The Case
The TV industry in Greece is unsurprisingly struggling to attract Gen Z’s fading attention, settling for the “follows” or “likes” from millennial and Gen X viewers. Gen Z have shown signs of defying the media establishment, reducing TV / Facebook consumption and turning to gaming, niche online communities, instant gratification content (TikTok) and streaming services (YouTube, Netflix, Twitch). While we would not go as far as saying that TV is dying, it certainly needs to find ways to expand their viewing experience beyond the glass frame. The Alpha TV people have a solid understanding of this and approached us with a mightily interesting challenge.
The Challenge
What was that? We quickly realized it was similar to the ones of a few other television organizations out there: a new reality show franchise without celebrities or obvious assets to attract the ever-demanding youth. So, if young viewers are not expected to come willingly to The Bachelor GR TV show, we will go out there and find them where they virtually hang out. Of course, that needed to be done in a purely organic and exciting way, as there was no extra budget to burn and even if there was, we knew very well our audience would simply tap “skip” on our efforts.
The Approach
One of Gen Z’s new, shiny favorite toys is the Discord chat platform: the number 1 instant messaging platform for gamers around the globe that keeps growing massively in adoption. While it was initially built to cover the needs of hardcore games, it has quickly shifted to the ultimated community hub for digital artists, developers, blockchain projects and collectibles traders. We wanted to establish a branded presence there without being cringy; a lively community that comments around the show in a new, protected online environment. No judgment here, only red roses.
The Solution
As Discord back then was almost literally “uncharted waters” for brands, we did things step by step. We started by creating a server (TheBachelorGR), populating it with specialized channels containing among others: an automated Twitter feed, a curated TikTok feed, a selection of popular, relevant Facebook posts/memes. Then we took it to the next level: a general live commenting channel for when each TV episode aired, a live meme submission channel and a voice chat channel for the TV ad breaks. Last, but not least, we made sure that our kind channel bot offered a digital rose to every new user joining the community.
The Discord native reward mechanics ensured that the most active contributors leveled-up and rose in the community leaderboard, unlocking perks. At the same time, we established a much more frequent and personal contact with the top members, making the whole experience much more immersive than your usual Twitter hashtag mess.
Without any paid promotion or advertising, the Discord community managed to gather over 2K members in less than a week, got 19 exclusive channels to cover all member needs and it’s still alive and kicking until today, recording more than 68K user-initiated chat messages!
We offer you a rose. Join us?
