that are MOTIVATED by our virtual agents, not mere Q&A sessions “driven” by the End User – based on mobile experiences needing to be both contextual andget-to-the-point quickly.

Essentially, our virtual agents have a purpose specific to a Mobile User Experience…with the anticipation of the ENTIRETY of the experience, which extends beyond the screen, to the overall context of the engagement

So, will we include “animated characters with voices” on mobile?

No.  There are other companies who we can recommend for that.

We don’t think most Mobile End Users are seeking a duplication of static web experiences on their mobile devices.  But, perhaps, in some cases, it’s appropriate.  But it’s not what we offer here.  We also don’t believe that the current state of visual animated characters adds value to the User Experience; the lack of technical and visual quality is simply too much of a negative in our opinion.  End Users will “buy into” their chat experiences based on an establishing “still frame,” and they fill in the blanks on their own, without 10 frame per second 256 color “visual bots.”  We know this from our own research and analytics.

Because we never were in the mindset of “static web” virtual characters and have focused exclusively on “small screen” engagement, we aren’t porting over old assets to our mobile platform.  Everything is designed specifically for mobile.  To clarify, we also build for “desktop apps,” which are very similar experiences to mobile apps (small windows on the desktop; typically for extremely portable ultrabooks); but, most of our engagement is on mobile and tablets, based on our analytics.

What’s good for Brands is that they will have choices when it comes to how they approach adding a virtual agent to their mobile user experiences.

Based on price, quality and our exclusive focus on Mobile User Experience, we welcome an opportunity to present our platform in comparison to our competitors.

* Side note:  Yes, we include HTML.5 audio and video on our platform too – But, we use that precious (user) time and real-estate for Brand elements, not for animated characters.