The networks used to get 75% awareness for each new program launch. Today despite going outside to pay for tune-in on top of 20% of one’s own saleable airtime, awareness has gone down. Our own estimate of the current average awareness gained for new network (and comparable) product was 45% at launch across the 451 new shows launched last year for example. That’s based on conversations with numerous network executives whose charge includes tune-in.

 

The changes taking place in the world require a complete zero based reinvention of tune-in. Today the typical media mix for the paid tune-in is 80% TV and the other 20% testing digital video alternatives per my earlier post on my blog, In Terms of ROI on Media Village – really a very conventional and cautious approach.

And yet completely new forms are available all of which will produce the same results as conventional tune-in, all of which (in conjunction with conventional tune-in) deserve rigorous AB testing:

• Personalized recommender on network site and apps
• More effort on cooperating with TV bloggers/reviewers
• Fan club social media
• College social media
• Tweeting links to videos that people can re-send
• Versioning of creative
• Interactive creative
• The list goes on and on.

Why would one suspect that there is a pot of gold in testing such approaches? Is it not obvious how the culture is shifting Internet-ward? Has the Internet proven to be a land where such wild experimentation has won landslides again and again? Not having the bandwidth or it’s on our roadmap are silly responses to this opportunity.

Best to all,

Bill