Showtime’s Haptic ‘Homeland’ Video Gives Android Users A Multisensory Experience

Show­time has inte­grat­ed hap­tic tech­nol­o­gy into a mobile video ad for its dra­ma series “Home­land”. That’s the same tech­nol­o­gy Apple is incor­po­rat­ing into Apple Watch to pro­vide taps on the wrist to give turn-by-turn direc­tions. The Show­time video is a more...

Lisa Lacy By Lisa Lacy. Join the discussion » 0 comments

Show­time has inte­grat­ed hap­tic tech­nol­o­gy into a mobile video ad for its dra­ma series “Home­land”. That’s the same tech­nol­o­gy Apple is incor­po­rat­ing into Apple Watch to pro­vide taps on the wrist to give turn-by-turn direc­tions. The Show­time video is a more enter­tain­ing appli­ca­tion of the tech­nol­o­gy, but it also makes some­thing of a win for Android because iPhones don’t have the tech­nol­o­gy to play videos with tac­tile feed­back. In oth­er words, “Home­land” fans with iPhones will miss out on the com­plete expe­ri­ence.


One of the fea­tures in the new Apple Watch that got the crowd excit­ed after Tim Cook’s iPhone 6 announce­ment is a tech­nol­o­gy known as hap­tic, which enables the device to vibrate when, for exam­ple, dol­ing out turn-by-turn direc­tions. It is per­haps iron­ic then that Show­time has released what it calls the first ever hap­ti­cal­ly enabled mobile video for the fourth sea­son of its series “Home­land”, which debuts Octo­ber 5, but only view­ers with Android devices will get the full effect.

The “Home­land” video is avail­able on the network’s Show­time Any­time app for select Android devices in the “Com­ing Soon” sec­tion, as well as by click­ing on a ban­ner with­in Slate’s app.

A Show­time rep says the hap­tic video is not avail­able for iPhones because “iPhones do not have this tech­nol­o­gy.”

Accord­ing to Show­time, once users install an update for the Show­time app, the video will offer a “mul­ti-lay­ered sen­so­ry expe­ri­ence” through the use of tac­tile feed­back. In oth­er words, as fans watch the trail­er on their mobile devices, they expe­ri­ence “nuanced hap­tic effects,” which, Show­time says, “[build] sus­pense and [immerse] view­ers.”

Indeed, view­ers feel vibra­tions when a bomb explodes and glass breaks. The device emits a buzzing sen­sa­tion that builds with stronger vibra­tions as ten­sion mounts. The vibra­tions com­ple­ment the music, which has much the same ten­sion-height­en­ing effect.

Show­time says it is the first to inte­grate this tech­nol­o­gy in mobile adver­tis­ing and notes the inter­ac­tive ele­ment encour­ages deep­er fan engage­ment and recall with paid media.

And while it is unclear whether Show­time is actu­al­ly the first, Leslie Hall, pres­i­dent of dig­i­tal mar­ket­ing agency Iced Media, said it’s cer­tain­ly a great exam­ple of a video with hap­tic tech­nol­o­gy.

Often­times brands race to become first-movers just for the sake of being first, but that’s not the case here,” Hall said. “This exe­cu­tion is seam­less in its abil­i­ty to lever­age emerg­ing tech­nol­o­gy in a way that real­ly cre­ates val­ue for the user. It’s the right tech­nol­o­gy at the right time for the right audi­ence.”

In addi­tion, Hall said she thinks the tech­nol­o­gy will inspire view­ers to watch the trail­er all the way through “because peo­ple love to try out new tech­nol­o­gy, espe­cial­ly when it’s sim­ple to use, like it is here.”

She also said the video does a great job of har­ness­ing the excite­ment of the show in a unique way.

The video real­ly cap­tures the thrill of watch­ing ‘Home­land’ through the trail­er,” Hall said. “It’s also great that Show­time chose to adopt this tech­nol­o­gy for a pro­gram that has such high affin­i­ty already [because] it’s a great way to fuel antic­i­pa­tion for the upcom­ing sea­son.”

In addi­tion, because it debuted before the Apple Watch and the latter’s more prac­ti­cal appli­ca­tion of hap­tic tech­nol­o­gy, Hall said, “Show­time did a great job to launch their cam­paign before hap­tic is wide­spread, allow­ing them a nice first-mover moment to cre­ate addi­tion­al buzz for their new sea­son.”

She also calls this a win for Android because “ ‘Home­land’ fans with iPhones can’t enjoy the fun.”

Per Google Play, as of Sep­tem­ber 25, the Show­time Any­time app has 1 to 5 mil­lion down­loads, while Slate has 100,000 to 500,000.

Accord­ing to the Show­time rep, “Home­land” reach­es 7 mil­lion total week­ly view­ers.

The sea­son 3 finale of “Home­land” in Decem­ber 2013 had 7.1 mil­lion view­ers across all plat­forms, which was up from 6.6 mil­lion view­ers for the sea­son 3 pre­miere in Sep­tem­ber.

As of Sep­tem­ber 25, a com­pa­ra­ble Sea­son 4 trail­er minus hap­tic tech­nol­o­gy has about 181,000 views on YouTube.


What do you think about the Home­land trail­er and the future of hap­tic tech­nol­o­gy?

Lisa Lacy

Written by Lisa Lacy

Lisa is a senior features writer for Inked. She also previously covered digital marketing for Incisive Media. Her background includes editorial positions at Dow Jones, the Financial Times, the Huffington Post, AOL, Amazon, Hearst, Martha Stewart Living and the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund.

Inked is published by Linkdex, the SEO platform of choice for professional marketers.

Discover why brands and agencies choose Linkdex

  • Get started fast with easy onboarding & training
  • Import and connect data from other platforms
  • Scale with your business, websites and markets
  • Up-skill teams with training & accreditation
  • Build workflows with tasks, reporting and alerts

Get a free induction and experience of Linkdex.

Just fill out this form, and one of our team members will get in touch to arrange your own, personalised demo.