For my first assignment I decided to dive into the wonderful world of Monday night, primetime television on NBC to find effective uses of Twitter and Facebook social media outlets. It is no surprise that I naturally gravitated, first, toward the quirky show Chuck as it provides its audience with a great mix of comedy, adventure and the "adorkable" Zachary Levi as lead actor in the series (plus I LOVE watching it). The show was facing cancellation by the network, after only the second season, but fans wouldn't let it happen. An extensive campaign was launched via Twitter, and eventually many other social media outlets like Facebook, in an attempt to save the show and provide for a third season continuation. The campaign received its kickstart after the TV blog "Give Me My Remote" rebranded itself as "Give Me My Chuck".
When fans visit http://www.givememyremote.com/remote/2009/04/06/be-a-nerdjoin-the-herd-save-chuck/ they officially "Become a Nerd...and Join the Herd". The herd of people to save Chuck that is. Once on the website, people have direct access to the Twitter account specifically created for the show. Visitors can also connect to their personal Twitter and Facebook accounts and dish about their favorite episodes and continue to spread the word about Chuck. Chuck "nerds" are also given access to the Zachary Levi website.
The use of blogs by television savvy critics and viewers has additionally aided in the success of this campaign. Considering the prize for followership is small (just the renewing of the contract) there was an overwhelming response. For example, one blogger noted that after the rebranding of "Give Me My Remote" to "Give Me My Chuck" fans of the show started customizing their Twitter pages and covering them with pictures of the cast and scenes from the show. Moreover, sub shop Subway, a huge supporter of Chuck, started up a campaign to see how many $5 footlongs they could sell in support of the season 2 finale of Chuck. (Chuck vs. The Footlong). Fans, in support, bought a $5 footlong on the day the season finale aired.
The target audience for this campaign included worldwide bloggers (which now can include yours truly), Facebook users, social networking users and all fans of Chuck. As loyal Chuck fans know, and according to the website posted earlier, Chuck is/was saved thus proving how effective the campaign was and how well it appealed to the target audience. Here is an example of the Facebook and Twitter use for the campaign:
http://twitter.com/teambartowski and http://www.twitter.com/nbcchuck
http://www.facebook.com/chuck
Most recently NBC aired Chuck's 411 episode on January 17, 2011. Congrats fans and followers! Chuck was saved and has continued to deliver comedy to viewers every Monday night at 8 pm on NBC!
