#80: It Ain't Seinfeld
A bunch of stuff to catch up on while you're practicing social distancing!
MARKETING THING:
The Last Dance — the 10-part documentary about the 1990’s Chicago Bulls dynasty airing on ESPN — has been a rating smash. The documentary averaged 6.1 million viewers during its premiere last Sunday night, making it the most-viewed ESPN documentary ever.
The apparent lack of live sports due to the COVID-19 pandemic led ESPN to make the decision to bump up the series two months. The gambit paid off, as the series has hit with 18 to 49-year-olds, doing about 3.5 million from the sought-after demo. That’s in comparison to ESPN’s year-end numbers, doing 730,000 in that same demo. That’s mostly the audience of NBC’s Sunday Night Football x10 over a period with a lack of competition from other sports programming.
So, how does a network or media platform take advantage of an opportunity like this? ESPN offered exclusive sponsorship of The Last Dance to four brands: State Farm, Reese’s, Facebook, and an unnamed fourth sponsor in the pharmaceutical space.
Learn what those brands did with that valuable real-estate and what their original pre-pandemic rollout plans were. CMO’s-to-be, give this your attention today!
BEHIND ESPN’S SPONSORSHIP APPROACH FOR ITS HIGHLY ANTICIPATED MICHAEL JORDAN DOCUMENTARY
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MUSIC THING:
How Toto’s “Africa” Became the New “Don’t Stop Believin’”
You know how you see a headline and it’s so fascinating that you click immediately without thinking? This is one of those. Also, a reminder that Africa is not a country!
CULTURE THING:
The Food Expiration Dates You Should Actually Follow
A convenient guide to how long that stuff in your fridge is actually good for.
SPOILER ALERT: You probably didn’t need to throw those eggs out!
Until tomorrow…
WASH YOUR HANDS!
STAY IN THE HOUSE!
CHECK ON YOUR LOVED ONES!
BE SAFE OUT THERE!
Office Hours is written by Ernest Wilkins. That’s me. Hi!
Follow me on Twitter/IG @ErnestWilkins or email me here.