Tell us about how Twelevision came about. Does Clemenger have a philosophy like Google's 20% time for personal projects, for instance? What served as inspiration for this specific app?

Our philosophy or mantra is this: advertising agencies need to be more agile, adaptive, innovative, and in-tune with the actual behavior of people online. We’re trying to get better at that every day. Because of that we wanted to experience what it felt like to conceive, execute, market and support a product.

Twelevision seemed like such a no-brainer that we spent about the first six weeks scribbling ideas and half-expecting to find that someone had already made it. But no-one had. Shows like Masterchef  and Q&A were going mad on Twitter in Australia, it was a behaviour that was actually happening, so we made Twelevision to be about finding the conversations not just the content. Connected-ness was the inspiration.

There’s no specific ‘google time’ for stuff like this but the board are supportive of ideas outside of client work if they are good and create some value. As you know, in this business it never stops. We are thinking about stuff and fiddling with ideas 24hrs a day.

Twelevision is described as 'the love child of live TV and Twitter'.  Broadly speaking, the idea of social TV is one that a number of other services are trying to make inroads into, such as Get Glue, Miso, or Tunerfish, though those are more platforms than apps. What other interesting apps based on the idea of social TV have you seen?
 
Aside from those you’ve mentioned, and obviously GetGlue is the big daddy in this space, Tweeplayer is one that looks good. We’ve also become acquainted/friendly with them during our development process. Tweeplayer works a bit like Twelevision but for time-shifted TV. The HBO stuff looks really good too. They get it.

Interestingly, PVR penetration in Australia is not as high as Europe and USA. We’re at about 30% at the moment, other markets are over 50%. Having said that we are probably close to a tipping point so it will be interesting to see what happens over the next 12 months or so.

At Made by Many, we think a fair bit about the future of TV. What do you think the future of TV is?
 
TV is still a very powerful channel. Video is still probably the number one storytelling medium.
Philosophically, we are of the view that while the above is true, TV has been superseded in terms of media dominance by firstly, the internet and now by mobile. As a mass media, mobile is unique in that it can do what all legacy mass media has done and then some. TV is hanging in there, it’s taken a lesson from the music business in a way and disrupted itself before it got truly disrupted.
Smart people in TV realise this, realise that its days are over as the dominant force but that it still plays an important role in people’s lives.

From an advertising point of view, as an agency we work to the philosophy of using each channel or platform to do the thing it does best. As part of an integrated project, TV will have its place most of time. Nothing exists in isolation, there’s a cause-and-effect relationship between all touch points.

What are Clemenger's plans to get Twelevision on to iPhones and iPads across the world?
 
We’d like to do it. There’s some conversations going on just now. We’ll see what happens.

What is the most interesting partnership you've seen recently between a brand and a television channel or programme?

The True Blood ‘blood-orange’ drink was fun. Southern Comfort are also part of that sponsorship which makes sense.

Going back a bit ‘Where are the Joneses’ and Ford is still an inspiration conceptually, it was ahead of it’s time.

Are there any plans for Twelevision to partner with other brands, TV channels, TV programmes or organisations?
 
There’s a few things we’re looking at in terms of what we could do in-game. We want to do it right, innovate a bit and not get cheesy. Watch this space...

BeeTV, an iPad app that combines social TV with recommendations, recently netted $1.5 million in funding . Would you consider commercialising Twelevision? Why or why not?
 
There’s a number of potential ways we can commercialise the platform but we want to be sure we don’t compromise the experience for the users. We have running costs so it has to generate revenue at some point.

We’d prefer to innovate on that front too. There’s a gold rush at the moment, we hear of silly money being chucked at apps but that’s a bubble waiting to pop. We can be smarter than that.
At the moment though we are focusing on delivering a kick-ass user experience first and foremost, there’s some new features and iterations coming down the pipe.
 
It's always interesting to hear about inspiring projects and campaigns from other parts of the world. Tell us about 3 projects or campaigns (they don't have to be TV-related at all) that have recently launched in Australia that you really like. 
 
Sometimes the little things can have disproportionate effect. The Australian Rules Football Final is our ‘Superbowl’. We had a 3 minute spot for Carlton Draught (Victoria’s most loved beer) in one of the breaks. It’s called ‘Slo Mo’. 

The #carltondraught hashtag was already getting some traction on Twitter so when we put it on the end frame of the TV ad it went ballistic during the live TV. I think this was a first. 
 
Our cousins at Colenso BBDO in Auckland, New Zealand are always up to interesting things. Their work for Yellow Pages is stuff of legend, you might have heard how they created a Yellow chocolate bar. It became the fastest selling chocolate bar in NZ history.

They did the Levi’s ass-cam thing which was quite cute.
 
We’ve had success with our recent campaign, 'Support Scent' for Guide Dogs Association. The challenge was ‘how do you show support for someone who can’t see’. Creating ribbons and wristbands etc. would only add to the problem as the blind and visually impaired cannot see. We targeted another sense, by creating a unisex fragrance for people to wear as a sign of support. It was great fun, and another example of how everyone loves to be part of something that is inherently good.

Last but not the least, what projects are you working on currently that you're excited about?
 
We have a new product coming out of the Labs shortly, which has no client at the moment but could potentially be a bit of an innovation for in publishing. It’s still embryonic but we are excited about it. We are also doing something very cool in a kind of transmedia entertainment space with a well known and loved chocolate brand which you’ll be hearing about soon.

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Thanks for that Tommy! Looking forward to your next ventures, and of course to seeing Twelevision scale new heights.