FremantleMedia UK and ITV are revamping the social strategy for series seven of dating show Take Me Out, adding new platforms and creating unique content to encourage greater viewer engagement.
Working with agency Social Life, the social media revamp will see extra video content of the Saturday night show shown across more social networks.
It will feature ongoing editorial and video content on Facebook and Twitter, with additional video content on YouTube and Vine.
The content will include stories and behind-the-scenes stories told during the show and its sister programme Take Me Out: The Gossip on ITV2.
Take Me Out is produced by Thames, the entertainment label of FremantleMedia UK, for ITV’s flagship channel.
Commissioned by ITV Online, FremantleMedia UK Interactive has appointed social media agency Social Life to run all activity across Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, which has been revived to give fans more access to the show. Vine is also being debuted.
Each platform will be used to build authentic, personal experiences for fans of Take Me Out and ITV2 spin off Take Me Out: The Gossip, sharing past contestants’ stories as well as current developments throughout the series.
“Five years ago, social content would’ve been a second thought. Now it is very much one of the first processes when marketing a programme and building a relationship with your viewers,” said Roy Henry, Producer at FremantleMedia UK Interactive. “This series we want to embrace social as an integral part of Take Me Out. We’re creating native Facebook videos and uploading clips to ITV.com so fans can watch and share more easily. The content we produce will be guided by the amount of interaction and engagement on social channels so that we’re creating exactly what the fans want to see.”
Take Me Out, which has over 1.5 million Facebook fans, will continue to grow its social following across all platforms, bringing host Paddy McGuinness’ ‘let the cinnamon see the bun’ style catchphrases to life with images and micro-video.
“By mirroring the show’s trademark humour, creating funny clips and revealing exclusive details about past contestants’ love lives, we’ll engage viewers using fresh content on a daily basis,” said Alistair Parrington, co-founder of Social Life. “Tiny details make all the difference with social assets – a facial expression from one of the girls can produce a highly shareable Vine clip. When a marriage or baby is announced people are intrigued to see how the contestants have changed. Using social spaces to tell these stories is a neat way of continuing the conversation each week once all the lights are out.”
Social Life is also managing editorial content on www.itv.com/takemeout.
The agency has previously worked with FremantleMedia UK and ITV on social media activity for The X Factor’s latest season. Social Life is run by co-founders Laura-May Coope and Alistair Parrington, ex BBC Radio 1 and 1Xtra social media and digital innovation lead producers.