Marketing a Musical Comedy Series

I was among the many anticipating viewers who tuned in two weeks ago for the return of the FOX TV show Glee, after nearly a season-long hiatus. I saw the pilot episode last summer, shortly after it aired in the end of May after hearing raving word-of-mouth reviews. Glee's promotion team seemed intent on generating hype through guerilla and viral marketing campaigns by getting people to watch the pilot, rather than investing in expensive, wide-distribution advertising. As Fox's VP of Marketing said, "The show sells itself better than any (campaign) can," so Fox was hoping that the qualities of the product would generate enough buzz to promise a loyal viewership in the Fall. Surely enough, Glee performed beyond expectations in the fall, but because the show's producers were so hesitant to invest in the show, there were several production breaks. Between the summer-long wait between the pilot and the first half of season one and the most recent 4-month long gap, Glee's marketing campaign successfully created enough interest in the show, but didn't produce enough episodes to meet the demand.

Stage One:
Since the idea for a musical comedy series was conceived, the creators seemed highly uncertain of how the show would be received and divised a unique marketing strategy to test the waters for viewer demand. In the television industry, a penetration-type srategy with an innundation of advertising is more common. Instead, I heard about Glee through tweets, facebook posts, links on media blogs, and on a less technologically-advanced level, posters plastered on the side of warehouse walls. Through the summer between the pilot episode and the first half of season one, Glee characters also appeared on Twitter accounts and made in-person appearances at select cities. Most importantly, the creators allowed Glee to be available for streaming-on-demand sites like Hulu. So steadily, throughout the summer, more and more people heard about the show, watched the pilot, and eagerly anticipated the show's airing in the fall. Having surpassed initial expectations, the show took a season-long break to finish producing the rest of the episodes, this time with the support and interest of the public. More big-name celebrities like the leads from Broadway's "Wicked" and Neil Patrick Harris (How I Met Your Mother) wanted to make guest appearances on the show, and the show had a strong viewership base of "Gleeks."

Stage Two:
In my opinion, while the break in episode distribution was inevitable given the limited initial investment Fox put into the show, the gap in between the halves of the season has diluted the viral buzz generated from Glee's initial marketing campaign. Every episode in the first half of the season seemed to be an experiment to see what the public reacted to most favorably, whether it was which characters were featured most prominently, what types of songs were sung, or what jokes were most well received (Sue Sylvester, the hair jokes are starting to get a little old). Most worrisome to me is that the quality of this season will be diluted, now that Glee's producers are so intent on producing the exact type of show based on the data gleened from their earlier experiments. And, because they are now more confident in the show's financial outlook, they are throwing money into all levels of advertising and moving away from the initial skimming strategy. If this series were to disappoint like the second season of Heroes did, Fox would end up losing a lot from their relatively late decision to heavily market.

My Hope: Product Quality to Back the Advertising
Because Glee's pilot was intended to be a trial, they were unable to deal with the unanticipated surge in demand, and consequently, weren't able to keep up with the production through early 2010. I only hope that they'll keep the storylines fresh and the lines witty, so that their advertising doesn't go to waste for these new episodes.

Source: http://www.tvweek.com/news/2009/04/glee_pilot_doubles_as_marketin.php