I will start with the Network 10 reality TV cooking show MasterChef
Finding the show - Google (1/5)
So you have just watched the show you go online type in 'MasterChef' or 'MasterChef Australia', searching for the site MasterChef Official site is no where to be found. There should of been an SEO/PPC campaign implemented. Using Google Insights you can see the rise in interest in the show. All these searches are now being missed by the main site.
Edit: I think they have been getting into my heads because they now have a Google Advertising/PPC in place for the keywords.
Mainsite (4/5)
The site is actual quite good when you get to it, simple layout, alot of rich content, including behind the scenes footage, catch up television and they have a forum which is humming along with a good numbers of guests. Everything you would expect from a reality show site.
Youtube (1/5)
I would think that Network Ten would have at least sunk $15,000 into this Youtube Advertising deal. You think the least they could of done was named the channel something else instead of 'TenMarketing'?!?!?!
Masterchef fan 'Wingscancer' has been uploading all the episodes onto his Youtube account, this probably could of been done by Masterchef official page.
Facebook Page (3/5)
It looks like they have a fan page, they have actually been quite smart to link up the conversation going between the forum with status updates to the Facebook page. This keeps the conversation going and is also a good way to update people of upcoming episodes.
Bloggers (4/5)
There was a number of cooking bloggers talking about the show (Foodchaser) and the auditions (Grab Your Fork). Host, Sarah Wilson also did an interview with fashion blogger Girl With A Satchel. MasterChef has also been getting a fair bit of coverage in the Number 1 Australian Television blog TV Tonight with over 10 posts on the show and also Reality Ravings
Bonus - Twitter:
It would be great if they had a twitter stream going onto the main site. As there is a great back channel going on behind this show. Or even just the insights to one of the contestants, they already have Brent Parker Jones and Linda Kowalski who are in the final 20 and is on twitter. They also have an unofficial Twitter channel MasterChefAus, you would hope that they are relaying important information to them. Is this a missed opportunity?
There are some limitations with this analysis, without knowing everything they are doing and what they're goals are? What do you think of this as a concept for blog posts? What information do you think I should include/I have missed in looking at Digital Campaigns?
14 comments:
Thanks for the link. Great analysis in plain english that even an IT luddite could understand.
Thanks for the feedback, I am a bit of a sucker for Reality TV. I really like MasterChef, so being able to write a post on that and marketing is quite easy.
Key is to keep it consistent across all campaigns you're doing -- which as you know can be difficult across various social media strategies (e.g. not all social networks are appropriate to use for certain brands).
Maybe a short summary up the top
Maybe comments from the campaigns marketers if possible (or if no response, say that etc.)
Enjoyed the post!
This is a great concept Julian. I'll definitely be tuning in for every subsequent post. As a production company working increasingly online, its important for us to understand the bigger picture. This analysis gives us a holistic view of a campaign's failures and successes, emphasizing the importance of and the means by which every online facet reinforces and feeds one another.
I can see it becoming an Australian digital media strategy benchmark. A measure by which the success of campaigns can be compared.
I agree with Jye, keep the format consistent. If there is an online aspect absent, note this and either score it N/A or 0/5 if its a missed opportunity.
I reckon your concern about the limitations of your perspective is actually the strength of the analysis. Online audiences browsing for content rarely know or care about the ins and outs of a digital strategy. You are the audience surrogate and consequently a better judge of its effectiveness. Ignorance of insider strategy details will make your analysis more objective.
Jye mentioned involving the digital strategists. It might be worth letting them know of the blogpost so they can comment of their own accord. They can fill in the gaps that you, the audience surrogate, missed and use the forum to possibly improve their ongoing strategy. Once they comment on more and more posts, any subsequent absence of input will speak for itself.
This is actually channel Ten's youtube page: http://www.youtube.com/ten
I can also see a PPC SEM campaign running at the moment on Google Australia.
Hey Anon,
There was no SEM/PPC running as of Sunday night when I first did my investigation, I even have the screenshot there. I would not lie about that stuff.
Also TenMarketing is the account I was attracted too cause I saw the advertising on Youtube, side of the page and then I clicked through to that page. Although you may have another account you also have Ten Marketing, I can understand that, that this stuff happens in large organisations, especially when your Media Agency is not speaking with your internal IT department or something.
