Shortening the Jump from “Not a TV Show” to “TV Show”
October 13th, 2007 by Alec McNayrPosted in Drama, Strategy, Viral |Though the Internet is growing into its own medium for storytelling and shared cultural experiences, the people who run TV and movies still hold all the keys to the big money. For now. TV is still a great and popular medium to gather a large audience for your work, so let’s not get too snobbish with our new toy…
Wired Magazine points us to a viral marketing push for a TV show concept that, to my knowledge, has not been pitched or considered by the traditional TV execs. There’s no official name, but a series of websites show us the setup:
Epic Level Entertainment is taking a non-traditional route to TV, by promoting their concept and storylines to the Internet audience before it is even pitched. With images, stories, scripts (I presume), websites, marketing, AND an audience, this feels like a show already. They’ve shortened the jump that executives, mentally, would have to make from “Not a TV Show” to “TV Show.” If they already have a following, they’ve mitigated a huge risk. How can a studio not pick this up?
And don’t try to tell me that this is supposed to be an Internet-only push. They’re gunning for TV. There’s no place to subscribe to videos, and no real call for interaction. This project was made for one niche audience: TV execs.
It’s a good lesson in target marketing. I hope they get picked up. It’s a whole new path to getting on TV.
