‘Youtubers’ to catch young audience

Atresmedia and Mediaset, the two most powerful companies in Spanish private television, try to approach to the ‘millennials’ through online video platforms

Mediaset communication group launched last week Mtmad, a video platform for videos exclusive for internet and formats and content specifically targeted to young audiences. This idea is not new at all: tomorrow will be a year since Atresmedia launched Flooxer, a service with very similar characteristics that also aims to draw the attention of Millennials.

Flooxer platform

It’s no coincidence that both Spanish audiovisual groups have resorted to the Internet to arouse the interest of the audience of people under 30 years. These viewers are the ones that tend to follow YouTubers who distribute their content via the network, and instead consume less television than the older population. A study by the consulting firm Barlovento Comunicación concluded that between January and October just a 63.4% of Spaniards between 21 and 36 years had seen the TV, which represents 10 points less than the total population, and, moreover, the average daily consumption, which is 227 minutes overall, among Millennials stands at 157, and reaches 140 minutes in any age group between 21 and 26 years.

Mediaset

"We want to reach more people, and we feel that extending the offer can also reach people who until now did not consume our content," explains the multiplatform director of Mediaset, Ana Bueno. However, she says that the group already has "a lot of young people," both through TV channels or Mitele platform, which one until now offered the contents that were broadcast by conventional channels and since the birth of Mtmad has also incorporated specific formats produced by the network. "What we are doing is to expand the catalog of videos you have on the internet. We want our digital offering nourish not only television but also open up new types of content”, says Bueno.

Mtmad

Mtmad currently includes about forty different formats on topics such as fashion, cinema, travel, beauty, sex or video games, and often include advertising as a branded content, i.e. content directly linked to a brand. YouTubers as Aless Gibaja, Ruben Errebeene or Sara Ramirez offer their videos through this platform, but Mediaset also wants to use his new window to publicize some of the faces of their usual TV channels to a new audience. For example, one of the stylists of a Mediaset program, Cámbiame (Change me), Pelayo Diaz, has his own video blog with all kinds of advice. In the same wat, the TV presenter Tania Llasera show you how is her day to day from home in pajamas and no makeup and two stars of the reality Gipsy Kings reveal their tricks of makeup. "Many of the talents who work with us are authentic influencers. Now they can work with formats that are very different from television and reach other audiences” reflects Bueno.

Mtmad platforform

With the same aim of spreading television content of the group to an audience more used to internet videos, Mtmad also created the videoblog Que no salga de aquí (Do not tell this to anyone), through the one journalist Mireya Marrón demonstrates how to prepare Mediaset programs and what happens behind the scenes during the broadcast.

The director of platform Mediaset does not rule out that, over time, some of the formats born in Mtmad can finish making the leap to television grill, but stresses that this "is not the goal of the platform."

The origin of ‘Paquita Salas’

This path of the web to the TV is the one that followed the TV series Paquita Salas, born in Flooxer and, due its success, brought to the Atresmedia TV. even it was only possible to watch in TV the first episode.

Paquita Salas' opening

Unlike Mtmad, the video portal for Atresmedia offers -along with the videoblogs of creators like Mister Jägger, Vengamonjas or JPelirrojo- fictional works produced specifically for this platform. You can also find some fragments of programs of Antena 3 and La Sexta as El Intermedio or El Hormiguero, although the content manager platform, Emilio Sánchez Zaballos, said that among its objectives there is not the aim to derive new viewers to the channels of the Atresmedia group. “This is not a line of strategy, but if this ends winning the loyalty of the people, then it’s welcome," he said.

According to him, Flooxer was born because there are "new young viewers who want different content, new artists who only had exposure through YouTube and new demands of advertisers who want to reach this audience." A year later, Sánchez Zaballos is "very satisfied" with how the site is working, especially the "quality content" and because they have achieved "a high level of acceptance among users and creators."

Case Study: The Office - mockumentary series utilizing new media

"Wikipedia is the best thing ever. Anyone in the world can write anything they want about any subject. So you know you are getting the best possible information."

(Michael Scott, The Office, video)

The line between documentary and entertainment on TV have been blurred for few decades now. Neil Postman argues that the TV format in itself is better designed to entertain than to inform, so he wouldn't be surprised by the concept of "mockumentary", that stands behind the success of the TV series The Office. In this article, I would like to explore how this unique blend of reality and fiction (or, better yet, fiction portrayed through techniques hitherto reserved for documentary) functions and cooperates with other formats, typical for the Web 2.0 world. I am focused mainly on the US version, produced by NBC.

The Office - sometimes too real to watch

The original (UK) TV series was created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, accomplished and acclaimed comedy duo. In July 2001, the first episode aired on BBC Two, presenting to the audience a new type of sitcom. Using the documentary methods (single camera, moving camera, commentary, talking heads) they covered daily operation of an utterly ordinaryoffice of an fictional paper-supply company Wernham Hogg. All though everything is carefully scripted, comedy uses the feel of reality as its main mode for eliciting humor. Unlike other sitcoms, many "boring" and "nothing's happening" scenes are implemented to intensify the feeling of tedious work in such a job.

This is how mockumentary looks:

British version was famous for its dark humor and absurd, almost "too painful to watch" embarrassing moments and misunderstandings. There have been worries that the US version, which started airing March 2005 on NBC, would not live up to its UK predecessor. Even though this is a matter of taste, I dare say that after first two seasons, it is one of the best TV series currently on air. Entertainment Weekly remarked that the US version, an

"undervalued remake does the near impossible—it honors Ricky Gervais' original and works on its own terms." It's viewership keeps growing, starting at 5.4 millions for Season 1 and growing up to 9.4 millions for current, fifth season.

