Chuck Shows the Value of Audience Engagement
Engaged Chuck Audience Rewards Subway for Product Integration
May 1, 2009
The media market has become increasingly fragmented, and average viewership on American television networks has dropped. Networks such as NBC have begun to try and sell air time to advertisers based on audience engagement data rather than solely on ratings, while fans of TV shows such as Chuck have tried to use audience engagement to get “their” show renewed.
The Basics of Audience Engagement; Toyota’s Landmark Deal
Audience engagement is the measurement of how much an audience is involved in the show they are watching, determined by factors called “metrics.” A network can use engagement data to argue that their air time is worth more than that of competing networks, because people will pay more attention to their shows, and therefore will pay more attention to their shows’ advertisements. A NewMediaMetrics engagement study provides a prime example of where audience engagement can be useful. The study showed that Comedy Central and Lifetime had similar ratings, but Comedy Central scored an engagement rating of 149 (indicating 49% more involvement in their programming than the average channel), while Lifetime scored a 64. Clearly Comedy Central will be the more attractive choice to advertisers.
Nielson, the company which provides U.S. ratings data, recently acknowledged the importance of audience engagement when it took over IAG Research, a firm specializing in media engagement analysis. The first major acknowledgement by an advertiser of the importance of audience engagement was in 2006, when Toyota made a landmark deal with NBC that guaranteed their ads would be placed only in shows with high levels of audience engagement.
Fans of NBC’s Chuck Use Audience Engagement and Subway to Try and Save the Show
The value of product placement in television shows is heavily affected by audience engagement. Subway restaurants spent $34.4 million dollars buying advertising on NBC in 2008, and much of that money went towards putting Subway products directly into the plotlines of NBC shows. Subway chief marketing officer Tony Pace has said that the company values engagement for its ability to communicate company “messaging.”
Audiences are aware of the importance of engagement, and some have tried to communicate their high level of engagement to prevent the cancellation of a TV show. Past audience campaigns (such as Jericho’s) have relied on sending in items related to the show, such as nuts, to achieve this. This tactic has become increasingly unsuccessful because beyond demonstrating engagement, it provides little value.
The latest audience campaign to save a television show is being held by viewers of NBC’s Chuck, and is unique in that it tries to sell the importance of audience engagement to advertisers, rather than to the network. The Chuck campaign asked viewers to buy footlong sandwiches from Subway, which has large amounts of product placement in the show, during the season finale. Although the show has not yet been renewed, the campaign has had an effect. Subway’s internal advertisement tracking had indicated that their product placement had an unprecedented level of success, resulting in Subway CMO Tony Pace contacting top NBC executives and telling them that he hoped the show would be renewed. The campaign’s success continued when following the season finale a Subway P.R. manager confirmed a noticeable rise in sales the day of the Chuck finale, and Mr. Pace commented that Subway liked the campaign. Advanced advertiser interest such as this is what networks strive for; it indicates early financial support and gives networks leverage to increase costs for other advertisers.
The success of the campaign has been large enough that companies without advertising on the program have tried to capitalize on the engagement of Chuck viewers. Based on a comment by Chuck creator Josh Schwartz, Wonka, the candy company which makes “Nerds”, has sent 1000 boxes of Nerds to NBC and is urging Chuck viewers to send more.
What the Chuck Campaign Could Mean for Television in the Future
The success of the Chuck campaign has highlighted the importance of audience engagement in shows where product placement is present. This could result in shows being classified differently depending on whether or not they use product placement. Shows such as Chuck which have heavy product integration could be considered successful with lower ratings but high engagement, while shows with little product placement will continue to rely mostly on ratings. Advertisers should be aware of information beyond ratings when determining which shows to buy advertising in.
