New High Water Mark for Social TV Check-Ins

Premiere of HBO's True Blood engaged GetGlue users in unprecedented numbers.

GetGlue had more than 38,000 check-ins to the True Blood Season 4 premiere on Sunday, making it the social entertainment platform’s most checked-in premiere to date as well as the TV show with the most total check-ins on GetGlue overall.

true-blood-stickersIt’s a drop in the bucket compared to the episode’s 5.4 million viewers, but it marks a 92 percent increase over last year when just 3,000 people used GetGlue to check in for True Blood’s Season 3 premiere.

What’s more, the True Blood Season 4 premiere beat out GetGlue’s previous check-in record-holder, the 2011 Oscars, which had approximately 31,000 check-ins. Other notable premiere check-in figures include HBO’s Game of Thrones with 7,600 and USA Network’s White Collar with 8,100, according to GetGlue.

“Our Truebies have been actively using GetGlue since last year and we’ve been experimenting with different ways to reward their dedication, including offering real world incentives,” said Sabrina Caluori, director of social media marketing at HBO, referring to True Blood fans. “For instance, as a part of the Season 4 premiere marketing efforts, we partnered with GetGlue to reward one lucky user a day with a bottle of the Tru Blood beverage for an entire month. We’re excited to see that the incentive worked and GetGlue users are engaging with True Blood and connecting with other fans.”

The premiere caps a month-long push from HBO and GetGlue. Prior to Sunday, fans who checked in to the show through GetGlue’s apps or its website earned an exclusive sticker. And those who included the tag #TBWithdrawal were eligible to win a bottle of Tru Blood, the synthetic blood nourishment beverage featured in the show (which is actually a blood orange carbonated drink).

In addition to Tru Blood, the randomly selected winners also received an exclusive Tru Blood sticker that wasn’t available to anyone other than the giveaway winners.

While 38,000 viewers checked in to the show, GetGlue awarded 20,000 premiere stickers because stickers are only awarded during the premiere’s allotted time slot.

GetGlue has one sticker for each of the 12 episodes this season, plus a secret sticker for the premiere. Each episode and episode sticker are named after the song that plays during the closing credits. Viewers who check in to every episode this season could be randomly selected to win an item from the True Blood set.

A GetGlue spokesperson credits HBO with doing “an amazing job” engaging with its fans through various social channels.

The company also recently revamped its mobile site so users without an iPhone or Android device will be able to access a site with more of an app-like feel and look to it. The goal is to enable more people to have a better check-in experience.

“We also made this decision based on the fact that about 10 percent of the current check-ins data comes from the existing mobile site,” the company added.

GetGlue has 1.2 million registered users and had 5.5 million check-ins in May.

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