In case you haven’t noticed, Shark Week starts on Sunday. And if you haven’t noticed, Shark Week is eminent, you are clearly immune to the Jaws-inspired phenomenon that grips consumers and excites marketers during the heat of the summer season.
Since 1988 the Discovery Channel has been churning out Shark Week, and fans along with brands have made it a cultural sensation. Besides great promotions, awesome tweets and horrible (low-budget) made for TV movies, everyone wants in on Shark Week. And that was so obvious this morning when I opened up Facebook to find that Delish, a food media outlet, had released a video for non-other than shark featured jello shots just in time for the global premiere of Shark Week. In less than 24 hours, it had received 51k likes, 22k comments, 70k shares and 3.6 million views. Let’s be honest – social media wins like this are the damn unicorn of marketing.
Cultural phenomenon aside, Shark Week is a marketers dream. It holds consumer interest and brand interest, has cross promotional legs, sponsorship opportunities, and multi-channel penetration that attracts not just scientists and ocean nerds, it even attracts the likes of celebrities who have been willing to swim with sharks, be eaten on commercials or be the hit weeks star host. This year, it even attracted swimming great Michael Phelps who will actually race a real-live shark.
But why is Shark Week so successful? What has made it the longest running TV event in cable TV history? And as marketers, what can we learn from this sharktacular event?
I’d like to believe the success of Shark Week is all about storytelling.
- SINGULAR THEME/CLEAR VISION: Shark Week is simple – it’s all about sharks, the scary predator kind. It’s not about dolphins, or tigers or endangered pigmy unicorns. That sort of clarity provides super clear direction when developing programming and content. There is no confusion about the priorities. The same should go for brands. Who is your audience, what is the single most important thing you want them to know.
- GREAT CHARACTERS: Great stories start with great characters; in this case sharks play the lead. The main characters who, or in this case what, compels us to engage and then makes us care. We root for them, we hate them…doesn’t matter as long as we are interested in finding out more about them. For decades people have both been both intrigued and terrified by them. They are the monsters of the ocean that we don’t see, until it’s too late. And for any horror flick fan or movie buff of the 70’s, you will never forget our favorite man-eater, Jaws –the summer blockbuster that has become a classic. “Don’t go in the water.” They are the villains, but also the underdogs as Discovery does what it does best, using characters, in this case sharks, to expose us to conservation initiatives and to educate viewers to the cause. As brands, we also need to find our characters. The people whose stories we are going to tell. Our founders, our employees, our customers – our characters must be real and they must be interesting.
- THE PLIGHT or CAUSE (in English class terms – the plot): Having great characters can only go so far and then you need a great plight. Your plight is the reason for the reader or viewer to care and want to know more. The plight provides education, entertainment or enlightenment as part of the storytelling process. It makes us want to know more and to stay tuned. Renowned Harvard psychologist Jerome Bruner who pioneered the study of creativity said, “great stories endow experience with meaning.” As an education and conservation network, Discovery used Shark Week to raise awareness about protecting sharks from extinction. That conversation has continued in a variety of educational and entertaining formats that have included partnerships with other network shows like Dirty Jobs and MythBusters, as well as cross promotions with unrelated brands. But the Shark Week story is so real and engaging that even in these types of partnerships the message that is distilled across a variety of channels and products, builds awareness and often raises funds for conservation as well.
And now I want a Deep Sea Delight Cupcake from Cold Stone Creamery. (As a side note – I didn’t even know they had these cool ice cream cupcakes which makes the power of the brand partnership an important win connecting thrill seeking consumers to these new products.)
Shark Week appears to be rooted in storytelling lore. Not because of their epic movies. Sharknado – need we say more? Yes, there are far-fetched movies filled with c-list actors and bad plots, as well as the mockumentaries that have gotten some backlash for bad science and fear mongering. Yet it seems Shark Week can do no wrong, and no amount of jumping the shark ideas seem too implausible for Discovery or fans.
Like every engaging brand story, Shark Week continues to reinvent itself and build on brand power while never losing sight of their core mission or values. Kudos to Discovery Channel for understanding the storytelling medium and making great stories out of humdrum content. You are a lesson for all of us marketers that there are fascinating stories everywhere, all we need to do is tap into their essence and give them a creative platform.
If you have a story that needs telling, or discovering, drop us an email at Melinda@fulltiltmarketing.net.
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