Cosmopolitan hosts mobile watch party for Netflix's 'You'

Brief:

Cosmopolitan's mobile website this month will debut a feature that lets fans of Netflix's "You" gather online to share the second season of the hit psychological thriller. The magazine's Cosmopolitan Watch Party on Dec. 26 will provide a running stream of show facts, quizzes and text interviews with the cast and crew that coincide with key plot points, Digiday reported.
Fans need to visit a special section of Cosmopolitan's mobile website and initiate the interactive content as they start streaming the show on Netflix. The Watch Party content is synchronized with the show, letting viewers initiate the second-screening experience in real time.
Cosmopolitan worked with the Google News Initiative, the search giant's effort to help journalism in the digital age, on the technology for the watch party. The Google News Lab built a separate content management system (CMS) for Cosmopolitan, which collaborated with Netflix on creating content for "You," Digiday reported.

Insight:

Cosmopolitan's development of a second-screening experience for Netflix's "You" is another sign of how of tech and media companies are collaborating on interactive technologies that engage viewers. The Cosmopolitan Watch Party is an experiment for the magazine, Google and Netflix that may present more sponsorship opportunities for mobile marketers seeking to reach a target audience. Almost three-fourths (71%) of TV viewers use a mobile device to look up something related to the TV content, while 41% said they text, email or message someone about the content, per Nielsen data cited by TechCrunch. Cosmopolitan can participate in that activity with its watch party.

The magazine may be able to find sponsors for interactive content it creates for future shows, movies and live events such as Fashion Week. The magazine focused on Netflix's "You" because an explainer article about the show's second season generated 2,140% more traffic than the publication's average stories that cover popular TV series, Digiday reported. For Netflix, the collaboration with Cosmopolitan helps to deepen fan engagement with its shows.

Potential sponsors of such content could be rewarded by viewers. Second screening improves the viewer's chances of following up on an ad by 75%, significantly improving effectiveness, according to a study by media agency MediaCom and technology company ViewersLogic. Women are more likely than men to respond to an ad while second screening, as 59% of their active responses happen while using a mobile device, compared with 51% of men, per the study.

The collaboration between Google and Cosmopolitan comes as tech companies work with publishers on innovative ways to engage audiences. The Google-created CMS provides editors with insights from Google Trends, the company's website that analyzes the popularity of top queries in Google Search in various regions and languages. That information helps to surface topics that are most popular among audiences for “You,” which editors can use to create more customized content. Facebook provides similar insights with CrowdTangle Intelligence, a software tool that lets publishers compare performance on platforms including Facebook Instagram, Twitter and Reddit.