Back in 2000, we started to see the rise of reality TV on television. While the masses began to tune in to Survivor, my friends and I took a fancy to shows like Paradise Hotel. Hey, why lie?
Reality TV is the term given to such popular shows since 2000, but the broader genre has graced television sets for as long as we’ve had TV sets: gameshows, dating shows, hidden camera shows, documentaries and and especially sports are ”reality television” to varying degrees. When we refer to reality TV, we’re really talking about Survivor, Big Brother, American Idol, and, yes, Paradise Hotel.
What is Reality TV?
Of course, critics would say that there is little that is real about reality TV. Indeed, oftentimes storylines are loosely developed, themes are crafted and personalities handpicked to generate a particular outcome, but the fact remains, that compared to scripted television and meticulously produced professional shows, we all know reality TV when we see it: it’s raw, it feels like it’s live, and while it’s definitely heavily edited, it’s very different that scripted, “unreal” material.
Major Difference
Of course, while UGC is created by you and me, and everyone else in between, reality TV is professional content, made by networks.
From Fad to Trend
Regardless of what it is, cynics and doubters thought that shows like Survivor were a one-off success, an exception, and not the rule. But time has proven that reality television was not a fad, but rather, a new trend that would alter and change the landscape of media and entertainment.
Reality TV provides a fitting example for what will happen on the Web in years to come, because history repeats itself and what we are seeing online today is a throwback to what happened in all media in general and TV in particular.
Cable vs. Networks
We already know that the Web will see a repeat of the cable vs. network battle that overtook TV in the 1980s and 1990s. ABC, NBC and CBS are the Yahoo!, AOL.com and MSN, you can add Google is the new FOX (the proverbial fourth network that on good rating days is not fourth at all). But much the same way that MTV and ESPN and company reshaped the landscape in TV, the Web is seeing new upstarts attack the position of leadership of the “networks.”
Is Reality TV the UGC of the TV? And is UGC the Reality TV of the Web?
Today, the lines between network and cable is blurry on the Web, as is the line in terms of programming. But one thing that is worth examining at a deeper level is this: is user-generated content on the Web the equivalent of reality TV programming on TV?
If it is, then there are some fascinating lessons to learn from as video viewership accelerates, broadband penetration continues to rise and advertisers began to et excited about video content.
What are those lessons?
# 1 - UGC Will Not Go Away
Less than a decade after reality TV won over mainstream audiences (MTV’s the Real World was on TV years before Survivor, but for many reasons, I personally view Survivor’s explosion as the time reality TV hit mainstream, with American Idol’s phenomenon surging into season - what year are we in again? - marking reality TV’s supremacy over traditional scripted content).
# 2 - Everyone Can Adopt UGC in Their Strategy
Clearly, if history repeats itself, then even the biggest cynics and critics of UGC must admit that UGC will not disappear, it simply needs a proper assessment, understanding, acceptance, analysis, tweaking and incorporation to varying degrees into your own strategy.
In all candor, in terms of format, UGC is largely akin to content found on America’s Funniest Videos, Crazy Pet Tricks, Cops etc. But as a trend, UGC is indeed very reminiscent of reality TV.
Today, more and more channels, be it cables or networks, carry reality TV. But while some programming seems to continue to please our lowest common denominator (The Real Cancun, anyone?), there is some compelling programming with intrinsic quality. Frankly, The Learning Channel has done a great job: from home to self improvement shows to much more, who knew a rabbi and a bunch of tattoo artists can have so much in common.
# 3 - Looks Matter, Be Professional
It should be noted, indeed, that even the most “raw” reality TV is professionally packaged. As such, simply expecting UGC to woo over advertisers is not a given. This is interesting, for advertisers who realize UGC must become a component of their marketing mixes have taken a preference to develop amateur looking content themselves and pass it off as UGC in lieu of actually advertising within, alongside, before or after UGC.
