Smart Screen
Vast Media Smart Screen Round-Up: Digital-First Debuts, Snapchat Partnerships
Story Highlights
Here’s a run-down of recent second screen-related entertainment items, via Berlin-based research and consulting company Vast Media.
• To promote the latest season of its reality show “Naked and Afraid XL,” Discovery debuted a new companion web series, with a new episode running each Sunday during the season. “Naked and Afraid: Savage” is available on Discovery GO and premiered April 29.
The web original features Matt Wright, a knife maker and survival expert, with him challenged to survive in Africa for 40 days, by himself. Wright was pulled from a previous season of the show due to a bacterial infection on his foot.
• For the second season of the Emmy-nominated series “Genius,” National Geographic partnered with Snapchat to produce a dedicated app lens that turns a picture of users into a Picasso-like portrait.
Using a code distributed via the show’s and channel’s social media accounts, users find themselves turned into a Picasso work of art, using the artist’s distinctive style.
• To get fans geared up for the second season of “Westworld,” HBO launched a dedicated Snapchat lens that turns them into “hosts,” the humanoid robots from the show. Once a user opens their mouth in the app, they find their face transformed into a robotic nightmare.
• Youth network Funk recently debuted a new digital-first series in the U.S. called “Freaks,” releasing all eight episodes of the show on the channel’s YouTube hub “Borderline.” Originally airing in Finland under the name “Sekasin,” the show revolves around four young people with mental illnesses who meet in a psychiatric ward.
