NBC Universal Interactive and KickApps, a complete Social Software solution, announced a licensing agreement including the latest version of the “App Studio” and recently released “Premium Social Video platform.”
Expanding on an existing relationship with NBC Local Media, the new agreement includes full access to the KickApps platform for a variety of NBC Universal sites, including a unique socially driven fan site launching from Telemundo in the coming months. Using the KickApps platform will allow NBC Universal to launch increasingly socially integrated site and video features, driving deeper user engagement and interest in their world-class content.
”We’re really excited about the KickApps App Studio- it’s by far the most advanced solution we’ve seen for publishing and managing social media, and it’s going to make a huge difference in our ability to quickly build and launch socially powered sites for our brands,” said Marc Siry, SVP of Digital Products and Services for NBC Universal. “Additionally, their support for the Open Source Media Framework was a key differentiator in our decision to work with KickApps for our premium social video needs- we truly believe it will help us innovate quickly for our brand and advertising partners.”
Using KickApps powered social media applications, the NBC’s local media markets, covering the top DMAs across the country [New York (http://nbcnewyork.com), Los Angeles (http://nbclosangeles.com), the Bay Area (http://nbcbayarea.com), Washington, D.C. (http://nbcwashington.com), San Diego (http://nbcsandiego.com), Dallas/Ft. Worth (http://nbcdfw.com), Philadelphia (http://nbcphiladelphia.com) Chicago (http://nbcchicago.com), Connecticut (http://nbcconnecticut.com) and Miami (http://nbcmiami.com)] enabled local audience members to assign a Mood rating to content: laughing, furious, bored, intrigued, sad or thrilled. Highly rated articles and the readership’s prevailing mood appear in the website’s header noting the mood and the article of the day that residents are most interested in, e.g. New York is furious about possible tax hikes.
Additionally, local audience members can share their local Moments in the “So My City” section, e.g. So New York, So Los Angeles and So Washington. The So My City section becomes a reflection of each community’s unique interests, likes and dislikes, and brings members together around their local community. Moments are submitted under one of three categories: ‘Check It,’ ‘Confess’ and ‘What The?’
Local members can upload their Moments as text micro-blogs with photos and video.
NBC Local Media attributes the growth of sites such as nbcnewyork.com (WNBC-TV), nbcchicago.com (WMAQ-TV) and nbcphiladelphia.com (WCAU-TV) to the inclusion of more social-media tools, allowing visitors to interact with one another and the content on the site.
• Visitors to the 10 Web sites doubled from 6 million in Nov. 2008 to 12 million in Oct. 2009.
• Page views are up 296% from 29 million to 113 million
