ABC took another shot with its interactive iPad app tonight, providing live content, character bios, trivia and polls to users as they watched Grey’s Anatomy. ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy Sync iPad app is the second app of its kind. The first app, ABC’s My Generation Sync, fell by the wayside last year as the tv show only aired two episodes. It was a shame because this new type of technology shared with Nielsen shows promise for what can be done in the future, bringing viewers interesting and interactive content live.
For those who had the chance to test out ABC’s My Generation Sync, there was not much new to see. Still, it’s great to see the app in action. The app syncing process was the same. Trivia, poll questions and other content were provided at the same time corresponding scenes were shown on tv. There was a new Facebook interface that popped up a few times asking questions like, "Do you think Callie and Arizona will get back together?" Facebook users’ comments were shown and the app user had a chance to comment as well.
The poll questions contained a horizontal scrolling bar allowing the user to select various degrees of their choice between two answers. Final results showed up soon after. There were also bits of insider information provided via the "Director’s Chair", "Editor’s Choice" and "Production Notes" with such insights as how and why certain scenes were filmed.
Parts of the show focused on tweeting in the OR during surgery and how a doctor, who wasn’t hip to the social media craze, became aware of how useful Twitter can be. He eventually answered tweeted questions from other doctors as he operated on a patient.
One disappointing part of this new app was the intrusion of Lexus ads. Not only did a banner advertising the Lexus show up several times between other content blocks, sometimes with a video of a car commercial, there were a few instances of trivia questions being asked about the automobile. A few ads here and there is understandable, but ABC over exposed the ads, and went over board with 3 Lexus related trivia questions. How many inspections must the Lexus RX pass during production? The answer is 3100.
A success for the most part, this type of app is sure to become more popular and widely used in the future. There are many avenues still to be explored to draw the viewer and app user in even more. Hopefully the ads won’t be as frequent and intrusive next time.
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