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The most-damaging, viewership-lowering, ROI-suppressing issue facing tv and video content owners today is that promotion, particularly for scripted series and episodes, does not work. At best, all it does is remind the relatively few people who watch a show to tune in again; by definition, it cannot motivate non-viewers to sample. How can you turn this around?

Ask yourself:

• Are We Set Up to Motivate People?
• Do We Have an Outdated Strategy That Keeps Our Content Hostage?
• Can We Achieve Effective Promotion Via Massive Sampling?
• Why Is a Hit the Rarity?
• Is Viral Sampling a Solution for Me?

and jot down your answers after reading this article, so you can analyze them.

Are We Set Up to Motivate People?

This leads me to ask: in an era containing hundreds of viewer options, what good is investing millions upon millions in content and delivery systems, if you can’t — or worse, are not set up to — motivate people to sample the content? In turn, why should advertisers invest in your content, unable to deliver effective advertising? After all, more people sampling your means more can become loyal.

Do We Have an Outdated Strategy That Keeps Our Content Hostage?

The role of promotion is to build value into your programming. The outdated strategy of keeping your content hostage until its debut falls well short of that goal. Look at ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC as examples. Each has a billion-dollar promotional budget in paid media plus the value of promotional spots on the network if sold to advertisers. Yet, for Disney, Viacom, News Corp., and GE, it is irrefutable that their promotional messages are totally ineffective. For cable and digital networks, the budgets might be smaller, but the results the same. As for VOD and Pay-VOD, getting people to watch or even fork over money for a huge special or “The Sopranos” is not that hard; the real challenge is: How do you get them to tune into or pay for a new series they have not seen?

Can We Achieve Effective Promotion Via Massive Sampling?

Without effective promotion from massive sampling, all your expensive content can do is maintain viewer loyalty after that initial trial. Everything else is a waste of time, money and effort. In fact, I’d argue that many canceled series do not fail; rather, their promotion did not take advantage of free viral sampling on the net — if they did, many more programs would have been successful.

Why Is a Hit the Rarity?

When you do not “know” the characters because you have not seen the show, the promotion might as well be in Greek for all the good it does to bring new viewers to you. With a comedy piece, you cannot find the humor. With a drama, you cannot appreciate the intrigue. So all the money spent on promotion only remind existing viewers, who “know” the characters, to watch a show again. This ensures lower viewership and quick cancellation. In this scheme a hit is the rarity, even for great content.

Is Viral Sampling a Solution for Me?

Is there a solution to this problem? Yes. The pool of potential samplers must be dramatically expanded from just those few people who have seen the show (prior to its debut, no one is in the pool) to include those who have not. How? Through the adoption of a new promotional model reflecting today’s competitive environment. Holding on to the thinking used in the three-network 70s, both pre-premiere and episodic, is totally counterproductive and the single greatest suppressor of revenue and stock prices.

500% Gain in Online Viewership Is Very Feasible

Ironically, since loyalty to most tv programs is weak and the act of sampling is so easy (the viewer just has to click the mouse or hit the remote), viewership gains of 50-to-100% or more in broadcast and cable and 500% or more in digital are very feasible. This only requires one simple thing: a commitment to make adjustments in the outdated content development-promotion-sales model. Because once the promotional problem is addressed, you’d be amazed how many others will evaporate.