You Need to Follow Your Audience!

TVNZ is missing out on around 444,000 opportunities every day with Shortland Street!
31st May 1995 Shortland St had its highest rated show ever with over 700,000 kiwis sitting down to watch.
In May 1999 Shortland Street had an average TV audience of 344,000 viewers in its key demographic (25-54).
Fast Forward to Dec 2016 and that average TV Audience had dropped to 186,000.
You have to ask:

• What is happening to the value of the ad slots for that prime time show?
• Where is the audience and how can TVNZ create new opportunities to monetize the show with brands and its audience?
• How many people coming into the key demographic actually watch TV and where is that audience TODAY?
• How do you protect yourself for the future as your audience shifts in behaviour?

You need to know your audience and follow them rather than hope they will stay loyal to the platform you are using.

OPPORTUNITY: Enter Facebook and the 444,000 fans that follow the Shortland Street Facebook page.

Imagine the uplift in engagement if after each episode one of the cast jumped on the FB page and held a live Q&A and/or took the fans through some of the behind the scenes action while setting up the teaser for the next episode. A perfect opportunity for product placement, live streaming ads, and a platform to take an already passionate fan base to a new level.

This strategy has already been around for some time and there are now even TV “aftershows” that are nearly as popular as the programs themselves (eg Talking Dead, Talking Saul & Talking Preacher – all featuring Chris Hardwick as the presenter/host).

We already have reality shows dominating the TV space with multiple viewing nights each week so and smashing it in the rating wars so there should be no fear of oversaturation.

Show trailers on the Shortland St Facebook page regularly hit over 40,000 views so engagement and uptake should not be a problem with a ready-made highly targetted audience in the right demographic and it would not take a huge leap in production cost or technology to execute.

Why oh Why hasn’t TVNZ followed it shrinking audience and monetised the social audience then?

PROBLEM: Apparently TVNZ does not own the Shortland Street Facebook Page – South Pacific Pictures does.

If I was TVNZ or South Pacific Pictures I would be renegotiating contracts quick smart with the options for social streaming and control over the Shortland St FB page and monetization of Social Channels.

REMEMBER: Know your audience and follow them rather than hope they will stay loyal to the platform you are using. Strategies from 10 yrs ago or even 2yrs or 2 months ago may not be as effective today.

If you want to talk about where your audience is today and how to reach them effectively schedule a 45 min call with me here http://calendly.com/glenn-marvin