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Marketing for shows often appears to come to a head around
the event’s premiere on the streaming platform or cable channel, but the real
challenge is in retaining engagement in the days and weeks that follow.
“Audiences are three times more receptive the day after a
show drops than the day before so much of our work shifts to continuity of the
show at that point,” said Scott Donaton, senior vice president and head of
marketing at Hulu, during a roundtable discussion convened by Variety and
sponsored by Facebook.
The most insightful speaker there was Michael Engelman,
chief marketing officer at Showtime. He said, “We are in a knowledge and
connection business. The deeper the knowledge of customer and content the
better we are as matchmakers, putting audiences with titles. Season 1 we are in
hypothesis mode.”
He contrasts the campaigns for Dexter and Yellowjackets —
both intended to be “muscular and multiplatform,” but with the crucial
difference that Dexter is a reprisal of a popular show.
“We have a lot of data and we know that audience,” Engelman
said, “But for Yellowjackets we have a lot of the tool that we use on
social platforms that will allow us to test hypothesis. We have a window to
learn how precise we’ve been in messaging efficacy and audience assumptions.”
With so many platforms and outlets on which to reach
audiences, studio marketers explain how they begin from the core intent of the
content creator and build a world around that show in order to get viewers
excited months in advance.
“When we talk to a show creator or showrunners, it’s really
important that from the earliest possible point, we understand what story they
want to tell in the world,” Donaton said. “Our job becomes: ‘How do we take the
story they’re telling, and tell a story about that story in a way that will
pull people around our campfire?’”
Donaton explained further: “It’s really about, ‘What is the
idea at the center of what we’re doing? And then, what are all the ways that
that idea can come to life and connect with our audiences?’ So, of course, key
art and trailers are always going to be important assets. But it’s really
putting an idea at the center of what we do, and then having it come to life in
as many meaningful ways as possible.”
Underscoring the importance of connecting with fandoms,
Ellen Stone, executive vice president of entertainment brand strategy and
consumer engagement for NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, said, “What
we’re digging deep into is, ‘How are we talking to [fan] communities?’
“We have the [Real] Housewives, but all the Housewives are
not the same — and yet, there is a thread and a through line that you can find.
Data is definitely important to what we’re doing, but it’s also really heavy
listening on who our fans are and what their engagement points are,” she said.
Engelman believes the job of the marketer is partly being an
entertainer, creating a sense of occasion and cultural events to cut through
noise and create demand.
“Obviously, competition is so grueling for attention that
even the most compelling advertising and promotion can be a bit of rain in the
ocean if our methodological foundation isn’t rock solid.”
The roundtable didn’t reveal many deep insights. It could
have used an actual case study of a show’s promotion strategy to really nail
some detail beyond what seemed to be the bland points of gathering data about
audiences and trying to engage them in a story’s worlds and characters.
Facebook spokesperson James Smith, head of industry,
entertainment and global marketing solutions, was on hand to spread the gospel
of social media. He was also asked about the metaverse and how this fit in with
current marketing plans for entertainment.
“You’ll probably hear a lot of conversation around the
metaverse coming out of our camp right now, which as we define it, is a set of
digital spaces that are all interconnected, allowing you to move between them.
That is a heady thought that is in our vision, but it’s not going to happen
overnight,” Smith said.
“So when we think about how to work with entertainment,
it’s, ‘What can we do now? And what can we do for the next year? And what tools
and platforms do we have that can intersect with entertainment in different
ways?’” he continued. “So when we think about this ‘worlds’ narrative, we think
about it as that first step towards the metaverse.”
Smith seems to be suggesting that promotions of a show’s
worlds and IP can be carried out not just on Facebook, but on other (future)
Meta-owned platforms, such as VR worlds, and presumably seamlessly converted
across other platforms, too. It’s all too woolly to my mind. Everything remains
in silos and arguably, Meta is the chief gatekeeper of the walled garden.
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