MTV Lets ‘Teen Wolf’ FansJoin Show, Via Facebook

MTV is looking to keep fans of sophomore
drama series Teen Wolf engaged in between episodes
via a social media experience on Facebook.

The Teen Wolf
social-media offering,
dubbed “The
Hunt,” allows users
to participate in
a parallel plotline
that coincides with
the on-air storyline
for the eight-week
series, according to
Kristin Frank, MTV
and VH1 Digital
general manager.

“It’s a big feat
and endeavor, but I
think we’re hitting in all the right places and our fans
will be delighted,” she said.

The Hunt will play out through a series of secret videos,
text messages and other content that will appear
on Facebook. It will feature several story arcs that
could yield different outcomes depending on how a
user answers questions posed on the site, Frank said.

The Teen Wolf interactive page will be available via
users’ Facebook accounts, MTV Digital supervising
producer Danielle Garre said. Players will “interact”
with characters from the show who, as part of the alternative
storyline, will ask users to complete tasks to
help them through various show-related scenarios.

The user interacts with characters from the series
via video, voice and text messages to complete tasks
related to the storyline. For example, when users sign
up, they’re immediately placed as student workers at
the series’ Beacon Hills High School to destroy a video
saved to a school-based hard drive.
“The user is given a student aid badge which
pulls in the user’s current Facebook profile image,
which immediately personalizes the experience
for the user,” Garre said.

The online storyline will intersect with what’s
happening on the screen all the way through to the
season finale. Garre said the user’s experience will
depend on how they answer questions and how often
they sign in to play the game.

“The more you interact with it, the greater the experience
is for the fan … as we move forward through
the weeks, we’re creating different scenes depending
on [the user’s] answer,” she said.

The Hunt is part of MTV’s “storytelling without
borders” effort that looks to engage viewers with the
network’s scripted and reality shows across different
platforms, Frank said. It will use similar tactics for
other scripted series.

“Storytelling without borders is not about technology
or social media, but about furthering a storyline
across platforms [where] our fans are interacting,”
she said. “This platform will be another spoke in our
wheel, in terms of telling a story.”

Teen Wolf’s season-two premiere June 3 drew 2.1 million
viewers, on par with the season-one debut and finale and
more than the first-year average of 1.7 million viewers.

R. Thomas Umstead

R. Thomas Umstead serves as senior content producer, programming for Multichannel News, Broadcasting + Cable and Next TV. During his more than 30-year career as a print and online journalist, Umstead has written articles on a variety of subjects ranging from TV technology, marketing and sports production to content distribution and development. He has provided expert commentary on television issues and trends for such TV, print, radio and streaming outlets as Fox News, CNBC, the Today show, USA Today, The New York Times and National Public Radio. Umstead has also filmed, produced and edited more than 100 original video interviews, profiles and news reports featuring key cable television executives as well as entertainers and celebrity personalities.