Media planners should embrace the rise of slow TV
PHD's Jack Monro and Gabrielle Peters sit down for a chat about slow TV and its impact on advertising, media planning and the nation's anxiety levels.
Jack: I don’t get it.
Gab: Shhhh…
Jack: What am I watching here?
Gab: It’s a non-stop cruise along the Norwegian coast, in real time, for 134 hours straight. People are calling it slow TV; a non-stop livestream of an everyday event with no added sound, narrative or special effects. Just sit back and enjoy the world sailing past…
Jack: Oh, is this the same kind of thing as The Ghan on SBS the other night?
The Ghan screened for 17 hours on SBS Viceland
Gab: Yep.
Jack: Absolute madness.
Gab: No. Absolute Norway. The Ghan was inspired by the success of this genre created in Norway. This video ‘Hurtigruten minutt for minutt’, was so popular when it aired live in 2011 that more than half of the entire Norwegian population tuned in.
Jack: Wait a minute. You said it was for 134 hours straight. Doesn’t that just mean that half the population were channel surfing and happened to flick by?
Gab: Well, the ratings of the Hurtigruten show peaked at 692,000 viewers, so although 3.2 million people did watch at some point, the viewing wasn’t consistent. Whatever the case, it became a phenomenon, with crowds gathered on the coast to see it go by and even three wedding proposals captured along the trip.
They still have one or two slow TV events per year that get consistently solid viewership. This year, they were tracking reindeer migrating. However, they had to cancel it when the reindeer stopped moving altogether. Apparently, slowness has a limit. Other countries have gotten in on the (lack of) action too! People from the UK were treated to voiceless documentaries depicting a man making a knife, people doing pottery and someone whittling a chair.
Jack: Sounds… fun?
Gab: Well, the Ghan had mixed reviews from viewers with some describing it as “absolute rubbish… So slow and monotonous” to “just think, not one pseudo celebrity, no renovation, no ruling kitchens, not a chef in sight, no politicians… it was almost perfect”. It will be interesting to see if it becomes as popular globally as it is in Norway.
Jack: It reminds me of those 24/7 livestreams on YouTube, where thousands of people watch weird stuff like people trying to get across a large puddle in Newcastle, or an intersection in Jackson Hole, USA, or animals just chilling in the zoo. There’s even a seven-hour YouTube preroll ad where one can literally watch grass grow.
Gab: Weirdly, it’s the online participation that makes it such a phenomenon. Even though the slowness of these shows is in direct opposition to the fast, dopamine-driving and addictive cycle of social media, it’s that same social media that makes them such popular events. The people watching them create a running commentary on what’s happening on-screen as it (slowly) progresses. These online communities can get huge. When the Queen of Norway got on her yacht and chased down the Hurtigurten for a cameo, Norwegian Twitter was so overwhelmed it crashed.
Jack: This is all very interesting, but the real question is – how is anyone supposed to make money off it? The Ghan rated consistently above 300k viewers (eTAM, min by min, consolidated data) with a peak of 601k, numbers not to be sniffed at. But are commercial channels REALLY going to embrace a day-long television show that has no narrative and no ads whatsoever? Even if it has the potential to be picked up on social media and become a nationwide event?
Gab: It would equate to a huge chunk of lost revenue – having hours of ad-free airtime. They’d either run ads in it, which would ruin the whole hypnotic flow essential to the genre, or they would need to monetise it in unusual ways.
Jack: Agreed. Sponsorships, product placement, or maybe even an entire show would be made by a brand. I’d bet The Ghan is loving all this free press and that passenger numbers have skyrocketed since they’ve aired the show.
Gab: Yeah tourism, travel and auto brands would surely be interested in getting behind this trend. Imagine the hijinks in a six-hour video of a family of five, driving an Amarok V6 across the Nullarbor Plains or along the Great Ocean Road. Or Tourism Australia, putting a camera on the back of a turtle swimming around the Great Barrier Reef.
Jack: I would definitely watch a turtle hitch a ride on the East Australia Current. Actually, Scotch Distillery Lagavulin already got Nick Offerman to sit by a roaring fire and silently drink whiskey for 45 minutes straight. It’s now got 3.4 million views.
Gab: But as a media planner, would you embrace slow TV events or avoid them?
Jack: If it’s not central to the campaign, I’d probably plan around those TV events, like you would plan around sporting events. But if the idea is there to use it properly, it’s an exciting and fresh way to talk to people in a traditional channel like TV.
Gab: So essentially, we all need to embrace the changing consumer landscape with creative and innovative ideas?
Jack: Yep. That’s the outcome. That’s our opinion on this one.
Gab: Sounds good. See you in another 133 hours when I’ve finished watching this cruise. It’s just so much more exciting than my own life.
Jack: Good point. I might watch it with you.
Jack Morno is planning manager, Unilever and Gabrielle Peters is planning executive, Unilever at PHD.
Love slow TV, I watched the bus ride through Yorkshire, the Finnish Postal Reindeer ride on BBC 4 in the UK. Yes, all those ‘programs’ are a bit like Youtube videos, there on Youtube you can have a train ride anywhere, some lasting 10 hours or even a flight on an aeroplane from London to China or Sanfransico to Paris in real time, even for me those flights are a bit long, to say the least.
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Just speaking from the perspective of someone who has driven across the Nullarbor… I wouldn’t buy an Amarok because a family drove one across the Nullarbor and it was broadcast on SBS. I’d be too busy driving the car I already have across the Nullarbor.
I see it as wishful thinking…Thinking that someone would go out and buy XYZ train ticket or car when they’ve already seen the peaks and troughs of the event via TV.
Thoughts?
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Nice one guys….. play on, 134 hours again
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Hey Sam,
This is a great point, and one that we mooted over for a while. We came to the conclusion that this could be good for some brands, partially based on some info in a report from News (http://www.news.com.au/enterta.....8b0cf9ea0a): the ticket purchasing portal for the Ghan website crashed following the show going to air. This would indicate a massive increase in interest (and hopefully purchase) for the train journey, even though the buyers may have already watched the entire thing on their TV. Another example of television coverage of events driving purchases could potentially be found in sports – it’s not as if attendance for cricket test matches or football games decreased after being broadcast in the early days (although we couldn’t find any data or studies to back this up). Admittedly sports matches aren’t exactly “slow” TV, but as a proxy, it at least indicates a willingness to cough up to experience something in the real world versus on-screen.
Perhaps an SUV-less family looking for adventure might be unknowingly persuaded into purchase of an Amarok, just to emulate the entire broadcasted Nullarbor trip? Or perhaps the long viewing length would allow Amarok to showcase features and a positive driving experience that’s nigh impossible to communicate in a 30 second TVC?
Whatever the case, we definitely think there is some potential here.
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Wow! Classic case of “just because I see it one way, doesn’t mean it’s so”.
I failed to consider the potential narrative around features etc, could probably be attributed to lack of time in front of the tv. I guess you’re also talking about the possible effect of such and not it’s immediate and inherent value, which is something I also didn’t think of!!
Thanks for sharing the perspective!
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Ripe for sponsorship.
The Ghan. 17 uninterrupted hours of the beauty of the Australian landscape brought to you by Eco-Relax. Sit back and enjoy the ride.
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