Social Media Hits & Misses - Talk Show Edition

As a digital marketer I live in a 24/7, constantly on the go, tech savy world and like many millennials I value having social media at my fingertips to share important moments in my everyday life as I interact with brands.  While in NYC for a week visiting friends I had the opportunity to compare and contrast two talk show empires and the value they place on their social voice.

Live with Kelly & Michael

Challenges:

• A small studio in the middle of the Upper West Side means long wait times outside to get in 

• A long rectangular shaped studio means many audience views are blocked out by stage crews and cameras 

• Live show means a long wait for a very short taping for audience members.  

WINNER WINNER:

•  Policy for audience members: Take as many photos as you want!
• Social media channels addressed on the show and reminded to audience to reinforce brand
• Every break Kelly and Michael ran over to audience members to take selfies (which you know were posted everywhere online)
• The crew allowed any audience member that wanted to take a photo with the show logo backdrop on way out to do so, no rush

This show hit a home run for me as an audience member who didn't get a great seat. (This photo was taken by a friend with a better seat, thanks Craig!) Instead of feeling cheated the experience and the atmosphere was so conducive to social media, supporting and encouraging its audience members to share their experiences, that I left wanting to come back.  Next time, I found myself thinking, I'll stand in line at the crack of dawn if it means getting a great seat and a photo with the celebrity hosts.

The Dr. Oz Show

Opportunities:

• Spacious ABC Studios location in midtown Manhattan where audience members spend very little time waiting outside
• Large open studio with clear views for every audience member, not a bad seat in-house!
• Taped segments mean lots of downtime in between segments to post about experiences and take photos if given the opportunity

GAME OVER:

• Policy for audience members: No cameras in studio and phones off entirely
• Social media channels never mentioned and show hired a comedian to try to entertain audience members between segments when they could have been posting online
• Dr. Oz takes photos with audience (taken by show) and shakes hands, but shows misses opportunities for audience brand ambassadors to share their positive experiences live
• Audience rushed out the door at end of taping by crew, not allowed to stop and even take pictures with show logos

This show struck out for me as an audience member who received a great seat in front as well as free tickets to a movie premiere the next day.  Instead of feeling delighted by the experience and the atmosphere I felt confined, unable to share the great excitement I was experiencing shaking Dr. Oz's hand and even doing a taste test on camera with my family and friends in a timely manner.  Furthermore the show often misses out on great story lines including this photo I sneakily took (hence the graininess) in which Dr. Oz signed a magazine for a 94 year old fan who was as giddy as a schoolgirl to meet him. (I shared it on Instagram anyway, sue me).

 

Twitter and Sports - A Match Made in Heaven

If sports fans are passionate about one thing, it's sharing their excitement, disappointment, and unfiltered opinions when it comes to their favorite teams, and there is nothing quite like social media for providing the perfect outlet for that vocal sentiment.  Nielsen is out with their latest report, a social study detailing how sports fans and Twitter correlate when it comes to the biggest sporting events in September 2013 through February 2014.  The study analyzed Twitter conversations around the top 10 televised sporting events and some results of the study can be found here.  I've combed through the information to bring you some of the most interesting results.

http://bit.ly/1udtcm7

• During 2010, 50% of TV related tweets in the United States (492 million in total) were about sports events.  
• Out of the 20 most-tweeted television airings, 12 were sporting events.
• The average Twitter user sees 9 television series episode tweets, 25 televised special events tweets, and 32 televised sporting event tweets per event/episode.
• The biggest Twitter television audiences:
• The Super Bowl took top honors, bringing in over 25 million tweets with 15.3 million people seeing tweets about the event!
• The NFC Championship had just shy of 5 million related tweets, reaching 11.3 million people
• The AFC Championship had a smaller amount of tweets clocking in at 2.9 million, but saw those tweets reaching 10.8 million Twitter users
•  Not to be overshadowed by the NFL, college football held it's own in the top five with the BCS National Championship bringing in over 4 million related tweets with 10.4 million people viewing them.
• Rounding out the top five was the Olympics coverage with the opening ceremony, a visually exciting experience, generating 1.1 million tweets seen by a global Twitter audience of 9.5 million people.

The high level of engagement around sports and social conversations should highlight social media as a tool for advertisers, companies, and community initiatives to find a host of opportunities. Whether it's developing brand recognition, providing superior customer service and valued content to the consumer, or highlighting messages for amplification across various screens to new audiences, the future is rife with prospects for success.  The question remains, who will take advantage?

 

2013: A LOOK BACK IN SPORTS - FINALE - GLOBAL SPORTS

Continuing last week's coverage, I take a final look this week at Nielsen's data on sports fans in 2013 focusing on the latest findings on global sports.  You can read the full-summarized report here: http://bit.ly/1fT9KVa.  I've read through it and here are some of the most interesting facts from the past year:

 

http://bit.ly/Oj8zE4

 From soccer and tennis to rugby and cycling, globally, sports remain a force to be reckoned with on the broadcasting stage.  In the United States, the NFL and Super Bowl reign supreme in viewers, ratings, and buzz, but around the world a diversity of tastes and passions shine through.  Soccer (known by many global citizens as football) holds the most sway in attracting a wide range of markets and nets the most viewing hours by fans of any sport.  Soccer also remains the most popular sport in countries as diverse as Italy, Russia, South Africa, Indonesia, and Spain.  Here are some other global sport highlights for 2013:

·      In Norway, the World Cup of Cross Country Skiing held most viewership honors among its sports programming, while in Japan it was the Japan vs. Netherlands, World Baseball Classic game that citizens took most interest in.

