TV is a "Word of Mouth Winner" in the Economic Downturn - Ed Keller - MediaBizBlogger

American Idol was again the most watched show on television this year according to the Nielsen ratings for the 20082009 season But the Fox Broadcasting juggernaut was not the king of quotbuzzquot on TV for the season That honor goes to CSI on CBS TV39s word of mouth winner for the second year in a row according to my firm39s latest word of mouth tracking researchTo be sure American Idol enjoys remarkable success as a word of mouth brand taking a strong second place behind CSI with a big rebound over its more lackluster results of a year ago Still many may find it surprising that the CSI franchise generates even more conversation than American IdolOverall it was a strong year for TV when it comes to word of mouth For the season as a whole WOM levels were up more than 8 versus the previous season And for the second half of the season they were up a very impressive 15 Perhaps during these difficult economic times television not only provides a much needed diversion but also gives people something to talk about other than grim economic news Top 10 Programs in Terms of Ratings ampamp WOM for 20082009 Nielsen Ratings Word of Mouth Ranking 1 American Idol Weds 1 CSI 2 American Idol Tues 2 American Idol 3 Dancing with the Stars 3 House 4 CSI 4 Lost 5 NCIS 5 Family Guy 6 The Mentalist 6 Dancing with the Stars 7amp160 Dancing with the Stars Results 7 Heroes 8amp160 Sundayamp160 Night Football 8 NCIS 9amp160amp160 Desperate Housewives 9 24 10amp160 Two and a Half Men 10 Greyamp8217s Anatomy Sourceamp160 Keller Fay Groupamp8217s TalkTrackamp174 amp160 amp160Rounding out the word of mouth top 5 are three shows that do not appear in the Nielsen ratings top 10 House Lost and Family Guy House and Family Guy have particularly strong word of mouth among teens So does Gossip Girl by the way it is the WOM leader among teen girlsOther WOM leaders among TV shows Dancing with the Stars Heroes NCIS 24 and Grey39s Anatomy Dancing and NCIS are both top 10 shows according to the Nielsen ratings while Heroes 24 and Grey39s Anatomy break into the WOM top 10 despite ratings that are not quite as highWhich of these top 10 shows have the greatest word of mouth momentum on their side in other words who showed the most improvement from last season The three biggest gainers were House 24 which was off the air last season but still managed to generate reasonable word of mouth based no doubt on sales of DVDs and video downloads and NCIS Each of these shows saw an impressive increase of approximately 6 million conversations per week this season compared to lastAnother way to measure word of mouth power amp8211 beyond sheer numbers of conversations or growth in the amount of weekly conversation amp8211 is to look at the quality of the word of mouth If we look at shows that generate a substantial percentage of positive word of mouth and subtract conversations that are either negative or mixed we get a score that we call the net advocacy score Shows with the highest net advocacy levels are NCIS with a staggeringly strong net advocacy score of 92 followed by Two and a Half Men 24 CSI and Family Guy House also does well on this metric American Idol in contrast is far more polarizing in its word of mouth with a net advocacy score of only 40 Either you love Idol or you hate it but perhaps from the producers39 perspective they happily subscribe to the rule that it doesn39t matter what you say about me as long as you spell my name rightSo what do we conclude from all this Traditionally advertisers have been focused primarily on audience size but in this environment more and more of them are looking for quotintangiblesquot such as audience engagement as an engaged viewer is apt to be talking about what he or she is watching on televisionIn many respects American Idol is built for engagement with direct audience participation in the outcome as well as lots of online and watercooler chatter about its contestants But more traditional formats like CSI House Lost and Heroes are also generating lots of buzz which is an important lesson for marketers and television executives alikePerhaps the most important story however is the fact that in these challenging economic times television is capturing a bigger share of the national conversation It39s another reason perhaps for the broadcast industry to remind the marketplace in the words of Mark Twain quotThe rumors of my death have been greatly exaggeratedquotEd Keller CEO of the Keller Fay Group has been called quotone of the most recognized names in word of mouthquot The publication of Keller39s book The Influentials has been called the quotseminal moment in the development of word of mouthquot Ed can be contacted at ekellerkellerfaycom

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TV is a "Word of Mouth Winner" in the Economic Downturn - Ed Keller - MediaBizBlogger

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