A funny thing happened on the way to the tweetstream: Ratings for major TV events, from Conan O’Brien’s last “Tonight Show” to March Madness to the Super Bowl were all huge. The watercooler effect of social media is largely responsible; creating a new form of reach and frequency that is having a powerful impact on the fragmented TV landscape.
“Cashing in on Conan – How Social Media Can Goose Ratings, And Your Brand, Too” was the hot topic of discussion at this OMMA Social panel. View panel video here.
Moderator Catharine P. Taylor, Columnist, MediaPost
Panelists
Sloan Broderick, Managing Partner, Managing Director, MediaCom Interaction
Karen Cahn, Head of Sales, YouTube Partners, YouTube
Ed Carey, VP Sales, Undertone Networks
Gannon Hall, COO, Kyte
Ian Schafer, CEO, Deep Focus
What are the implications of this new phenomenon not only on entertainment properties, but also on brands? And how can they effectively harness the social audience to their benefit?
Since 2006
- YouTube viewership has increased from 400,000 to 2 billion views a day
- Twitter did not exist
- 80% more people watching the World Cup
The use of the Internet and social media to spread messages is not going to go away. How should businesses use this to leverage their brands?
Creativity
- Crucial to stand out
- Prepare your campaign. Do research. Look at what your customers want.
- Invest in creativity that builds on additional engagement, up-sell to advertisers, monetize and interact
Social media methods
- YouTube: Longevity, evergreen content, most-viewed content is 6 months old
- Groupon: Scarcity and guilt
- World Cup: An example of great creativity and large audience aggregated at a point in time
- Bing: Established Home Cup bars; gathers people with similar interests & creates communal event
- 4Square: Took badges and built in freebies at the bar
Social media & MadMen success
- Reverse engineering: How to get people to become better viewers
- Tune in every week when it aired (Monday at watercooler)
- How can we convince someone to watch a show?
- Did things to pull the trigger: MadMenYourself.com
- Has evergreen qualities, people blog about it dozens times a day, an opportunity to cultivate a new viewer
- Good programming rewards loyal viewers: rethreading old themes
This panel imparts the focus that to succeed with social media: One must be creative, see how different social media venues work, and learn from past examples.