Capturing and Keeping Viewer Attention

The Challenge

With the world of entertainment literally changing by the minute, capturing (and keeping) the attention of viewers is the gauntlet of all challenges. Our client, a popular TV network, had recently completed a quantitative segmentation and needed our help further dimensionalizing its core audience to help shape its content and marketing strategies.

The Approach

At The Sound, we’re not afraid to push your thinking.

After speaking to 30+ of their viewers, we quickly realized the question the team should be asking was much bigger. Its core viewers were 35+ and ready to “break up” with the brand once their favorite shows went off air. They weren’t connecting with the new programming, nor the direction of the brand. So, we helped the team reframe the question from how to shape content and marketing against one audience to how to rebuild relevance across all audiences. There was no sense in putting a band-aid on a knife wound.

We then spent weeks immersing and watching every reality TV show known to man. Kidding! But sounds kind of fun, right?!

In order to dig deeper into the data and unearth the human insights behind it, we leveraged a combination of ethnography via The Sound Wave and in-home interviews across two key markets.

The Impact

The impact of our beautiful, insights driven report and ethnographic film were three-fold.

First, we surfaced shared identity values so our client could transcend age and life stage — helping them maintain their loyal core base, but also grow with the next generation.

Then, we crafted content guardrails so they could create greater distance from the content/programming that currently perpetuates the negative stigma of reality TV—while dialing up its strongest equities.

And finally, we created a set of messaging guidelines so this TV network could show its viewers that the brand understands them and their needs via its TV promos and wider messaging / communication campaigns.