The natural evolution of entertainment is to become increasingly immersive. During the digital revolution, we have seen more media companies embrace digital technologies to create multi-screen experiences in order to cater to the ever growing consumer market that is Gen Z .  The film and TV industry has leveraged digital solutions to pre-launch promotional tactics of the stunt variety. Over the long weekend, Saturday Night Live celebrated their 40th anniversary by showing the world a brand is never to old to embrace a new wave of communication through the launch of their first ever mobile app which showcased their 40  years of comedy history. WSJ reported research that 3/4th’s of SNL viewers are web savvy on mobile, which encouraged NBC to launch the mobile app.

The app, which houses over thousands of sketches, also offers a recommendation engine to discover sketches, a tool to browse clips by season or cast member, as well as engagement tools. While all the content includes sharable functionality, the most innovative feature was a custom emoji keyboard that integrated itself within your smartphone. We have our fingers crossed for a GIF option in the next version!

Of course no producer would release their content online ad free, so viewers can expect to see a video ad for every 6 minutes of content they consume. Despite the video advertising component, the  app currently has 3 and 1/2 stars on Apple’s iTunes store.  Kudos to NBC Universal Media for putting the investment in to modernize and monetize content nearly half a century old!