Maximizing Broadcaster ROI with Entertainment Apps [Video]

What are the benefits of Entertainment apps and how can broadcasters make the most out of them?

To learn more about using Entertainment apps for growing Broadcaster businesses, we’re interviewing Heikki Rotko.

Heikki has previously worked as the CEO of Finland's biggest commercial broadcaster MTV Oy. Currently he is the Honorary president of Egta, the association of television and radio sales houses, and works as the Executive Chairman at Choicely.

This is the third interview of the series, we recommend checking out the first and second ones as well.

Watch the video to learn:

• The benefits of an Entertainment app
• About innovations to building apps
• The keys to success with an Entertainment app

Find the written version of the interview below the video.

Ready? Go back to the first part:

Can you sum up the benefits of a 365 Entertainment app?

“The point really is to get more stickiness with your audiences, offer them new ways to interact with your content, and get more viewers for your shows because this is a promotional channel.”, Heikki Rotko explains.

“Then you learn more about your audience with qualitative and quantitative data.”, Heikki states.

“You gather data, you offer more opportunities for advertisers, and you can even use the entertainment app as a research channel or method”, Heikki adds.

As an Entertainment app is designed to cover many shows and be active around the year, the point of it is to gather as many users as possible under its umbrella. The high number of app users – and its correlation with the viewership of each show –  enable broadcasters to collect feedback on shows and their different aspects of them in a very agile way.

“I mean, you've done it with clunky old methods which take time and cost money that could do it with the same app for free.”, Heikki compares.

The point really is to get more stickiness with your audiences

With entertainment apps, Broadcasters can get this qualitative data on top of the viewership data that they already have. Maybe one show has a small viewership, but a very passionate audience – whereas another has a large audience, but the feedback is mediocre.

Broadcasters can have this combination of data and act on it – even very quickly, for the next episode.

“This is customer centric thinking.”, Heikki summarizes.

Are there innovations in how these apps are built?

“The company that I represent as a chairman is a company based in Helsinki and Switzerland, Choicely. Choicely has created an advanced, disruptive platform that is used for creating mobile apps with affordable budgets and even very quick timelines and always guaranteed with the premium quality.”, Heikki Rotko explains.

“This triangle – affordability, high quality, and quickness – hasn't existed in apps before. You have been getting premium apps, but with big budgets and typically quite long timelines because they are always custom built.”, Heikki claims.

“Technology has advanced, there's been a decade of low code and even no code platforms – like what WordPress is for websites. What Choicely does for mobile apps and premium mobile apps is the same.”, Heikki summarizes.

“You can build any level of mobile app with this platform that we are representing and there are no limitations, and you will always save compared to the ‘old model’. You will always save a lot of time and money.”, Heikki says.

This triangle – affordability, high quality, and quickness – hasn't existed in apps before.

“When I used to be CEO of MTV Oy in Finland, and before that commercial director, signed big ICT checks like: 400K€, 800K€, 250K€, and I asked, ‘what do we get?’. And you don't get much even with that kind of money.”

“So it's also an issue of how much you spend on ICT, what kind of lead times you have. The modern way is to use white label platforms like Choicely because when you have a company focused on doing one thing really well, it's always really focused on that and it should be very competitive in the axis of quality and price.”

“And of course, ease of use is one of the components that even people with lesser technical skills – typically producers on the production companies or on the entertainment teams – are not good with tech. Usually, they are afraid of tech.”

“But now [with easy-to-use no code tools] they can concentrate on how they can make their shows more interesting, more interactive, more creative. They can concentrate on creativity.”

“The commercial teams can concentrate on what kind of commercial business loop would be embedded. So they can go to the advertisers. And the advertisers always want to have new things offered for them. Always.”

“And when you have new offerings for advertisers in the digital space, you can make good deals at good price points.”

What are the keys to success with an entertainment app?

“The first is that there has to be dedication on the owner of the app side”, Heikki emphasizes.

“I mean it's a broadcaster Entertainment app, and the entertainment division or the unit has to be really dedicated to use it. They should see the value that can be earned with that.”

“The Entertainment app doesn't go by itself. It needs fresh content and good planning using an annual, quarterly, weekly, or even a daily clock.”

Heikki describes the organization needs to consider how they can activate the app on different levels, from the largest shows, to medium ones, or as an example, morning shows.

“I think the morning shows could be much more interactive. It's a small thing, but it runs every morning, it could be embedded there or the radio stations morning show the question of the day, the quiz of the day.”

This level of participation could appeal to many kinds of age groups and demographics.

What is crucial for success is to get a lot of downloads, and frequent usage for the app. And a broadcaster can promote it every day – like broadcasters do with their current apps.

“So it's a combination of content, dedication, promotion, and marketing. And creativity to offer things that haven't been offered to the audience before. The app needs to have special content or a component that you don't find anywhere else.”

One example of such a component would be to have the audience rate in a dance show.

“You rate the dancers on your sofa for free with different qualities: how well do they stick to the rhythm, how’s their clothing, how was the choreography. People can rate from their sofa just for fun and give their opinions, and the results can be shown real time after the big screen performance.”

“I don't see this kind of interactivity very much yet, there could be a lot more. This level of participation could appeal to many kinds of age groups and demographics.”

Learn more about our 365 Entertainment app solution