MIPTV 2012 – thoughts and comments

So, MIPTV 2012 is done and dusted, along with MIPFormats and the inaugural MIPCube. The days – and the nights – flew by at a breathtaking pace, so now I find myself in Antibes with my family for what I definitely feel is a well-earned vacation.

With the events of the past few days still somewhat fresh in my head, I thought it prompt to write up a short recap of some things I saw as important. Mind you, I was in the MIPFormats Pitch final and had, as a consequence, quite a number of meetings, so I missed out on a lot of interesting stuff. On the other hand, business is business, and I’d rather have it than not, so… Still, here are some things I thought worth taking note of:

 The TV industry is moving in the right direction.

With this I mean that amongst the clutter of animated cuddly bears and 14-hour long drama series with serious bearded men from the Middle East, there is a growing number of people in the TV industry who get that there is a real need for everyone to take note of where the audience is heading and make plans for how to be there to welcome them when the major part of them arrive. Granted, the ways of doing so vary wildly, from Lisa Hsia and her Master Chef-transmedia-extension to companies geared solely towards connected TV-sets, and everything in between. Still, I was positively surprised to see TV people talking to tech people and actually discussing issues and challenges, not just mmm-ing and aahh-ing along.

The brands are in the mix

Alongside the tv industry are the brands. These have in several cases shown a readiness to go beyond their previous limits when it comes to offering true and engaging stories, and to some extent even build it all into something touching on transmedia storytelling principles. Still, many simply do not have a clue.

As transmedia can help in so many ways, it just feels a bit silly not to utilize it to get deeper audience engagement, more serious interactive possibilities and a firmer story world, or mythology, to build further story archs on and offer logical and immersive entry points into.

Milking the ”transmedia” buzzword for all it’s worth

There were a lot of transmedia creators and producers in Cannes last week. Some actually are, while others are more of the kind that like to jump on any buzzword that might buy them a free lunch or three. All in all, I can’t help but observe that the term itself is becoming pretty diluted. Add to this the fact that everyone who actually knows something about transmedia seem to find it impossible to talk about transmedia without starting with ”aaaand, so, my view of transmedis is…” followed by a description that differs less than 2% from the description of the previous speaker. For the first time in my life, I’ve actually felt a yearning for a definite definition of ”transmedia”, if only to be able to get rid of all these definitions hopping about.

TV going social… controlling the uncontrollable

Many people, many companies and many apps on exhibit (especially at MIPCube) were about taking the TV experience into a social direction. For the most time though, this was about pointing people to the Facebook page and to the correct hashtag to use if tweeting about the program. Still, less than one third of new shows commissioned actually launch an FB page as well, which is just appalling statistics. I.e., what people in the biz are trying to do is control the uncontrollable, harness that which can’t be harnessed, basically using tactics in a social space that never should be used in a social pace. Here, I have a brilliant idea; hopefully you’ll see something more of it sooner than later.

 You never know who you’ll run into on La Croisette

This year; Jean Reno, Miss World, some people from Jersey Shore, and at the Nokia cocktail party at C Beach, to my total delight, Sam from Zero 7. Excellent!

All in all a very giving six days. I’ll end here, but I reserve the right to add on to this post as soon as I’m not on a sketchy wifi on the Cote d’Azur.