2. RISE OF THE SUPERFANS
Growing TV Audience By Empowering Digital Communities
3. TODAYS PLAYLIST
The Partnership and Our Challenge
4. The Superfan Strategy
5. Handing Over (Gulp!)The Keys
6. Results and Next Steps
7. Q&A
How WGN America and Story Worldwide came together.
The PARTNERSHIP.
8. Welcome to the New WGN America
9. the DIGITAL AGENCY with an EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT.
10. we create
CONTENT
people want
to SHARE.
11. FOR FANS, FAME is the ULTIMATE CURRENCY.
12. How to involve brand fans, create engaging content with
them, and thereby arm them to become powerful advocates.
the SUPERFAN STRATEGY.
13. AND NOW, TIME to MEET the SUPERFANS.
14. INFLUENCER TARGETING
We proposed a three stage effort to draw the crowds.
SUPER fans create the good stuff
CASUAL fansspread the news
POTENTIAL fanskick back and enjoy
25 SuperFans with 1000 followers, who themselves each have130
friends = potential audience of 3.25 million.
15. SCALING THE EFFORT
Year 1 was about gathering each target shows casual fans into a
responsive, growing community of potential behavior drivers.
Year 2 is about arming that casual fan base to influence their
friends and followersand multiply our potential viewers a
hundredfold.
16. Step 1: Kick offSUPERFAN RELATIONSHIPS
17. Step 2: Create ORIGINAL, SHAREABLE CONTENT
18. Step 3: Launch and support casual fanSOCIAL HUBS
19. Step 4: Ignite and sustain multipleMEANINGFUL
CONVERSATIONS
20. WHAT WE LEARNED RIGHT AWAY
Superfans dont want to work for an advertiserthey want to play with
other creative people. Editorial outreach works.
Casual fans love to be heard and responded to, and they love
finding one another. They can be a surprisingly cohesive
unit.
In the context of a fan hub, fans appreciate tune-in information as
real user service, not sponsor messaging to be suffered.
21. How putting this theory into action quickly led us to new
and exciting ways to involve the fans with the shows they
love.
HANDING OVER the KEYS.
22. Show by show, were ESTABLISHING DIGITAL
conversations.
23. ON-AIR PROVIDES TUNE-IN INFO, AND DRIVES TO
DIGITAL.
24. ONLINE, FAN-BASED FILMS are shareable CONVERSATION
STARTERS.
25. HIMYM Fans who sent in mothers day tweets could tune in to
see if theirs made it on-air.
26. Through social media, fans are invited to decide the lineup
of show marathons.
27. THE WGNA DIGITAL COMMUNITY SO FAR
GROWTH POTENTIALIn six months, weve gathered 300,000 fans of one
show, and have a clear understanding of the cost to get thereand to
grow to 500k, 1m, and beyond.EXPANDABILITYWeve begun the effort
with How I Met Your Mother and 30 Rock; other key shows to follow.
We will deploy different content strategies for
each.ENGAGEMENTThrough constant conversation monitoring and
real-time responding, weve created real engagement and a motivated,
self-reinforcing community.PRODUCTIVITYThe size of the test case
makes it hard to see just how much were moving the needle on
audience tune-in. But anecdotal evidence is gathering
28. How its working so farand where were taking the program in
2012 and beyond.
RESULTS and NEXT STEPS.
29. ANECDOTALLY, we seem to be DRIVING OFFLINE BEHAVIOR
Some of our best Mother numbers ever
Sunday reached its highest A18-34 and A18-49 telecasts to
date!
Lisa Gilbert, research director at WGNA
30. And SPONSORS CAN JOIN THE PARTY!
Brands can partake in meaningful conversation with an active and
engaged target audience
Branding organically in a social context allows for enhanced
engagement & instant feedback
31. How You Can Join the Conversation
Programs on WGN America offer partners many meaningful conversation
opportunities by aligning existing in-program product placement
with relevant social marketing themes
32. END OF STORY
Smile if you likeD it!
JoshRichman
Vice President, Marketing,
WGN America [email protected]
@joshmrichman
Keith Blanchard
Group CreativeDirector,
Story Worldwide [email protected]
@keithblanchard