·      71% of UK homes had their TV sets tuned to the Wimbledon tennis final as Andy Murray became the first British man to win the title in 77 years.

http://bit.ly/1jMtVpC

·      In Denmark, the Handball Men’s Championship had nearly 80% of all television sets in use at the time tuned into the event.

·      Over 21 million German viewers, comprising 61% of all German households, watched the UEFA Champions League Final soccer match in May.

·      Russia and Indonesia led the way with soccer programming among all nations, with 73% and 74% respectively of all sports television programming devoted to the sport in 2013.

·      In the United States, a love for horse racing goes a long way as the Kentucky Derby brought in over 16 million viewers and 300,000 related tweets in 2013.

http://bit.ly/1egdlJy

2013: A LOOK BACK IN SPORTS - PART 6 - NCAA FOOTBALL

 Continuing last week's coverage, I take a look this week at Nielsen's data on sports fans in 2013 focusing on the latest findings on NCAA football.  You can read the full-summarized report here: http://bit.ly/1fT9KVa.  I've read through it and here are some of the most interesting facts from the past year:

Source: http://bit.ly/1ppC8j4

The changing leaves, the crisp air, the endless pumpkin baked goods, for many these images call to mind autumn and with those thoughts also come dreams of a college football championship season.  A record thirty-one NCAA football games aired nationally in 2013, not even counting the bowl games, compared to only twenty-two games in 2012.  This was in large part due to a dominate SEC division, Florida State’s catapult to fame run in the ACC, and strong showings by Michigan State and Ohio State in the Big 10.  The games drew over 5 million viewers on average, while the 2014 BCS National Championship had over 25 million viewers dialed in to watch the battle between Auburn and Florida State.  Fans took to Twitter as well, with 4.4 million tweets by 1.2 million unique authors flooding the Twitter airwaves during that time, a 400 thousands tweet rise from 2012. 

Source: http://bit.ly/1iRBGdp

• Florida State may have broken the SEC’s seven consecutive BCS championships, but the conference enjoyed another banner year having the most viewed college football games of the 2013 season with 9.7 million on average tuning in for the top 10 nationally televised regular season games involving a team from the SEC.
• The Big-10 brings in the second largest audience with an average of 7 million watching their teams compete.
• Top NCAA football advertiser: AT&T Wireless 
• NCAA football fans are 18% more likely than the average U.S. adult to have life insurance and 24% more like to belong to a health club.
• The average NCAA Bowl Game viewer is most likely to be a white male aged 55+ who makes $20,000 -$40,000 annually.
• The top storylines in the 2013 NCAA football regular season included Alabama holding the top spot in the polls until the final week of the season, Auburn and Missouri’s resurgence, and “Johnny Football” lighting up the scoreboard for the Aggies. 



Source: http://bit.ly/1eC8DsE

• The top two local fan bases with most-devoted fan bases saw the percentages of their population having watched, attended, or listened to the team in the past 12 months clock in at over 60%.  The top two spots were so close in fact, only one percentage point separated first from second place.
•  The Alabama Crimson Tide’s local fan base in Birmingham took second place with 65% of the population faithful and dedicated to the organization. The top honors however, landed with fans in Columbus, where 66% of the population stands behind the Ohio State Buckeyes.

2013: A LOOK BACK IN SPORTS - PART 5 - NCAA BASKETBALL

Continuing last week's coverage, I take a look this week at Nielsen's data on sports fans in 2013 focusing on the latest findings on NCAA basketball.  You can read the full-summarized report here: http://bit.ly/1fT9KVa.  I've read through it and here are some of the most interesting facts from the past year:

 

http://bit.ly/1isPuxm

There’s nothing quite like the excitement and fan participation that surrounds March Madness.  Perhaps it’s the office pools and bracket-ready eagerness that has the viewing audience changing, but the NCAA Tournament’s viewership definitely evolves from the NCAA regular season.  With a 14% hike in female viewers and a 4% hike in households with an income of $100K or more, the sport invites in a new demographic at the start of the tournament.   It’s not only the audience that changes, but rather social media becomes abuzz with a significant number of ravenous, content generating, March Madness fans.  The significant amount of Twitter activity in the 2013 Championship Game between Michigan and Louisville ranked it as the most tweeted about telecast in the month of April.  Here’s the latest and greatest on NCAA basketball thru a look back on 2013.

http://bit.ly/1i434V4

·      NCAA Basketball regular reason viewership took a small loss for the 2012-2013 season with a .2% decrease, however the championship game saw quite the growth in viewership with a 12.3% year to year gain.

·      Top NCAA Basketball advertiser: AT&T Wireless

·      Adults who visit NCAA.com are 59% more likely than the average U.S. adult to have purchased sporting goods in the last six months.

·      The average NCAA Tournament viewer is a likely to be a white male aged 55+ who makes $40,000-$75,000 annually.  However, the next largest income group, those making 100K or more a year, is very close behind.

http://bit.ly/1ejZkdr

·      With some of the strongholds in college basketball resting comfortably in its conference, including the likes of North Carolina and Duke, the ACC has long been thought of as the most popular conference.  But in the 2012-13 regular season the Big 10 topped the rankings in TV viewership with more fans tuning in to see Indiana, Michigan, Michigan State, and Ohio State play.

·      On average, three million viewers tuned in for the top 10 nationally televised regular season games involving a team from the Big 10 conference.

http://bit.ly/OcG2jB

·      The top two local fan bases determined by percentages of their population having watched, attended, or listened to the team in the past 12 month, came in at over 50% of the population devoted.  But while the Louisville Cardinals put up strong numbers with 58% of their population showing their support for the team, they'll have to relish in the number two spot.  

·      The Cardinals' local fan base is no match for the number one Kentucky Wildcats, where a whopping 67% of their population is faithful to the organization.