Website brings TV wannabes together
By Emiko Terazono,Media CorrespondentPublished in the FT: October 24 2006 03:00 Last updated: October 24 2006 03:00
When Stephen Lambert, the creator of the television series Shipwrecked, urged wannabe TV stars to audition for the reality show earlier this year, he had no idea what he was starting. The chief creative officer of RDF Media, the television production group behind programmes such as Wife Swap and Supernanny, decided to create a website where they could sign up.
However, the internet site, Islandoo.com, created only last month, has taken on a life of its own. Thanks to the numbers of youngsters who have uploaded pictures and videos, the site has developed into a full-blown social networking site, with participants who heard of it through word of mouth messaging eachother and reacting to one another’s comments.
Since its launch it has garnered almost 18,000 profiles, 1.5m comments from users and almost 10m page views. While many television programmes have forums and chat rooms, very few have profiles of the users allowing the photo and video uploading and messaging that characterise the social networking phenomenon.
The result amounts to a new twist in the trend that has taken the world’s under-20s by storm - and one at which advertisers are already casting covetous eyes. The interest may soon extend across the Atlantic. RDF plans to export the show and website to the US.
Explaining the merits of Islandoo.com, Mr Lambert says: “With a chat room, there is mainly one public conversation with everybody. Here people get to know each other between themselves.”
Sam Sethi of TechCrunchUK, the technology blogging site, adds: “The site mixes the social network aspect of MySpace, instant messaging of MSN and YouTube videos in a single application.”
With a growing number of young people spending time on sites such as MySpace.com, Bebo.com and YouTube.com, the appeal for traditional media groups is not hard to understand. Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp bought MySpace.com last year for $580m (£312m) and Google recently paid $1.65bn for YouTube.com.
Janet Goldsmith, co-managing director of Mediatique media consultancy, suggests that in future many other television broadcasters will seek to follow Shipwrecked’s example by creating website communities to ensure a buzz around a new show.
She says: “Technology has caught up with what people want to do, and it’s facilitating other worlds. Creating a community around a programme brand across other platforms is absolutely essential.”
RDF is currently talking to advertising agencies about how to cash in on the website. David Alberts, chairman of Grey London, acknowledges the possibility of putting up advertising on the site, but notes that the participants of Islandoo.com - products of a “pull” rather than a “push” culture - may not particularly warm to brands that simply upload their commercials.
He says: “What you’ve got is 18,000 people who are desperate to promote themselves, impress people and be outgoing. What we’re thinking about is actually using the site to encourage the entrants to make their own Nokia ad or their own Clover ad.”
Filming for Shipwrecked finishes in December. Mr Lambert wants to keep the website to use it to audition contenders for other programmes and maintain it as a possible source of user-generated content.
But keeping up the momentum of a social networking site is no easy task, and requires the owners and operators to invest money and energy to remain at the cutting edge in both technology applications and fickle user tastes.
Ynon Kreiz, general partner of Benchmark Capital, the venture capital group specialising in new media, notes: “In order to keep the sheer momentum and creativity, you have to retain, maintain and reinvent.”
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2006