Live from Nashville

This was a big week in television with ABC premiering their strong lineup of shows such as Nashville, Scandal, and Grey’s Anatomy. Girls (and maybe guys) everywhere grabbed their long stemmed wine glasses, cheese plates, and popcorn to sit down and enjoy the return of their Wednesday and Thursday night television favorites.

My personal favorite of ABC’s lineup is Nashville. It is a show all about the music scene in Nashville. It’s old school meets new school. Think Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, and family meet Taylor swift and company. Oh, and add a little political drama in there too. What I love about Nashville is that it is real. The music is written new for each show and there is a lot of raw emotion that the characters exhibit. Last season, they even did a few “live episodes” where the characters were live singing every melody instead of pre-recording it. The producers do a few things to reinforce that feeling of realness that the viewers have with the characters. Nashville releases a recording of every song after the episode airs, making viewers feel as if these are real stars in Nashville and we are getting to witness their reality show. They also had all of the main characters perform at the Grand Ole Opry for a night called, “Nashville Live on the Record”. Lastly, all of the actors live Tweet each episode. It engages consumers in the best way possible. Actors will ask for viewers to retweet if they feel the same way or tweet about their thoughts if they are different. It asks for audience action. Here are some examples of what their live tweet session looks like:

The Live Tweeting was especially important for me on Wednesday night when Nashville premiered. I sat down in my living room at 9:45pm, giving myself ample time to get the TV turned on and get settled before the 10:00pm start time. However, when I flipped on my TV and turned to ABC, my TV produced the dreaded message “signal cannot be found”. After spending 30 minutes on the phone with the cable company, I realized that I was not going to be watching Nashville. BUT I did have the Live Tweet session to keep me updated on the drama. It was helpful and even offered me a different perspective than watching the actual show. There is no doubt that people love the ability to relate and Nashville does just that. They relate to their audience in a real, organic way in order to draw them in further.  

Snaps for the Emmy's

Last night was a big night for the actors and actresses of television. The 67^th Emmy Awards Show took place, bringing in over 1 million tweets with 11.9 million viewers. Whenever there is an award show, social media is there to cover it. I couldn’t watch the Emmy’s from my fifth floor seat in the library, but I knew what was going thanks to Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and Snapchat. The most entertaining of those four definitely being Snapchat.

Nearly a year ago, Snapchat released this new concept of a “Live Story”. Instead of Snapchatting just your friends, you can post your Snapchat on the live story from that day to have anyone view it, friend or not. Snapchat will have live stories ranging from your college town to countries around the world to big events like fashion shows, award shows, and movie premiers. One of my favorite things in life (thus far) has been the ability to travel and see different cultures. The live story feature of Snapchat has provided a gateway for me to do that while sitting on my couch! Sure it’s not anywhere near the same experience, but it allows me to converse with other people and grasp what daily life looks like in different places. 

The Emmy Award show had a live story on Snapchat last night and it provided all viewers with entertainment and a behind the scenes look at the show. The live story provides a multitude of great benefits. First, it allows viewers of the Emmy’s to capture a backstage perspective that isn’t necessarily shown on TV. Celebrities will Snapchat themselves after just receiving an Emmy, or they will post on the live story while on the red carpet. Hosts, actors and actresses, presenters, and audience members have the ability to post about their experience. When watching, you feel as if you are friends with that celebrity because you are watching their raw, organic appearance on Snapchat. Producers will also Snapchat videos of the TV room where people have the ability to view each angle and catch a glimpse into how the Emmy’s come to life on the TV screen. It appeals to all users. It makes us feel like we are a part of this large event that is happening states away. It takes Twitter and Instagram a step further by connecting us in a unique and real way. 

Here are some of the Snapchats from last nights Emmy’s 

       
                          

Comments and Concerns

For those of you who are Bachelor fans, you will know that social media drives audience engagement in the Bachelor and all other shows that stem from it. ABC produces the Bachelor, Bachelorette, and Bachelor in Paradise, all with Chris Harrison as the host, and all evoking quite a bit of emotion from viewers. And what better place to take your long list of emotions than social media?

