Fail TV: What Marketing Folks Can Learn from Soon-To-Be Canceled TV Shows
Like TV shows, brands have to tell a good story, have a “character” you fall in love with and they need people to keep tuning in for them not to get cancelled. How does an organization make sure it doesn’t get cut from next season’s lineup? Look at what others did wrong.
Here are a few canceled and might-soon-be canceled shows we can learn a thing or two from.
Show: Mulaney
John Mulaney is hilarious. A seasoned writer and stand-up comedian, he has an laser-accurate sense of what’s really funny and a perspective different enough to keep you laughing. On his new show Mulaney, these gifts are lost in a sea of 1990s-nostalgic laugh tracks, recycled jokes from his stand-up specials and wink-and-nod references to Seinfeld. The show is not yet canceled, but definitely flailing if reviews and ratings are to be believed.
Brand Diagnosis: What’s the deal with this funny guy with a not-at-all-funny show? Like Mulaney, maybe you’re organization is likeable and does great work, but you’re also terribly out-of-date and in need of fresh material.
Solution: Write new jokes. Get a new perspective. Listen to your real voice. Like networks try to dumb down and adjust unique shows into something more “marketable,” brands listen to a lot of C-suite folks with a lot of old, bad ideas. Don’t fall into that trap. Let your people show you what makes your brand special and let them communicate that to others.
Show: Utopia
Utopia is winning at failing, going down as one of the biggest flops since New Coke. Fox spent $50 million (MILLION, y’all) making this reality “experiment” and ratings have plummeted since the show’s premiere. The AV Club has likened it to a “drunken diner conversation,” which we think is a bit generous considering how delightful drunken diner conversations can be. 3 a.m. at House of Pies—It’s the best.
The main issue with the show seems to be the same one that plagued The Strokes’ debut album: it goes nowhere. For a story to make sense there has to be conflict and resolution, which Utopia fails at completely. It’s the same issue that made reality TV jump the shark in the first place, one that’s caused those shows to be replaced by the outstanding dramatic (fictional) shows of the past few years, like Breaking Bad.
Brand Diagnosis: Do you have a story? Every brand should be able to show people who they are, why they’re here and how they can help them. Organizations, both for-profit and nonprofit, have a function to their audiences and it shouldn’t be up to the public to figure that out.
Don’t make your audience figure out your story. Tell them!
Solution: Go back to Marketing 101 and figure out the following: who are you, what need do you fulfill and how do you fulfill that need. Ask yourself why people should come to you for the solution and work backwards—there’s where you’ll find your story.
Show: Mysteries of Laura
The best shows know what they do well and do that thing over and over again. This is the reason Law and Order SVU has been on the air since 1999—they solve sex crimes and move on to the next episode. This is also the reason that the Hollywood Reporter conjectured that someone at the network must have just greenlit Mysteries of Laura without reading the script. Is it a comedy? Is it a procedural cop drama? Why should we believe that Debra Messing is a homicide detective and mom who’s trying to have it all? Ugh. It’s all too much and is doing way too little.
Brand Diagnosis: Pick a side! Who are you and what do you do? You might be trying to be too many things to too many people. That’s the quickest way to fail.
Solution: Find out what you do best. Do that. Talk about that. It’s that simple.
Who says you can’t learn from TV? Each season is an opportunity to see your brand in a new light and maybe win some new fans or earn better ratings. Just make sure you don’t tune out.
Don’t Be Jen from Appleton
10/09/2014
Customer service, as you may have heard about a skabillion times, is not only the right thing to do because, HELLO! you love your customers, it’s also a way your front-line employees can keep you from becoming the next villain du jour.
For example, take “Jen from Appleton,” a Bath & Body Works manager in Wisconsin who raised the ire of Az4angela (real name: Angela), a vlogger who hilariously recounts her experience trying to purchase a candle. As you can imagine, it did not go well. After driving across town in Packers game related traffic, she was told that the candles she had reserved were not available and proceeded to have a level-five meltdown. The incident happened over a year ago, but the video was recently discovered (thanks to Tumblr) and it’s inspiring all kinds of internet weirdness, tributes and memes.
