Читать книгу Marketing in the New Media - Holly Berkley - Страница 10

Not only did some advertisers miss the opportunity to benefit from search engine and website presence following the Super Bowl, the television shows that followed also missed out on a chance to generate longer term buzz.

Grey’s Anatomy is the television show that followed the Super Bowl. Although I am an avid watcher of the medical dramedy, I was a bit shocked by the very steamy opening shower scene that appeared just after the Super Bowl. In fact, I was a bit embarrassed when my husband’s friend announced, “THIS is the show you watch every Sunday night!” At first I thought the show had taken a turn for the worse, but then I realized the opening scene was a great marketing ploy to get the attention of the men in the room, who may previously have considered Grey’s Anatomy a “girly” show.

The episode really drew in the new audience and kept everyone at the edge of their seats. However, the show missed out on capturing that audience even further because it did not purchase specific keywords that had to do with the show and therefore failed to get the new audience even more hooked. After the episode, searches for “Grey’s Anatomy” increased roughly 400 percent on Yahoo!, while the search phrase “code black,” referring to a mysterious event in the show, jumped over 1,000 percent.

If you go to the Grey’s Anatomy website (through ABC at http:// abc.go.com/primetime/greysanatomy/), you will notice that like most television shows, they are taking advantage of new media opportunities such as ringtones, music downloads, DVD sales, blogs, and other interactive content to really get their audience hooked. They even have a list of all the diseases and medical problems mentioned on the show — with links to related sources.

Although the site is professionally designed and employs some cutting-edge design technology (for example, clicking on the character bios lets you actually flip through their files on a clipboard), it can feel like information overload. Even to someone like me, who is a fan of the show and Internet technology, there is simply too much information on this site. It seems they added all the new media elements for the sake of adding them. I consider this overkill — and not very effective.

Creating an interesting and interactive web presence for your company, service, or show is essential, but it’s also important to have a good reason for adding those online elements. Never use technology for the sake of technology. There must be a reason that makes sense for your target audience and provides something useful to them. With that said, below is an example of a show that captured all the elements of Internet marketing to create ongoing excitement and buzz around their show.