NBC’s “Community”

Client Overview:

NBC Universal is one of the world’s leading media and entertainment companies in the development, production, and marketing of entertainment, news, and information to a global audience. NBC Universal owns and operates a valuable portfolio of news and entertainment networks, a premier motion picture company, significant television production operations, a leading television stations group, and world-renowned theme parks. NBC Universal is 80% owned by General Electric and 20% owned by Vivendi.

Product Information:

From Dan Harmon ("The Sarah Silverman Program") and Emmy Award-winning directors Joe and Anthony Russo ("Arrested Development") comes "Community," a smart comedy series about a band of misfits who attend Greendale Community College. At the center of the group is Jeff Winger (Joel McHale, "The Soup"), a fast-talkin' lawyer whose degree has been revoked. With some help from his fellow classmates, Winger forms a study group who eventually learn more about themselves than their course work.

Goals:

NBC was interested in working with indoorDIRECT to promote the show “Community” in order to increase awareness and viewership of their new show and to provide their existing viewer base a chance to watch a full episode in case they had missed in on television. One of the main reasons why NBC was interested in using indoorDIRECT was the ability to show a full episode of a prime time series to a nationwide audience in an out of home environment.

One of the factors that NBC considered in selecting indoorDIRECT’s Restaurant Entertainment Network for this special airing was because of indoorDIRECT’s ability to run audio in the main viewing area.

In addition to the viewership goals NBC was interested in creating a nationwide event that could be leveraged using social media platforms including Facebook and Twitter.

How Results Achieved:
Leading up to the special airing on April 23rd, NBC aired special “shout outs” from cast members including; Gillian Jacobs, Ken Jeong, Danny Pudi and Yvette Nicole Brown on indoorDIRECT’s Restaurant Entertainment Network across the nation.   This lead up to the special airing was picked up by MediaWeek and was featured in an article written on April 19th.

Airing of the special episode of “Community” took place on April 23rd during peak lunch hours and included over almost 1,000 restaurants in major DMAs including New York (1), Los Angeles (2), DFW (5), San Francisco (6), Atlanta (8) and Washington D.C. (9) in addition to locations in other top 20 DMAs.

998 Restaurants were included in the airing of “Community” on April 23, 2010 including:

• Arby’s  73
• Carl’s Jr.  130
• CiCi’s Pizza  31
• Denny’s  286
• Del Taco  6
• Hardee’s 197
• Kentucky Fried Chicken 2
• McDonald’s  52
• Taco Bell  16
• Wendy’s 205

Social Media Component:

As part of the promotions for the airing of the full episode of “Community” at indoorDIRECT locations across the country, NBC and indoorDIRECT used Facebook and Twitter to help promote the special airing.

Posts were made over a several week period that provided information about the show and provided links to indoorDIRECT’s website where potential viewers could find a location in their area to watch the special airing. 

Results:

NBC is constantly looking for new types of delivery platforms for their content and was pleased with the way indoorDIRECT was able to offer a new method of marketing for a product that was already in existence. In addition to the ability to extend viewership and create a nationwide viewing event NBC was impressed with the ability to air an entire episode and not just clips as provided by other media outlets.  

Due to the importance of the audio track in a sit com the ambient noise sensors in the dining room helped to create an optimal listening environment to air the full episode with sound during peak lunch-time traffic.

In addition to the desired results of increasing viewership, NBC was able to utilize indoorDIRECT and NBC’s Facebook and Twittter accounts to create additional impressions and increase engagement with current fans of the show resulting in increased viewer loyalty.