Spotlight of the Week: Riverdale

From Beverly Hills 90210 to One Tree Hill, each decade has had its own teen drama circulating the air waves. Now comes the time for this decade to adopt its on teen soap, and it seems that Riverdale stands at the forefront as the new drama to be. Riverdale, based on the Archie Comics, premiered last year and took on new spin on teen series. Like most of its predecessors its focuses on the lives of a group of high schoolers  living in a small, quaint town  - sounds pretty similar to Dawson's Creek right. Only difference is that this city is not marked by wholesome values but instead by mystery. The creators of Riverdale took a spin on classic teen dramas by adding murder and mystery to the plot. The season 2 premiere set series highs for the show with 2.3 million viewers - twice the amount of the season 1 finale. I'm sure some of this increase came from the many Netflix bingers who just recently discovered the show over the summer but also of this has to be due to Riverdale's social media presence.

Majority of Riverdale's social media seems to stem from its Twitter page. Leading up to the premiere, the feed had tweets serving as a countdown to the show and also had cast members tweet from their personal accounts to remind fans of the premiere. Reminders became more and more frequent as the premiere date approached, which helped in ensuring that fans are informed about when to tune in. In addition, the use of cast members personal accounts serve as a tool to reach out to fans of the actor/actress to tune into show because  

of their favorite actor/actress is in it. I'm pretty sure Cole Sprouse has a pretty big Twitter following from his Disney Channel days and reaching out to those fans helps captivate a larger audience. During the premiere, Riverdale live tweeting throughout the show about different scenes and also retweeted fans tweets, making its audience feel more apart of the Riverdale community. It also offers special emojis if fans use specific hashtags. This helps in generating more tweets, which in turn helps in creating more buzz for the show. 

Another platform that Riverdale utilizes is Instagram. Before the premiere, it posted short interviews with the cast members about their favorite moments from season 1. This serves as a tool of reminding audiences about last season and gets them excited about the season to come. This also gives extra features to followers of the page by extending their interaction with the show beyond just watching the series in itself. Recently, the page has posted yearbook pictures of the different cast members. This is an interesting tactic because its using the platform like actual high school students use their own Instagrams. 

The last social media platform that Riverdale seems to use is its Facebook page. Its page mainly consists of the same posts that can be found on its Twitter or Instagram pages. The main difference is that Facebook can post full promos for the show. Being able to post longer videos on Facebook though does allow for Riverdale to be able to release sneak peaks to its fan base. Normally, series have counted on previewing the shows to viewers during other network shows, but Facebook allows the series to send the promos directly to their audiences' Facebook feeds. 

Pilot Season in Review

With live linear viewing of television shows declining, many advertising buyers worry about the decline in viewership of their commercials. One saving grace for advertisers is the advent of pilot season. With new shows comes new traction for new audiences. Last year, This is Us took the nation by storm and greatly increased viewership to NBC. Now with a new year upon us, speculation is up in the air towards what shows will dominate the air waves.

At the moment, buyers picks for best new shows are Young Sheldon and The Good Doctor. Young Sheldon brought in 17.2 million live viewers, which is the largest amount of viewership for a comedy premiere since 2011. Young Sheldon brought in such a large audience due to its pulling of already loyal fan base from The Big Bang Theory. Spin offs do not usually fare well in the long run, but this one seems to be bringing in the numbers. Only time will tell if it will be able to keep up the momentum. Personally, I think watching Sheldon navigate the perils of high school is an extremely interesting story line. Who knows how many teachers and students he can offend.

Another show who had high ratings on its premiere date was The Good Doctor. Created by the writers of House, The Good Doctor follows an autistic doctor through his first year as a resident. The first episode was extremely heart felt and touching. Right now it seems to be closest show to This is Us in being able to have audiences feel for the characters. The ABC show premiered with a viewership of 11.2 million and held steady through its week 2 showing, which is extremely uncommon for new series.

NBC remains at the top for cable viewership due to Emmy winning show This is Us and its revival of Will & Grace. Bringing back old shows seems to be a common trend in television. Other networks like Fox and Netflix have seen success in revivals of shows like Prison Break, Full House, and Gilmore Girls. NBC is enjoying the same benefits with Will & Grace, which brought in 10.2 million viewers. Seems as if right now, NBC is the best place for advertisers to place their content.

With all of these new shows, one thing that stations need to keep in mind is figuring out how to generate buzz. If they want viewership to continue to increase, they need to attract more viewers, which can best be accomplished through the use of social media. Playing television promos across the network is no longer the best way to generate viewership; instead, series need to focus on building their presence on social media through media buys in advertising on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. I know I came across The Good Doctor through seeing a preview of it on my Facebook feed. Digital marketing can be a major tool in helping pilot shows receive renewal for next year.

Spotlight of the Week: This is Us

Last week, the "Big Three" returned to television with the season premiere of This is Us. Each episode of This is Us delivers the perfect amount of tears and laughter. The family dynamics and character arches bring viewers closer and closer to the story. Alongside phenomenal writing and story lines, This is Us utilizes different social media platforms to attract audiences to the show.

Twitter:

This is Us's Twitter page seemed to have two main goals: to inform and to create conversation. The informative goal is achieved mainly through their reminding their audiences about the premiere time. This can be seen through each cast member posting a picture of them holding up a different number representing the countdown to the season premiere. The continued posting every hour lets members of the Twitterverse know when This is Us is returning and creates a certain amount of hype through the implementation of a countdown.

This is Us's twitter page creates conversation through live tweeting during the premiere and retweeting tweets with the hashtag #ThisIsUs. Live tweeting helps keep audiences engaged while watching and higher engagement also leads to continued following of the show. Retweeting or responding to fan's tweets makes fans feel apart of the show and that connection leads to more loyalty to the series. Alongside this, fans tweeting about the show creates conversation seen not only by followers of the series but also followers of the fans. This creates word of mouth advertising for the series and generates buzz. 

Facebook:

This is Us's Facebook page serves a source for posting promos, articles, and behind the scenes features. It also partners with other brands to help in promoting the series. For example, T.J. Maxx premiered their new marketing campaign during This is Us that is centered around This Is the Maxx You Project campaign. In this advertisement, This is Us posters are posted around the store and customers are asked about what makes them who they are. This partnership yields benefits for both parties in that it promotes both the series and the store to each of their collective audiences. 

The Facebook page also partners with People Magazine in sharing People's live coverage of the season premiere. This also allows for higher engagement with the series in that it shows behind the scenes interviews with the cast while watching the show. 

Other Social Media Platforms:

This is Us also utilizes some less traditional platforms for the promotion of the series. It uses Spotify as place to post soundtracks from the series and also created a playlist generator through Spotify that will create a playlist based on the songs released on one's birthday. 

It also has a Pinterest page dedicated the show. Here fans can learn more about the characters and the show. These extra platformsgrant fans more touch bases for engagement with the series and hopefully offer a more fulfilling experience than exceeds beyond just watching a series.