Here's Why You Should Promote Your New TV Show Like It's Taylor Swift

At this point, everyone in the television business understands that driving viewers to any new show is a difficult challenge. There will probably be close to 400 new scripted shows in 2015, not counting reality programs and other documentaries. And that's not even factoring in the competition from the hundreds of shows that are already on the air.

So how do you cut through the clutter and promote your new show? As someone who deals with this viewing and publicity triage on a daily basis, let me offer you some advice. You might not like all of it, but it will help your cause.

1) Start Your Promotional Efforts Early
In an ideal world, an in-house digital/social media person should be one of the first hires as you're preparing to shoot the pilot. Yes, you want to hire someone that early in the process. There are two primary reasons for this. The first is that you're thinking optimistic and expect your pilot will be picked up by the network. Hiring a digital person early ensures that they'll integrate into the production and will gain the trust of the actors and production staff before the inevitable pressures of grinding out episodes overwhelms everything.

But the second reason you want to hire someone early is that it shows the network and everyone involved with the production that you value the digital/social media work. It also helps build early buzz online, which might be helpful if your pilot is balancing on that dreaded order/don't order line a few weeks later.

So what should this digital/social media person do? I'll leave that for another post, but the short answer is that should be getting as much out there as possible. They should be the "go-to" person for fans and establishing that link early is crucial to the later promotional campaign.

2) Video Is Fine, But Don't Forget The Old-School Stuff
Yes, that new SnapChat campaign for the show is really cool and it's wonderful that video clips of the series are all over YouTube. But don't forget that the most important currency online is information. So don't forget the classic ways of promoting your show. One example of this is text. It's amazing how many network TV web sites don't have even a minimal amount of text-based information of their shows. Particularly with the explosion of mobile, it should be easy for someone to find out the basics about your series. The cast, episode information and an original "about this show" page is the bare minimum. Once the show begins to air, including info on guest stars and the music included in the episode will also attract visitors who might not already be hardcore fans of the show.

3) Reward Potential Hard Core Fans With Exclusive Access And Information
Promote your show on social media as if you're Taylor Swift. For all of her time constraints and obligations, Swift and her team are experts in building a fan base and engaging those fans on a regular basis. This means that when the show begins production on the first season, you're connecting directly with potential fans of the show. You use the fanbase of the cast as a starting point and build a database of people interested in some aspect of the show. You randomly give away swag, you host a premiere party or two, you offer access to cast members to bloggers who already cover cast members. This is all about building buzz as early as you can and not stopping, even if the show is poised to go over the creative cliff six episodes in. All this work helps the initial success of the show, but it also builds a strong fanbase that is helpful when the studio begins negotiations for the SVOD window.

4) Don't Rely On Traditional Digital Marketing Firms
There are some exceptions, but my typical experience with PR firms that specialize in "digital" marketing is that they don't do an effective job of promoting your show. Networks hire them because the show publicists don't want to be bothered by scores of bloggers they don't know. But the problem with the digital publicist is that they typically don't get access to content that is unique or even helpful. Sending out emails that include a "reminder" about this week's episode and perhaps the embed code for a YouTube clip isn't 100% useless. But it's pretty damn close. Most of these duties can be handled by the in-house digital media person, who is also in a better position to pass along helpful assets to bloggers and other online fans.

5) Advertisers Care About How Your Show Interacts In Social Media
Keith Hindle – CEO of Digital & Branded Entertainment at FremantleMedia, recently gave an interview in which he explained that advertisers more by the social media buzz it generates than traditional ratings:

Hindle added that sponsors would no longer sign up to content unless they had confidence in the social media strategy: “There’s a belief among major advertisers, associated with major pieces of content that the content is a paid media campaign to drive an earned media result. That’s the really interesting shift.

In other words, advertisers understand that an engaged audience is good for business. the fact that it's also good for your show in other ways just makes it a win-win for everyone.

Follow Rick Ellis on Twitter at @aysrick. He can be reached by email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..