WE Brings Transmedia to Fans

Add WE tv to the growing number of programmers augmenting their audience by creating a transmedia experience for viewers with online content.

During the third season of Braxton Family Values, WE tv debuted 10 videos online, including a five-part series on Traci Braxton learning to ride a motorcycle and shopping for biker-chic fashions. Braxton online content also included teaser spots and an interstitial segment.

“It’s a way to engage our super fans,” says Jen Robertson, WE tv senior VP, digital media and business development. WE makes sure fans find the online content by teasing story lines during episodes and driving viewers to WEtv.com with promos during pod-buster commercial breaks.

The 10 Braxton videos were the most-watched on WE’s site, accumulating 67,000 views from April 1 to May 16, according to Brightcove, outperforming other videos on the site by 69% in terms of average minutes viewed. And so far, this has been the highest-rated season for Braxton Family Values.

WE is looking to take advantage of its gains by putting together a transmedia package for its new series Pregnant & Dating, premiering May 31. The show features pregnant single women looking for a partner not scared off by the prospect of an instant family. The majority of one of the womens’ stories will be told online.

“We couldn’t tell all the stories onair,” Robertson says, so online content allow viewers to get a deeper story. “We are trying to enhance their experience constantly.”

Jon Lafayette

Jon has been business editor of Broadcasting+Cable since 2010. He focuses on revenue-generating activities, including advertising and distribution, as well as executive intrigue and merger and acquisition activity. Just about any story is fair game, if a dollar sign can make its way into the article. Before B+C, Jon covered the industry for TVWeek, Cable World, Electronic Media, Advertising Age and The New York Post. A native New Yorker, Jon is hiding in plain sight in the suburbs of Chicago.