XFINITY, a unit of Comcast that provides cable television and internet services, identified an opportunity to reach people with an unrivaled passion for live content by connecting with fans of reality TV.

Nader Ali-Hassan, Comcast’s executive director/social marketing, discussed this subject at the 2019 Strategy Festival held by the 4A’s (American Association of Advertising Agencies).

While it is often assumed that sporting events are the biggest driver of live television viewing, he asserted, the data regarding the “most-watched thing on live television” actually points in another direction.

“It’s reality TV, and by a two-to-one margin,” Ali-Hassan said. (For more, read WARC’s in-depth report: XFINITY drives real-time viewer engagement with “Reality Week”.)

With data from millions of pay-TV subscribers, XFINITY is an expert on viewer behaviour. And based on this insight, Ali-Hassan said, “More people watch reality TV live – and talk about it – than anything that we have on our system.”

In reaching this audience, XFINITY launched “Reality Week”, which coincided with the first episode of the 23rd season of “The Bachelor”, ABC’s matchmaking franchise, in January 2019.

A sports bar in Miami was converted into a “Reality Bar” – complete with champagne, rosé, velvet, fur and appearances by reality TV stars – and the Comcast-owned brand also introduced a wide slate of related digital content.

This material generated millions of video views across different platforms, including 16 million views of livestream content, indicating a significant level of consumer interest.

“We tried to re-market to folks afterwards as well,” Ali-Hassan said. If a consumer was known to be an XFINITY customer, for instance, they might see a message encouraging them to upgrade, while someone who was not a subscriber would receive an ad urging them to sign up.

“We saw spikes in those specific areas, both with folks that that we know watched and engaged that we can remarket [to], and folks that we were just put a segmented message through. They both performed well above benchmark,” said Ali-Hassan.

Sourced from WARC