skip to main |
skip to sidebar
"The marketing world “is evolving from ‘interrupt me’ to ‘engage me’ when it comes to consumer interactions,” said Rand. “It is a fundamental shift in the way marketers approach consumers with their message.”
Part of that shift has occurred because of “the latency effect,” said Pete Blackshaw, evp-Nielsen Online Strategic Services, Cincinnati, and one of the founders of WOMMA. (Nielsen Online Strategic Services and Brandweek are divisions of Nielsen Co.)
According to Blackshaw, this is the digital trail consumers are leaving with their product recommendations on e-commerce and social networking sites as well as blogs. “The Internet has put word-of-mouth on steroids, with archived commentary and product reviews that make a big impact,” said Blackshaw. “The fastest growing sources of indexable content in Google’s search engine are first-person testimonials.”
"Just ask the cast and crew of "Jericho" how much losing momentum could be a killer.
Last season, networks experimented with long mid-season breaks, similar to what SciFi Channel had been doing for years with shows like "Stargate SG-1" and "Stargate: Atlantis." Except it happened with disastrous results.
"Heroes" and "Lost" both suffered significant drops in their ratings when they returned after a lengthy mid-season hiatus, and "Jericho" went from being an early season standout to a late-season near-flop, to the point that CBS pulled the plug."
"This November sweeps is like no other sweeps period in memory. There are few of the stunts that the networks famously used in years past to boost ratings of local affiliates for setting ad rates, but there're lots of other issues for media buyers to ponder, and not the least of which is the strike by the Writers Guild of America that began yesterday. ABC is expected to win sweeps because of the high quality of its new and returning shows, and that's not expected to change--primetime shows have been backed up--but it's anyone's guess when it comes to late night, which will see the effect immediately, and daytime, which could be hurting shortly."
"Ultimately, the legacy of a prolonged strike could reduce the audience for network TV at a time when it has already been losing viewers for years to cable, DVDs and the Internet. Numbers from May 2007 show that the combined viewership of the four major broadcast networks - ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox - dropped by 2.5 million from the previous spring.
The last time there was a 22- to 23-week strike [in 1988], the networks lost 10 percent of their audience," says David Bianculli, TV critic for NPR's Fresh Air and tvworthwatching.com. "That's a huge chunk, and they'll lose at least that much now. It's going to be more and more difficult to convince viewers to come back."
"While we’re unleashing our lawyers on social networks with slips of paper with big words like “copyright infringement”, we’re also taking in huge new audiences on air and online — social media is actually helping our bottom line. How much? In one major broadcaster’s case, an additional 200,000 viewers in just one month. That company even let their growth secret out of the bag, “YouTube has brought a significant new audience of viewers to each broadcast.” Naughty CBS! They shouldn’t go running their mouths like that.
CBS isn’t the only one seeing growth by engaging in social media.
Couple growing social network interaction with the statistic that almost 70% of internet users watch TV while online and you’ve got a multiple platform experience, where you’re hitting your audience with your message from more than one place. Increased exposure is a great thing in the TV business.
Look up your favourite show in Facebook. Even if it’s a small show, or a canceled show, I bet it has its own fan group, or two, or three! Fans have taken marketing & brand ownership on themselves and are promoting our shows for us. Because they’re doing this through social networks, their friends and friends of friends all see this activity. Increased buzz and exposure (especially from your trusted social networking “friends”) means more brand engagement and often more people watching your show."