The “Jen-cident” just underscores the reality that brands live in today. The wonderful and terrible thing about the Internet is that people latch-on to stories like this and pull them into the public eye. At that point, all a company can do is try to react in a way that turns a positive into a negative. Some have done this successfully, others not so much. The best way? Avoid the situation all-together with good customer service.
Most PR problems are customer service problems that spin out of control. When you’re looking to solutions, it’s best to start with the source. Here are 3 ways to guard yourself against ending up on Buzzfeed as a “Don’t.”
Are you reality? People want help from the live person in front of them.
When Angela asked for compensation for her troubles, Jen from Appleton told her to call a number to speak to a live person—that’s when all Hell broke loose. Why? When you’re talking to a person and then that person hands you a card to call another person, it’s frustrating. What’s even more frustrating is when they act like that’s reasonable.
Repeat after us: your front-line employees are live people. Give them the power to make your customers happy or, at least, train them to be more empathetic. Had Jen from Appleton said, “Listen—I totally understand you’re frustrated and I’m so sorry this happened. I unfortunately can’t help you, but these people can. Here’s the number—I’ll call them for you now and explain the situation if you’d like,” things might have gone differently. In reality, people can level with other people. Be reality.
Don’t try to sub mini candles for the three-wick variety.
People aren’t stupid. When you pull the old switch-a-roo and expect them to be fine with mini candles when they’re expecting a giant three-wick monster they’re going to be M A D. Jen from Appleton told Angela that, while they didn’t have what she was promised, they did have the mini candles of the scent she wanted and she went BALLISTIC. She didn’t want no mini candle and neither do your customers.
Deliver on what you promise. It’s so simple, but like a good margherita pizza or a perfect-fitting pair of jeans, it’s also so difficult to do. Try anyway. Then when you fall short of someone’s expectations you have a built up reserve of goodwill to draw from and help guide you to a solution.
Just. Be. Nice.
What seems to have set off Angela and what typically causes any adult to completely flip out is that an employee was initially rude to her. That set the tone for the whole encounter, escalating it to nuclear. By the time Jen from Appleton started in with her baloney, Angela was having NONE OF IT.
You can’t tell your employees this enough: be nice to people. Even if they’re being rude, even if they’re being stupid, even if they’re being unreasonable—be nice. You don’t have to give them everything they want and no, they’re not always right, but being nice will diffuse a lot of situations before they become a nightmare. Train your people to rise above and let a cooler head prevail.
Then give them resources to escalate that person to someone who can solve their issue so that the problem doesn’t become a gif
Don’t make your audience figure out your story. Tell them!
Solution: Go back to Marketing 101 and figure out the following: who are you, what need do you fulfill and how do you fulfill that need. Ask yourself why people should come to you for the solution and work backwards—there’s where you’ll find your story.
Show: Mysteries of Laura
The best shows know what they do well and do that thing over and over again. This is the reason Law and Order SVU has been on the air since 1999—they solve sex crimes and move on to the next episode. This is also the reason that the Hollywood Reporter conjectured that someone at the network must have just greenlit Mysteries of Laura without reading the script. Is it a comedy? Is it a procedural cop drama? Why should we believe that Debra Messing is a homicide detective and mom who’s trying to have it all? Ugh. It’s all too much and is doing way too little.
Brand Diagnosis: Pick a side! Who are you and what do you do? You might be trying to be too many things to too many people. That’s the quickest way to fail.
Solution: Find out what you do best. Do that. Talk about that. It’s that simple.
Who says you can’t learn from TV? Each season is an opportunity to see your brand in a new light and maybe win some new fans or earn better ratings. Just make sure you don’t tune out.