Tina Fey Delivers Bags of Money to NBC

Want to beat the recession? Want to increase billing? Want to double your rates for advertising? Want to be turning away advertisers because the demand is too high? Here is how you do it in one word…….CONTENT.

NBC reports that the ratings for Saturday Night Live have jumped 42 percent from last year. SNL is now running 49 percent ahead of last year’s opening four episodes. The last show featuring the debates hosted by Queen Latifah (and even without Tina Fey as Sarah Palin) was the evening’s #1 telecast, beating all primetime programs on all networks.

Sure the stars have aligned for NBC. And it is a gift from God that John McCain picked a Sarah Palin comedy sketch as his Vice Presidential nominee. But you must remember that SNL has been on the other end of the stick. That’s when they had terrible content….and terrible ratings.

The point here is that in this economic downturn you have one very important strategic way in which to beat the economy. That is through
the development of superior product and content.

Here are some things to consider.

• Audience’s have more media choice than at any other time in history. But they don’t give a damn where it comes from if the content is a “must” see/read/or hear. Sure Google got a billion hits from the SNL skit….but NBC gets even more viewers because of it. It works for magazines, it works for newspapers, it works for radio, it works for movies, and it sure works for good old television. Incredibly great content drives audiences 100 percent of the time.
• People say advertising is down in most all media forms. The reason it’s down is because the automotive industry, the housing industry, the financial services industry, the electronics industry and others are all in very big trouble. The only way you can get a bigger piece of a smaller pie is with superior content. There is a difference between being a might buy versus a must buy.  Great content locks you in on a buy.
• Superior content gives you FREE marketing. Why? Because great content drives word of mouth. Those who didn’t see Tina Fey as Sarah Palin heard about it on day 2. That means NBC got free endorsements from millions of viewers who drove millions more to their product. You cannot buy that kind of marketing power. Better yet….it is free.
• A great deal of content sucks. People pay tens and hundreds of millions for media properties and then spend almost nothing on developing and researching content. Or if they spend any money, it is a tiny tiny fraction of what is required for superiority. Then they cry about the ratings. Think about setting the bar higher. If the content you provide can’t generate next day water cooler discussion, then go back to the product development stage and find something that will.

If you are walking down the hallways of inferior ratings, disappointing earnings, or even potential bankruptcy ask yourself this question…how much time and money have you invested developing the most superior product in your market space?