The Office and the new media

My first encounter with The Office dates back to the now-famous Steve Job's introduction of the new iPhone (video), in which he used "his favourite series" to demonstrate the video capabilities of the device. I find this quite symptomatic - The Office is one of the most favorite series on air and iTunes store is significant means of distribution, at least it was before hulu.com and NBC's own on-line player. The point is, live TV is not the only means of distribution by far, which is partly what the Writers Guild's strike was about.

Like many other TV series, The Office, too, uses webpages to increase the notion of reality. Both Dunder Mufflin and Sabre Corporation, the fictional companies from the series, have their own, regularly managed webpages. These, along with other blogs and videos, create unusually strong transmedia narrativity dimension, which works well with the mockumentary format and results in really wholesome experience for enthusiastic and active viewer.

Here are some of the regularly updated websites:

(spoiler alert)

• Baby blog
• Sabre Corp.
• Dunder Mifflin
• Dwight Schrute's blog
• Creed's Thought
• another blog (spoiler alert, don't read unless you follow the series :-)

All these are closely connected with the series, but also reacting to actual, current events. Dwight's blog, for example, reviewed the movie Avatar or writes on volcano eruption. To enjoy the texts, it is usually necessary to know the character, so we can view these as a reward for true fans who follow the series. Suddenly, they can use their knowledge of the fictional universe to enjoy extra content they wouldn't understand otherwise. Needless to say, this ties the fan closer to the show and creates new type of fans - "creative fan", for example.

The Office and videos for the web

There is nothing new about fan remixes on YouTube. You can find mash-ups (taking original video and adding a new sound) or collections of new scenes. Fans have contributed dozens of such clips that feature key The Office characters, my favorites include collections Every That's What She Said Joke or Best Pranks on Dwight, but there are genre remixes, too.

More interestingly, the producers jumped on board with their tolerance towards the copyright infringements - apparently, they are willing to overlook if users post individual scenes, even though this is not official rule, more of an observation.

And the producers themselves have created dozens of videos (so called webisodes) that are released only on-line, often during summer break. Typically, the secondary cast participate in these. Also, The Office facebook fan page releases deleted scenes or teasers on-line, and in The Office, these are considered "part of the canon", meaning they don't present some alternative universe but, again, reward fans for their patience and diligence.

Fans are appreciating (and expecting) this

In the Wikipedia era, the large and dilligent fan-base translates into extensive Wikipedia coverage. Truly, The Office is really well covered on Wikipedia:

• main page
• list of episodes
• most of the episodes have detailed description in their individual articles
• list of characters
• most of the main characters have detailed individual pages, just like Michael Scott

After the episode is broadcasted, it takes usually about few hours until a decent episode summary (including chapters setting it in the context of previous episodes) is ready on-line, constructed by usually by 3 to 20 people. It has been part of the WikiProject The Office (US), which "coordinates the collaborative work on" the articles concerning The Office.

Core fans also follow fan (unofficial) blogs: Life In The Office and Office Tally providing interesting news as well as notifications about newly released extra materials.

New generation of product placement

The Office has obviously exploited the new media quite successfully, encouraging fans from all over the world (although mainly in the USA) to follow the fates of their favorite characters with literally encyclopedic thoroughness. This, no doubt, creates richer experience for the viewer (who is no more just a viewer, but often active fan, even evangelist and promoter). Are there some tangible benefits for the producers, too?

There certainly are. Apart from selling DVDs and other merchandise, The Office has brought new level of something I call "natural product placement." Where in normal sitcom you'd see fake brands, in The Office, you can encounter mostly real products from real companies. Some pay to get in The Office:

• Activicsion's Call of Duty video game was a great subplot in The Coup episode
• Staples, a great competitor of the fictionaly Dunder Mifflin company, is a real and large company, and even though it plays sort of a negative role, it pays for it's on-screen presence
• Cisco systems supplied networks and telephones, and pays for it, even though, as far as I remember, was never mentioned

And these are not always contractual product placements. Apple's iPad plays a role at least three times, and some laptops are Apple-made, too. Other company computer uses Windows. Cars (Subaru, Toyota, Chrysler) are called by their names if appropriate etc. Websites such as Wikipedia, YouTube, TripAdvisor or MapQuest are often mentioned, as they would be in real life. In other words, the producers claim that they don't hesitate to bring up a brand name, as long as they feel that brings the natural, real feeling of an office conversation. I have to admit, I quite like that attitude.

My favorite moments

I consider myself a fan of The Office. There were several moments, though, where I had to go beyond that, and admit to be an admirer of what the authors, writers, directors, actors and producers accomplished.

In Local Ad, the team is to make their own advertising, using videocamers and amateur video editing software. When I was watching the result, I completely forgot this has been edited by professionals (of course it has, I had to remind myself, this is a TV series, of course they have editing professionals!). Instead, I was watching a short clip, somewhat clumsily, but surprisingly well, done by my friends. I think this was the best proof to me that they achieved to maintain the reality feel.

In Niagara, where certain two characters (spoiler alert!) got married, their friends surprise them with the JK Wedding Entrance Dance cover. Again, it feels so wonderfully real and improvised you completely sink into the moment, forgetting how many choreographers were probably present. And you can feel the cast is enjoying it like a real wedding.

I think it was a real wedding, in a way. Utilizing the new media made it possible to appeal to fans on new levels and encourage them to participate in on-line games, fan covers, voting, name-suggesting etc. In The Office, documentary and entertainment got married.

BTW You can watch many of The Office episodes on-line using SurfTheChannel.

Pavel Kasík