When TV Meets the IntARnets: Mass Participation, Marketing and the Internets (z) (TM)

KAPLAN: Hillbilly Handfishin' is like the No. 1 title on television!
BERWICK (smiling): Wait a minute. How do you prove that?
KAPLAN: I don't have to. I say it three times and it's true. Title is everything. In a world where people are scrolling through [programming guides] and when you never have enough marketing money, if you can put out a title and people go, "I've got to watch that . . ."

From Female Cable Execs Talk The Future Of TV.

And while I'm not sure Hillbilly Handfishin' is the show that tops out the list of to-watch-shows for me - to say it's the number one title on all TV, and then keep at it?

That, friends, is marketing at its best.

And more in truth - marketing is what can make or break a film - depending, entirely, on how the media interprets something.

And with the numbers not readily apparent (though TV By the Numbers is a great resource) - it's sometimes a little bit easier to claim that in TV. But it doesn't hurt to claim to be the top in web in your demographic. It's possible to use that spin - and that kind of positivity in your brand - to keep pushing it out there.

The other thing that's becoming more and more apparent for the TV types seems to be what has been apparent for the last ten years - the new kids don't like waiting, and if you don't have access to a place to watch the show, then they'll find it some other way.

"Nobody under the age of 16 is scrolling through the cable guide. Their first choice is either VOD, Hulu, Netflix, or DVR."

Because the new audiences are impatient easily - which implies that they're looking to be as interactive as possible in a lot of ways. The ideology behind 'time slots' has died - it died ages back for anyone under 30.

To get on top of that, though, there's other things that can be done.

BERWICK: We'll constantly ask, How do you get people to go from one platform to another and back? We want them to go TV, online, and back to the TV. With the new season of Top Chef, we launched this thing where you don't know why some people come back on the show unless you watch a web piece.
KAPLAN: You're stretching the brand in a way that doesn't damage it.
GANELESS: There has to be more innovation. It can't just be, Here's a clip, pass it on to your friends. It has to be, How do we reward them for participating? A lot of our viewers grew up in that generation where everybody got a soccer trophy.
KAPLAN: Our viewers and employees.
GANELESS: Exactly. So how do we develop this conversation? TV has been a one-way medium. We've been successful in a few of our shows, Tosh notably and Colbert notably, where he can get the Colbert Nation to do things like sponsor a speed-skating team. How do we evolve that process not just for singular talent-driven shows like those, but for scripted shows?

And this is the key - it's all about creating real ways to integrate that are beyond the show, but still let people interact with the original show.

It's always a bit of a question of what works - but there seems to be some really strong placement in the cable industry for reality shows.

Which begs the question - is Mass Participation the best way to get involvement from scripted content and audiences?