TV series Dream School SA is seeking to tap into the growing popularity of mobile social messaging service, WeChat.
The series has expanded its reach and impact through a partnership that takes additional content and audience engagement to mobile via WeChat.
Dream School SA, a prime time series produced by Little Leo Films and being aired on SABC, is a documentary reality show in which 15 teenagers, who have either dropped out of school or are likely to fail, are coached by celebrity mentors and teachers with a view to reignite in them a love for education.
With 450 million active users each month and one million new sign-ups per day, WhatsApp is the world's most popular messaging app. However, figures revealed recently show that WeChat is catching up. WeChat's parent company Tencent, says the combined monthly active users of WeChat and Weixin (the version available in China) reached 355 million at the end of 2013, an increase of 121% year-on-year and up 6% quarter-on-quarter.
Other broadcasters in SA are also tapping into the popularity of WeChat, CliffCentral.com, in particular, has its own WeChat account which is used to stream his radio show.
According to the "SA Social Media Landscape 2014" report compiled by World Wide Worx and Fuseware, Facebook is SA's largest social network with 9.4 million active users. Meanwhile, WeChat was reported to only have 5% of the user base in the country. World Wide Worx MD Arthur Goldstuck has also indicated that WeChat's user base could grow to about 13% in the next year or two.
With a spread of teenagers representative of SA's population and the challenges faced by the country's youth, Dream School SA says it aims to inspire both them and the show's viewers.
In a press statement, Little Leo Films says the show has already achieved viewer numbers of up to three million, with a rapidly-growing number of followers on its official WeChat account.
WeChat, Little Leo Films and the SABC have also made history on free-to-air TV in SA by integrating live user interaction with a pre-recorded show, via its Msg2TV functionality, which allows viewers to post messages and comments to a live ticker running during the show.
Producer Markus Davies says the show's inspirational content and format lent itself to second screen supplementation. On the WeChat account, the audience can view additional footage, discover more about show sponsors MySchool, discuss the show, interact with the cast and even apply to be part of the second series of Dream School SA. "This helps to make the show even more dynamic and current. With experiments such as the WeChat partnership, we are able to engage more closely with viewers and take the show into new environments," he says.
Davies says: "The audience of the future demands second screen integration. They want to talk about the show, participate in chat rooms and see additional content relevant to them. By taking programming outside of traditional broadcasting and adding context, foresight and interactivity, we are taking TV with incredible inspirational value to a wider audience. This is how TV will look in future."
Director Paul Yule says of the revolutionary approach: "It's fascinating to see the engagement taking place in real-time with content of this sort. Traditionally, we would get some word-of-mouth reaction and some reviews, but in the age of WeChat, we are getting moment-to-moment engagement with the content, which is interesting. It also allows for all kinds of other subsidiary content to be made available and enables a non-linear approach to receiving information. We are moving toward a time when TV content will become more like the experience of surfing the Web - there will be no direct line you go through, you will find your own way through to the information you want, and storytelling is just the start."
Yule says with only the first four episodes broadcast, the WeChat platform has seen a phenomenal start and audience engagement. "I am really excited to see where it goes. I am also very interested to see what the opportunities for corporate sponsorship will be through this second screen approach. For example, there are now multiple opportunities to use a positive inspirational message such as Dream School SA's to get their corporate message across. I hope it will help South African production houses to garner good corporate backing, which would support local programme development in future."
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