Instant traction is getting harder and harder on the Internet these days. There’s just too much stuff! But here’s what the folks at the recently launched Big Shot Live replied when I asked them about their traffic: “750,000 visitors per month. 15 million page views per month. We’re in week six right now.”
Seriously? How do you do that? Well, I haven’t seen the stat logs myself, but apparently you sign up 200 local CBS stations around the country. You get them to tell their viewers they can win an online talent competition and get flown to Hollywood to receive private coaching. Then the viewers tell their granddaughters and grandsons (cause they certainly don’t watch local TV themselves) to submit videos of themselves singing, dancing, modeling, or what have you. Then the local stations promote their contestants. Back in Hollywood, you produce segments featuring winners, with comedians cast as the Hollywood staff so the show doesn’t drag. And you get traffic! Engagement! Participation!
No really, it works. So much so that Madison Road, the entertainment company behind the show, is now planning to spin off Big Shot Live as a separate company and raise $5 million to $10 million for it. They’ve discontinued new episodes while they redesign their site to incorporate more audience (rather than contestant) participation.
The show, when it relaunches, will also be moving from daily to weekly. Madison Road founder Rob Long explained, “It was incredibly ambitious to do it daily, it just sort of didn’t fit this asynchronous web business we were going for. Now, when [the contestants] get this shot, it will actually be a big shot.”
Long added that his next goal for the show it to get it on TV. “I want it to be a show truly native to the web that is also broadcast, and have one not be ancillary to the other,” he said. Cheers to that.
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