The Personal Lives of Celebrities

Hello! Is that personal story increasing communication impact for my show?

Casting a show is key to its believability and appeal. It can also enhance a TV or film project by allowing media coverage to be used to powerful effect in support of viewing audience figures.

Metricomm has seen many examples of how leading actors, scriptwriters and directors generate online media coverage that impact audience behaviour. Coverage encourages people to search for more information and, ultimately, to watch the show live or on catch-up. Getting media coverage in the right places can also improve SEO outcomes for the show’s website and generate valuable backlinks. Metricomm specialises in helping production companies and broadcasters understand which publications and types of coverage are influencing the engaged audience and creating tangible payback on PR spend.

What we’ve also discovered by analysing the media impact of talent and other factors for dozens of TV series is that the personal lives of celebrities can have a strong indirect amplification effect on PR outcomes for the show. Again, the ability to quantify this can be really helpful and proves that casting decisions can present unexpected bonuses.

When a TV personality has a baby, gets married, splits from a partner, secures a new sponsorship or endorsement or branches out into the world of business, media coverage will invariably mention the latest productions they’ve been associated with. The evidence suggests that this can prolong the impact of media coverage for a show and might bolster viewing numbers for catch-up platforms. Even better if the story breaks during the release or transmission period. Whatever the show, sometimes there is no better friend for the PR team than an exclusive feature in hellomagazine.com initiated by the celebrity’s agent rather than the production company.

Similarly, regional media can be more powerful than might be expected. Towns and cities which have spawned actors and other celebrities take an ongoing interest in their careers, providing outlets for coverage and audience engagement in places where PR teams don’t always think to reach out to journalists.

PR teams working in TV know they have a crowded marketplace with many shows competing for audience attention.  It might not always be possible to direct the opportunities presented by the personal lives of the cast, unless collaboration with agents can maximise this.  However, it is helpful to understand and measure the role this plays in raising the profile of shows and keeping them in the public eye, sometimes long after transmission has ended.