• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, March 27, 2014

After successfully giving its “Real Housewives” franchise a boost, Bravo Media plans to expand its “social commercials” to other programs in the coming year.
 
“Social commercials are the natural next step to engaging Bravo’s voraciously social … audience, giving advertisers the opportunity to seamlessly deliver real-time messages,” said Laura Molen, executive vice president of the Lifestyle Advertising Sales Group at Bravo parent NBCUniversal.

Overall, with the so-called "social editions" driving a 14% lift in ratings with re-airs versus non-social reruns, Bravo plans to expand the initiative in the coming year to new franchises.

The on-air vignettes typically include a social media-based call to action. For example, the network recently launched #GiggysBFF -- a social spot that debuted in March during commercial breaks for “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.”

Fans of the show were encouraged to submit pet photos for a chance to have them appear on-air alongside the Beverly Hills housewives' mascot. The #GiggysBFF campaign generated more than 30,000 photo submissions.
 
As part of its Play Live initiative, Bravo also plans to let viewers “Select a Scene” during the live broadcast of various shows.
 
Kicking off with the re-air of “The Real Housewives of Atlanta” Reunion Part 1 on April 27, viewers will have an opportunity to decide on their preferred point of view. The “Select a Scene” option will then be incorporated into future programming throughout 2014.
 
To date, Play Live has averaged over 11 minutes of digital time-spent per user during 30-minute episodes and more than 20 minutes per user during 60-minute episodes, by Bravo's estimate.
 
Later this year, Bravo hopes to roll out Mobile Pass, a location-based app that will features breaking news, sneak previews and opportunities to interact with network personalities.