The 2014 series (#12) of “Strictly Come Dancing” has just concluded with celebrity Caroline Flack and pro-dance partner Pasha Kovalev lifting the glitterball trophy. And here’s one of the highlights of the series…
And when you take a look closer, the show has a number of lessons for marketers.
You see, by any standards, the show is a HUGE success. It’s now run for 12 seasons starting back on 15 May 2004 (there were two series in that first year), primarily on Saturday evenings with a following Sunday night results show (with certain exceptions). It’s a prime-time ratings success, regularly topping the ratings and easily beating rival show the “X Factor”.
There have been a further ten stand-alone Christmas specials (with another one coming up this Christmas 2014) and nine charity specials have also been produced since 2008. There’s a live tour of the show and the format has been licensed around the world (where it’s generally known as “Dancing With The Stars”) in over 40 countries. It’s arguably the world’s most popular TV program.
Not bad for a show that few people back in 2004 would have expected to be so successful. Ballroom Dancing on Saturday night TV? With a slightly weird lineage, the title of the show referencing a previous BBC show “Come Dancing” (a more conventional ballroom dancing competition that ran on and off from 1949 to 1998) and the quirky 1992 cult movie “Strictly Ballroom”.
So what accounts for it’s popularity and success?
The first thing to note…
…is that the show is a form of “Reality TV” and these type of shows are a kind of soap opera.
Like soap operas, the show taps into some very powerful human triggers, for example curiosity (or “What happens next?). The show, of course, is a competition so there’s a strong interest to discover who is (ultimately) going to win but also who goes out and who stays in each week.
By having the “results” show each week on the day following the main show, the tension of waiting to find out what happens is extended and heightened. Even though that show is clearly recorded straight after the main show on the Saturday night.
To further strengthen the “soap” factor, the show also turns the competitors into characters in the story. Over the course of the series, we get the impression that we are getting to know the competitors quite well. In the main show there is a lot of “background” material showing the celebrities in training and we also get glimpses into their personal lives, with friends and family being introduced.
The personal stories are expanded on further in the show’s companion “Strictly: It Takes Two”. This programme features interviews and training footage of the couples competing in the main Saturday night show, opinions from the judges on the previous Saturday show and the training footage for the next, and interviews with celebrities who have been watching the show.
The Monday show features a review and recap of the previous episode of the competition with an interview and look back of the couple eliminated that weekend. As the week progresses there are a series of regular features. Tuesday sees Karen Hardy, a former professional dancer on Strictly Come Dancing, review the previous week’s choreography in “Karen’s Choreography Corner”. Wednesday sees “Waite’s Wednesday Warm-Up” (a mid-week look at how the contestants are getting on) with pro dancer Ian Waite. On Thursday, there is normally a chat with the show’s head dress designer Vicky Gill. On Friday, there is the Friday Panel, three or more celebrity fans discussing the prospects of the dance teams for Saturday plus a look ahead at the coming weekend’s show.
The show is popular, attracting 2-3 million viewers, and is regularly the most watched programme on BBC 2.
Summing up, “It Takes Two” draws the audience in deeper to the “Strictly” world…it’s increases their engagement with the show and the cast.
That engagement with the show is also helped by the format of the main show where the audience vote has a significant impact on who survives each week (one couple is eliminated each week) and the final itself is determined solely on the audience vote.
A high level of audience engagement can be very powerful, as the success of what might seem to be a mundane quiz show, “Countdown”, demonstrates…
…“Countdown’s very naughty secrets!”
“After 32 years, 70 series and 6,000 episodes, Countdown is now, officially, the most successful game show in television history.”
The reason for this success?
“It’s simply that this is the one television show that involves viewer participation from start to finish.”
Well worth reading the article. Back to “Strictly”…
To recap what we’ve covered so far…
1. The show has the same sort of elements as a soap opera to keep the interest of the audience
2. The show works hard to get the audience interested in the celebrity contestants and to care about what happens to them
3. There is a high level of audience engagement with the viewers having a big influence on the outcome.
All well and good, but there are other shows that share these elements without having the same sort of success as “Strictly”.
My “2 cents” for what it’s worth is that dance, done well, has a unique ability to enchant an audience and to create an emotional response. Think of the enduring popularity of dance in entertainment and how dance giants like Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers remain cultural icons.
Now, your business may not have that inherent advantage of “Strictly”, but you can take advantage of strategies such as building a personal connection with and engaging with your audience (for example, through the strategic use of surveys).
In closing, here’s another highlight from the series…