Last Monday, the second season of the Bachelor in Paradise wrapped up with “the most dramatic finale ever” (for those of you that aren’t fans of the show, that is how Harrison describes basically every single finale). But this season's final episode of the Bachelor in Paradise didn’t disappoint. Here’s how the show works: a mix of previous bachelor/bachelorette contestants are invited to “paradise”, which is just a large house in Mexico. Throughout the season, various other past contestants show up to spice things up in paradise. There is sort of a whatever happens, happens attitude and in the end, the couples that are left have the choice to stay together or leave paradise alone. Riveting. I only tuned in to the last few episodes of this season of the Bachelor in Paradise, but I definitely did not miss any drama. More importantly, social media kept me updated and thoroughly entertained. 

What I find most interesting about the Bachelor in Paradise is that they have an “After Paradise” discussion where they ask viewers to tweet their comments, concerns, and questions using the hashtag #afterparadise. By doing this, viewers have the chance for their questions to be answered or their comments to be mentioned during the conversations that occur on this “After Paradise” show. According to Nielsen Social, the there were 22,000 tweets about the Bachelor in Paradise and about 5,293,000 impressions or the number of times any Tweets about the Bachelor in Paradise were seen. That is a lot of social media action. Twitter is a powerful tool and in my opinion, ABC uses it incredibly well, especially with their Bachelor shows. Each and every episode of the Bachelor in Paradise evokes emotion and every viewer has an opinion. Twitter gives viewers the opportunity for their voice and their opinion to be heard, and possibly “retweeted” by others who feel the same way. When you feel strongly about something, where do you take your emotion and your opinion? I am sensing a common theme here in that producers are engaging viewers in a conversation, and in turn, viewers are gaining perspective from others opinions and observations. The audience is being connected and watching a TV show feels more like a real, human interactive experience. 

As you can see, people feel very strongly about the events that occurred on the Bachelor in Paradise and After Paradise 

Even Kris Jenner, who is completely unrelated to the show, was drawn into the drama and the conversation. 

Source: 

http://www.nielsensocial.com/nielsentwittertvratings/weekly/

TGIT (Thank God It's Thursday)

The phrase, “It’s Shonda’s world and we’re just living in it” has become all too relevant this week. In case you don’t turn on your TV on Thursday nights, that phrase refers to TV show producer, Shonda Rhimes’ three shows that monopolize Thursday night television. Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal, and How to Get Away with Murder have won the hearts of many around the U.S and the night even has its own hashtag #TGIT, which stands for "Thank God It's Thursday". This week the first promo video was released and it was all about September 24^th. That is the day when viewers everywhere begin the Thursday night tradition of sitting on the couch with a large glass of red wine for three straight hours of television.

This tactic by ABC was incredibly strategic from a marketing perspective. Last week, I saw an Instagram that depicted a 12 second clip of a new promo video for #TGIT and I proceeded to go to the twitter page to find a link that would direct me to the actual promo video. In the span of 10 seconds, I accessed three social media sites just to watch a promo video for one night of television that won’t be occurring for three more weeks. ABC drives viewers to their Thursday night shows mostly through social media. They have created a social media party through one simple hashtag #TGIT. The content of the three shows are filled with intense drama that captures audience attention immediately, but also makes viewers want to take to social media with their thoughts and predictions for the next episode. It gets viewers talking. It connects them in a unique way. Each viewer feels as if they have a voice and as if their opinion matters. Even if you are sitting on your couch on a Thursday night by yourself watching TV, you still feel a camaraderie with all of the other viewers.

According to statistics by Nielsen Social Ratings, “a total of 738,000 tweets were sent by 192,000 people” during the January 2015 premier of ABC Thursday television. To add to the social media conversation, the shows’ actors will host a “live tweet” session during the episode. This furthers that connection with viewers by uniting them with those characters that they idolize every Thursday. In my opinion, the TGIT campaign exemplifies social media marketing to its greatest potential. Are you participating in the conversation? If not, how are you voicing your opinions and predictions?

Watch the promo video for yourself! And then take a look a little farther down to see just how fans took to social media about their excitement for the upcoming September 24^th season premier.

#TGIT Promo Video

The incredible ladies of Grey's Anatomy, How To Get Away With Murder, and Scandal 

Sarah Drew, also known as April Kepner on Grey's Anatomy, generated extra excitement after the promo release through her Instagram

Fans took to Twitter after the promo release to hashtag #TGIT and express their excitement about September 24th 

 

Sources:

http://www.adweek.com/lostremote/tgit-is-back-and-abc-is-making-sure-you-tweet-about-it/49947

http://variety.com/2015/data/ratings/ratings-scandal-anchors-strong-tgit-return-for-abc-parenthood-ends-with-surge-1201419486/