Brand recognition is only half the story
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t was easier in the old days – if a show was good enough, families in their millions watched it from their living rooms. But as choice, channels and platforms mushroomed, finding an audience for a programme became more complicated. The fight to be heard now requires broadcasters to break out to digital platforms, mobile devices and new audiences – who increasingly receive their recommendations from social media. An RTS event in July looked at whether TV brands can still cut through and find an audience in today’s cluttered landscape. Yes, said the panel of experts assembled for the event, but only those broadcasters with the best content and strongest brands would prosper. “It’s a crowded marketplace and
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An RTS event showed how platforms and broadcasters can cut through digital clutter highly competitive, and you’ve got to make stuff that people want to watch. I honestly believe that, if you do that, you cut through,” said Zaid Al-Qassab, Channel 4’s chief marketing officer. “In a world of massive choice, of different platforms and different content, you need brands more than ever,” he said. “That’s how you know what to trust and what to watch. “It’s all very well with an exciting show that’s already built credibility and you’ve heard of, but, with the plethora
of new shows out there, you don’t watch those unless they’re coming from a trusted brand.” Selma Turajlic, co-founder and COO of digital broadcaster and producer Little Dot Studios, however, stressed the importance of content over brand: “This idea that we are creating brands and destinations just doesn’t cut it any more. What drives engagement and audience attachment is content. “The fundamentals of how we make and broadcast television are being challenged because of the fragmentation of the audience.” For traditional broadcasters, she said, the challenge was to keep their “core linear-TV audiences, but also to start to talk to those who are not sitting in front of a TV screen”. Turajlic added: “We’re all trying to