Jye, thanks for the advice I think an intro would of been good. I would love to get comments from the campaign manager as well, I will see what I can do. ;)
Returnon thanks for the positive feedback, I think it will be able to be improved with a few tweaks along the way. I was really aiming for the holistic picture on this one, so good to see that, that came across
Great post Julian, I look forward to seeing further analysis of other Australian online properties.
Firstly my views are NOT supported by TEN or Fremantle media. Here are my two cents...
Your Google results are different from mine so I think your rating there is inaccurate.
The biggest challenge that online properties have is getting licence for video and audio from the broadcast producers and content licence holders. So getting video/audio content for starters let along to be shared globally are challenges.
Thanks to the Global Financial Crisis companies need to squeeze every monetary return from reduced advertising spending.
Companies need page views on their own site, repeat web site visitors and increased time spent on site. So resources may not be allocated to 'youtube' channels and other social networked areas (i.e. facebook pages).
So you might have to rethink the justification and terms and conditions for a 'youtube' section. As often 'youtube' content is user generated and not affiliated with the official licenced owner.
Have you considered including the rating of the 'web exclusive' content?
The MasterChef site has great content available on it's own video player (including 'web exclusive video'): http://www.masterchef.com.au/video.htm
I like that you included Twitter as a bonus (and not calculated in your overall rating). This might be a good place to discuss the value of twitter.
The biggest single problem with 'twitter' keyword result widgets are that they are currently difficult/impossible to moderate posts. This can be a legal minefield.
Here is a great article about limitations of twitter in real world implementations: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/pda/2009/apr/20/telegraphmediagroup-twitter
Keep up the good work!
Nice idea Jules.
They had a dedicated branded channel for So You Think You can Dance but it didn't have a lot of views attached (maybe they didn't promote it or load it with the right content) so maybe they decided not to spend any Youtube cash on this one.
My question is how are they going to build/sustain this for 20 weeks. I guess we'll find out soon enough.
k
they are doing PPC. jules - one reason why you might not have seen it is because they probably have daily bid limits and on sunday night they might have been over their daily cap.
they are number 2 natural too and this will grow on Google AU quickly - within a week, to number 1.
Definitely deserved of much more than a 1/5
Generally good content/editorial potential here with this series but i think you need to rationalise the importance of the channels suggested ... ie, youtube, facebook and twitter could be irrelevant for some shows/campaigns.
ie - why should masterchef sink money into youtube? ditto for a facebook fan page. is there a correlation between these and metro TV audience?? (i dunno, is there?)
also remember, no client has an unlimited budget so it's rough to publicly slate someone for not using a certain medium if they didn't have the funds.
Jules,
I really like this idea and enjoyed reading it. I hope you do more of these. Seems there is so much talk about SM but so little analysis. tip of the hat.
and I will add this too.
I see a lot of other people have given constructive criticism about how you shouldn't include this section or that section (youtube or twitter) because they may not have had the funds or even wanted to do it.
That's an ok point but a little too introspective if you ask me. We are never going to know the full motives/outcomes a campaign wants to achieve. Does this mean we can't judge anything because me don't know what their initial objectives were.
I think your analysis should look holistically at how the campaigns use digital media regardless of their intent - like you have been doing. It gives a great reference point from what would be the prefect use of Digital media for a campaign.
"Does this mean we can't judge anything because me don't know what their initial objectives were."
It does sort of yes. Otherwise all we're getting is subjective opinion which there's already a lot of.
Unless you know what the intent of something is, how can you judge its effectiveness?
Ben, I think you are on the same page as me.
As I said the limitations for this is not knowing the problem that the campaign is trying to address. It is really hard to evaluate these campaigns without knowing the marketing/business objectives.
I was actually going to call this evaluating the Digital Executions because that is all you can judge.
I know first hand that what you want with a campaign and what is possible on a budget are two different things. However I do not think that is a strong enough reason not to do this series.
I had not thought that the PPC allocation had dried up for that day. I think you are right I might need to change the marking.
Hey Kate, I really do not know what they will do in 20 weeks. I think that for alot of shows that this is just not commercially viable. I guess you would hope that your fans can take over for you, especially on the likes of the Facebook page.
Hey Nat, thanks for the encouraging words. I think this is helping me out as well, breaking down campaigns like this will help me become a better Digital Strategist.
I think in the case of Masterchef we might be able to take a great leap of faith and say their primary objective is/was to drive audience for the TV series.
After all, that's what they're really monetising.
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