# 4 - UGC Presents Considerable Cost Advantage
Scripted material is making somewhat of a comeback, but who are we kidding, reality TV is more prevalent than ever. PArt of that stems from the massive cost savings reality TV programming offers. Hosts, participants and contestants will never charge as much as actors will, and that means that studios can take far more risks with reality TV than they can with scripted material. For that reason alone, reality TV won’t go anywhere.
Similarly, UGC is cheap to produce and aggregate, problem is, it’s also “cheap” from a quality perspective, which means…
# 5 - Patience is Required with Advertisers
Advertising drives TV, and of course, the Web. It took some time for TV advertisers to embrace reality TV, there’s no doubt about it. Shows like Elimidate and Paradise Hotel were initially exclusively used by STD treatments and condom makers, but more mainstream and popular shows like American Idol have engaged and secured the largest of advertisers, from Ford to Coca Cola. Of course, American Idol is the exception and not the rule.
Furthermore, reality TV is already on established networks such as Fox. Survivor was on CBS (much to Dave Letterman’s chagrin). These networks have a tie-in and established relationships with advertisers. Web properties like MySpace (at least before the News Corp. deal where Rupert Murdoch’s company bought MySpace parent Intermix in one of the best Web deals ever), which, by the way, owns Fox) who mastered and leveraged UGC have experienced a lot of difficulty securing mainstream advertisers. MySpace has grown to become the largest media property online when measured by pageviews, a major measure of traffic amongst advertisers, but despite its glory, it only gets some $25M per month from advertisers, for an annual run rate of $300M, which is a far cry from major companies like Google and Yahoo! who earn $5-10B per year in advertising.
# 6 - Follow the Consumer
Ultimately, the client, user and consumer is always right, in the sense that advertisers won’t spend an eternity trying to make sense of a trend, they will embrace it and ride it, even if they get to the party late and the cool kids are onto something new. In other words, love it or hate it, as phenomena like MySpace show on the Web and American Idol show on TV, if it works with audiences, advertisers will follow suit.
# 7 - Respect the Core
One mistake a lot of companies make is totally give up on their core constituency and competency ad embrace a fad. In other words, I go to the BBC or read the Economist, for example, to find out what experts have to say about a topic. If The Economist fires or replaces its writers with a million blogs, I’ll stop reading it. As such, while such media entities can leverage elements of UGC, they need to do so by reinforcing their core strengths, otherwise, it’s not sincere and it will fail. A company that has done this successfully is the TLC, with its Reality TV programming reinforcing the broader themes its scripted shows carry and adhere to.
# 8 - Structure
Any way you dice it, even reality TV is structured and planned out. UGC can be leveraged within an organization but it needs to be well structured, in terms of
- why are we introducing UGC into the mix?
- how will be input and create the material?
- how will the output be categorized and presented?
- what will be do with the data?
This has applications in both reality TV and UGC online.
# 9 - Everything Has Limitations
This is obvious, but in the wild wild days of any trend, we sometimes forget that good taste and common sense is sometimes the first thing that gets tossed out the window.
# 10 - There’s Always a Regression to the Mean
There’s always excess in everything, but eventually, things average out and balance out. Today, we’re in year 7 of a craze over reality TV, we’re in year 3 or 4 of the craze in UGC… in a few years, trust me, we will look back and wonder why we were losing our minds and watching on TV: a) a bunch of unknown kids sitting around talking about their feelings during spring break in Cancun or b) a skater falling on a railing on a small screen on a computer screen, much the same way we now think dot com companies were lame, hoola hoops were not so crazy etc. Trust me, it’s never different this time. It’s always the same thing, history always repeats itself.
The lesson there is simple: reality TV programming can be embraced to fit your editorial policy and churn out a series of winners, but a me-too strategy will jeopardize your overall strategy.
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March 25th, 2007 at 1:53 pm
Ash, Brilliant analogy! The only thing missing is a ratings system to bump the bad UGC off “the air.” Then again, most reality shows are completely awful, so the regression to the mean continues apace…