Wolf Tracking

The increase in the number of reality television programs over the last five years has been quite dramatic. We’ve seen everything from new game shows to talent contents, to makeover efforts. But have you read this description of a reality show? A “dying” woman, suffering a brain disease has to choose who gets her healthy kidney among three contestants in need of a transplant. From the looks of it, this was not going to be your average reality show.

Produced by Endemol NV, the creators of Big Brother, the program was entitled, “The Big Donor Show” and was picked up by a Dutch television station. Three days before airing, it was revealed that the whole thing was a hoax. Though the show was labeled distasteful and unethical and didn’t take off in an “airing” sense, it did take off in a “conversation” sense. Reality television has changed the way we interpret television entertainment and more importantly changed the way marketing messages are relayed to the consumer.

Reality TV has been such a gold mine for companies and advertisers. Viewers have made stronger connections to these reality stars. Anything that the reality star uses, the viewer has taken stronger notice of as well. Stronger connections have allowed the unveiling of each new reality television show the opportunity for differentiated and targeted branding. This is what drives the conversation. Multiple dialogues get created among the targeted audiences. Buzz is generated and companies are effectively getting their messages across while successfully adapting to this changing television landscape.

So what was so different about this reality show in terms of engaging consumers? The show would have shown the harsh realities of life and yes, it would have come off as unethical, but the idea of influencing the consumer remained the same, it just went with a very risky topic. Just like in every other reality show, a product was indirectly trying to be sold, in this case, donor programs. The show created multiple forms of dialogue and resulted in viewers calling into the local health centers and Googling kidney websites. It was reported that thousands of people started downloading donor forms. Though off the beaten path in their show production, the producers’ ability to engage consumers was quite a success in this ever changing media environment.