Auckland Daze shows how interaction is the future of television
It's fair to say 2011 has really shown us how significant and important social media is for us as a country. In New Zealand alone, the Rugby World Cup showed how people came together using the well recognised hashtag #RWC2011 on Twitter to share their thoughts about almost everything to do with the six week long tournament and share our experience with the rest of the world. Currently, the hot topic is the upcoming election which has also brought up its own set of hashtags, stiff discussions online and how people rate the political parties during the leaders' debates.
What has this shown us? Social media now no longer involves just one segment of the media pie. Unlike other forms of media, the social nature means we as humans want to share our views and opinions on almost anything. If you don't like an advertisement, tweet about it; if you think a billboard is stupid, post a picture of it on Facebook. Watching a television programme and want to see what other people watching think about it? Create a hashtag and talk about it whilst you are watching it. Interaction seems to have no boundaries in topics or mediums.
This has become increasingly prevalent in the more recent years, the TV show Reservoir Hill was the first of the New Zealand online-interactive shows that asked the audience for feedback and advice for a main character. It went on to be nominated and to win a 2010 International Emmy for a digital show aimed at younger audiences.
This year the online-only interactive show to watch is Auckland Daze. It follows the story of four men in Auckland - a male model, a stuntman, a dwarf actor and a comedian. Without giving too much of the plot away, we've provided a deleted scene from the show.
Auckland Daze has seen a great amount of success in a short amount of time, following it's launch just under a month ago. There have been four episodes so far and the programme has already won the number one spot as the most watched showed on TVNZ's OnDemand service. The Auckland Daze page not only serves as a place to watch the TV show, but it also allows people to meet the characters, link it to their Facebook page, answer digipolls about the show and watch behind the scenes videos, plus more. As the show progresses, the call for audience interaction is not only for Facebook and Twitter but for people to review the episodes and the show in general on blogs.
We had the opportunity to interview Kiel McNaughton, creator of Auckland Daze, in our fifth episode of The Social Life about the show and the importance of creating original web content.
If you would like to watch Auckland Daze, you can do so at TVNZ OnDemand. We would love to hear your thoughts about the programme. Do you think this sort of interactive content is a welcome breath of fresh air?