Pbmom's Blog

Troops! Rally! Our beloved show is definitely in trouble. I really don’t understand the ratings game. As a 50-year-old woman I have a TON more buying power than a 25-year-old unemployed young man. While the industry is definitely trying to change from the old Nielsen model, it isn’t going fast enough to catch up to the quality shows we want to keep around.

When ENLISTED was shown at upfronts in May of 2013, it got feedback from a critical audience. To the network’s credit, they didn’t just scrap the show after the pilot. They decided to regroup and fix it. The premiere originally moved to November was now moved to January. Some of the principal cast members attended boot camp at Fort Bliss. They made fun of themselves. They invited the audience at the premiere in January to spot their mistakes. They engaged the military audience and made each script better. They brought on a military consultant to help them get basic things accurate so they did not alienate the military audience. They created an awesome app with literally hundreds of videos you cannot see anywhere else.

But ENLISTED faced an uphill battle. It was given the Friday death slot where shows go to die. ENLISTED also faced more hurdles. They showed some shows out of order. In the episode “Homecoming”, Derrick had the girl and a few weeks later he was trying to get the girl. Then the Olympics happened and the show was not shown for several a few weeks. How you are supposed to build a fan base without a consistent show I will never know. Fox found this out after the first season of “24.” There were too many interruptions of the show which is why the following year they went to a January premiere date.

The cast and crew have worked tirelessly to promote the show. They have done interview after interview. I do not ever remember a show where most of the cast and crew are live tweeting week after week. And every week it is trending, even when there is no live show and the fans are watching the show on Fox.com. Fox even did a study on the effect of Twitter on advertising potential. Partial information from that press release:

1. The majority of those who are exposed to TV-related tweets not only have taken immediate action around a given show, but are also highly likely to watch a show they’ve never watched before, or resume watching a show that they’d previously stopped watching, as a result of a TV-related tweet.

2. TV show viewers who recall seeing tweets mentioning a show’s brand partners are much more likely to view that brand as appealing and pay more attention to that brand’s on-air ads than the general Twitter TV audience.

Specifically, FOX, Twitter and the ARF found that the majority of those who recall seeing TV-related tweets have searched for a show (76%), have taken action on Twitter (78%) – such as click on the show’s hashtag, follow a talent handle or retweet TV-related tweets – or have taken action to watch TV show content (77%). In regards to watching TV show content, 42% have made a plan to watch the show later, 38% have watched episodes online and 33% have changed the channel to watch the show. In fact, viewers who live-tweet with the linear broadcast are more likely to take action to discover content than those that don’t live-tweet.

Tweets that mention brands also generate significant action: 54% of those who recall seeing such tweets have taken action by tweeting, searching for the brand online, or considering to try the brand mentioned. This jumps to 58% when measuring actions taken by the live-TV-tweeting audience.

“This groundbreaking research has allowed us, for the very first time, to understand and quantify the very real value of the enormous volume of tweets generated by our shows and our brand partners every week,” said Judit Nagy, FOX’s Vice President of Analytics. “The level of engagement, activity and perceptual impact we’re seeing from these results far exceeds what we’d expected, and that’s really good news for networks and brands alike.”

Maureen Ryan (@moryan) did a story in the Huffington Post about why the show should be saved. She invited people to send her ideas. Bart Smith offered up a wonderful suggestion: Why don’t we donate to the Wounded Warriors Project in honor of ENLISTED? So Maureen did. She put in honor of ENLISTED and her father who served in the military, and sent the receipt to Fox. I did as well. My father-in-law served in the Navy in World War 2 and my father served in the Navy during the Korean War. I have many cousins who served in the Army and Air Force. I decided to make a donation as well. Here is the link to The Wounded Warriors Project and the screen shot of how I filled out the “in honor of” just like Maureen did.

I still have the March 28th episode of ENLISTED on my DVR (Paint Cart 5000 vs the Mondo Spider). I made a list of all the companies who bought an ad that aired during this show. And I’m listing the email address or link to where you can leave a comment for them. There were multiple wireless companies. I’m certainly not going to switch my company, but my company is among those who supported the show. I’ll write to them. Here is a sample: Dear _____. I want to thank you for supporting the Fox Broadcasting show “ENLISTED.” I am a __-year-old male/female. ENLISTED is a wonderful comedy. It is a show that can be watched by the entire family. For me it symbolizes ____________________. (And if you feel like you are going to support the advertising because of this you might say something like this for example: “I have always shopped at Home Depot because it is closer to my home. Because you are supporting ENLISTED, I will drive a little further and shop at Lowe’s to thank you for that support.” Sincerely,

Here is the list of advertisers for that episode:
AT&T
208 S. Akard St.
Dallas TX 75202
http://www.att.com/contactus/

Dr Pepper/Seven Up, Inc.
Attn: Consumer Relations
P.O. Box 869077
Plano, TX 75086-9077
http://www.drpepper.com/contactus/

Esurance
650 Davis St
San Francisco, CA 94111
http://www.esurance.com/contact

Ford Motor Company
Customer Relationship Center
P.O. Box 6248
Dearborn, MI 48126
http://www.ford.com/help/contact/

Lowe’s Customer Care
P.O. Box 1111
North Wilkesboro, NC 28656
http://www.lowes.com/cd_Contact+Us_347544179_

NET10 Wireless
9700 N.W. 112th Ave
Miami, FL 33178
http://www.net10.com/contact.jsp?nextPage=contact.jsp&task=contact

Nissan Consumer Affairs
P.O. Box 685003
Franklin, TN 37068-5003

http://www.nissanusa.com/apps/contactus?next=footer.contact.link

Sleep Comfort Corporation
Media Relations
9800 59th Avenue North
Minneapolis, MN 55442
(Their email contact us link is not working properly)

Sprint
6480 Sprint Pkwy
Overland Park, KS 66251
(Their contact us form isn’t really clear which one to use).

Taco Bell
1 Glen Bell Way
Irvine, CA 92618
http://www.tacobell.com/portal/site/tacobell/account/template.CONTACT_US

Verizon
1095 Avenue of the Americas
Floor 7
New York City, New York 10036
(Their contact us form is not really the place to send thanks).

Walmart
702 SW 8th St
Bentonville, AR 72716
http://corporate.walmart.com/contact-us/

You can also write letters. PLEASE KEEP THEM RESPECTFUL AND POSITIVE.  A network executive is much more likely to listen to something you have to say versus one where you tell them why you will never watch their network again if they don’t renew the show. Send them to:
Kevin Reilly
Fox Broadcasting
10201 W. Pico Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90035

Or email them: askfox@fox.com

As well, I was thinking about taking a page from Save Farscape campaign where people made a commercial and said, “I am Farscape” and they had their age. On Twitter tonight (or in the comments below), list your age and sex and if you want the part of the country you live. Use the hashtag #IAmENLISTED

Now get to work troops!