Dialling up the world
If you’ve ever yelled at the TV, or felt a bit awkward applauding an inanimate electronic device in your living room, help is at hand.
Three digital media experts have unveiled a new venture, Buzzdial, which will allow anyone to vent their feelings publicly about anything, but particularly about live TV.
It sounds frivolous but there is serious purpose behind it. The three, Tom Cotter, Geoff Devereux and Ross Howard, have the experience, the backing and the intention to make Buzzdial a business with global impact.
‘‘Across the last 10 years the world’s got a hell of a lot smaller and we can walk on the pathway that’s been paved by the likes of Serato, Xero, M-com, Weta in the ability to take a New Zealand product into the globe,’’ said Cotter. Buzzdial’s creators have the credentials to make it happen. Cotter left his job on Friday to join Buzzdial full-time after six years as head of digital media at TVNZ. Devereux is a digital marketing specialist, latterly as CEO of Auckland agency Union Digital. Howard is another digital marketer, co-founding Buzzdial after working as digital director with ad agency Whybin/TBWA.
Their ideas for Buzzdial have been bubbling away for a year.
With people increasingly using a ‘‘second screen’’, such as a tablet or smartphone, while watching TV, or accessing TV programmes online, there are opportunities to engage viewers on another level, said Cotter.
‘‘We started looking at the existing solutions and even before we started taking this seriously we were just underwhelmed with what’s been presented to broadcasters in the form of second screen or social television.’’ There were dedicated channels for particular programmes and plenty of chat on social media, but nothing purpose-built for live TV.
‘‘Buzzdial was born of necessity – we saw an opportunity that wasn’t being serviced properly.’’
The concept can be seen in prototype on Buzzdial’s website. An indicator like a speedometer measures reactions to an item, such as ‘‘Black Caps vs India’’ and joining in offers the chance to express positive or negative opinions in real time. Anyone can create a ‘‘dial’’, so the opportunity to comment is in viewers’ hands.
Exactly how that will make money is not set in stone, said Devereux. ‘‘We wouldn’t be presumptuous enough to leap into the market and smash out some sort of revenue model where we corrupt the user experience.’’
But the idea is to generate realtime data of value to broadcasters and brands associated with particular programmes.
‘‘It’s like telemetry versus watching Formula 1. You can see the braking and acceleration but there’s all this other telemetry going back to the pits. We provide telemetry not just to broadcasters but to anyone wanting to engage around live events.’’
The lean start-up will begin with a nuts and bolts service and learn how people use it before adding features. This approach has already earned Buzzdial some useful investment backing, including from TVNZ. Companies Office records also reveal the shareholding of 369 Frederick, whose directors Jason Senn and Richard Suhr are Asia-Pacific executives with Google.
More smart investment is on the way. ‘‘We’re in the middle of an investment round at the moment,’’ said Cotter .’’ ‘‘We’ve done some preliminary work around the Super Bowl, and also been targeting some shows in the States to drive some activity and understand the dynamics,’’ said Howard.
‘‘There’s no reason to focus here. In fact our best opportunities are still offshore where there are large audiences.’’