Teen reality series created by phone company takes place only on social media

@SummerBreak is the first reality series that is broadcast solely on social media feeds, enabling followers to interact with the characters.

Platforms such as Visual SyncAR and SonicNotify have already attempted to offer more to TV viewers through interactive channels. Now @SummerBreak is the first reality series that is broadcast solely on social media feeds, enabling followers to interact with the characters.

Developed by telecoms giant AT&T, advertising agency BBDO and interactive media company The Chernin Group, the series follows a group of high school seniors spending their last summer together, and is produced in the vein of “structured reality” series such as Jersey Shore and The Only Way Is Essex. Rather than the traditional route of broadcasting episodes on TV, however, the action takes place across multiple networks. Each character has their own Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr and Youtube account, which are filled with status updates, blog posts, photographs and video that advance the plot and develop the characters. Viewers can choose who to follow, or keep up-to-date by following the @SummerBreak Twitter handle, which documents the most important posts made in the series. Users can even interact with the characters and become part of the story. The video below acts as a trailer for the series:

While the video episodes have the same production value as a broadcast TV series, the emphasis is placed on the constant and real-time nature of the content, which followers can tune into on their smartphones wherever they are – indeed the content appears in amongst updates from their friends and family, truly integrating the series into viewers’ lives. How else can old formats be reimagined for a web 2.0 audience?

Spotted by: Murray Orange