Attention, TV industry: Cling to church and state attitudes about integrated digital content at your own peril.
“We’re so beyond the point of this being an appendage” to production, Adam Abramson, director of digital content for The Late Late Show with James Corden, said at a Produced By New York panel on producing for the web sponsored by Deadline.
Abramson recalled how, when he started in a similar position at Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, the mandate for web-only content was “to get as many people to watch Fallon as possible.” As he ended his first year overseeing digital content for Corden’s late-night show on CBS, Abramson said, “it was, OK, we have this audience, how do we make money off of them?”
“I’ve had pretty easy sledding for arguably the first time in my career,” Abramson added.
All the digital producers on the panel stressed that supplementary branded content has to be authentic and original, given that the digital audience is more a specific community, craving a different kind of engagement with shows.
“They expect transmedia storytelling,” said JeJuan Guillory, supervising producer for The Gamer Agency. “The audience expects it, they’re looking for it, they want it badly.”
