For the last eight years, Russian TV
schedules have been dominated by Dom, Russian for The House. It's a
spectacularly successful reality TV format that has defied
religious condemnation and commercial caution to strike it big.
It wasn't the first reality show on
Russian TV, that honour falls to Behind the Glass - similar to Big
Brother - which ran in 2001 and offered viewers constant access to
the lives of participants.
The success of Behind the Glass was a
metoo moment for TV, with every channel starting its own reality
projects. TV-6 in particular invested heavily in the genre, putting
reality shows front and centre of its schedule.
It hit gold in June 2003 with the
launch of The House. Based on a format developed by British company
Zeal, it challenged couples to spend four months building a house,
without any professional help. The prize for the winners was a
record-breaking 8m Roubles.
The House was so successful that in
May 2004, the TNT-owned channel tweaked it to create Dom-2 (The
House-2). This time round 20 young boys and girls signed up to find
love and build a home for the winner. To win they had to form a
relationship with another participant.
Over the years the focus of the show
has changed. Instead of simply rewarding participants for their
mastery of building skills, the programme now spies on them. The
audience knows practically every single step they take - "candid"
TV cameras, extra episodes and online translations keep the
audience informed almost 24/7.
The show is also no longer about
introducing a completely new set of participants every year but
about getting to know a rolling group of competitors. Some of them
have been in the house for more than three years and viewers will
always recognise a familiar face.
People have remained loyal to the show
because it's interesting. For young people who live with their
parents, Dom-2 shows the basics of a self-reliant life, letting
them see real human behaviour and study other people's
mistakes.
Gaining
popularity
Dom-2 has been on air for seven years
with no end in sight. More than 400 people have taken part and more
than 10 couples have got married.
However, while the show continues to
be one of the highest-rating shows in Russian TV history, it hasn't
always been popular with brands, regulators or religious
leaders.
Due to the nature of some of the
content, it has had to retreat from the daytime schedules and now
airs only after 23.00.
The Russian Church protested against
the show and its participants and, initially at least, brands were
reluctant to get involved. International brands, in particular,
stayed away at the start.
Local companies, however, were less
reticent. Russian mobile operator Megafon used Dom-2 to raise the
brand loyalty and brand recognition - after seven months brand
loyalty increased by 20%.
Step-by-step international brands have
become involved, to the point where commercial clutter has become
excessive. More than 90 brands - including Huggies, M&M's,
Panasonic, Pepsi Max, KitKat, Nokia and Twix - have now
participated.
After Remington's integration into the
show, young ladies headed to the shops saying: "I want the same
curling irons as the girl from Dom2". Remington's brand recognition
increased from 20% to 70% and sales went up sevenfold.
According to the company Gallup Media
Russia, Dom-2 became a leader in product placement in the Russian
TV market as early as 2005. The TNT channel earned $7m from
indirect advertising and sponsorship in a single season.
For the first three to four years,
integrations paid-off handsomely. After 2009, however, the
commercial performance started to decline.
Taking part
TNT has now changed its sales policy
and only allows 5-10 products to get involved at any one time to
decrease clutter. The show has also become a multimedia operation:
there is a magazine, which sells more than 100 000 copies a week,
participants tour all over Russia and appear across the media
landscape, on popular Russian TV talkshows and in TV
commercials.
Online Dom-2 attracts more than 40,000
unique visitors per day and has about a million registered users.
It's become a media juggernaut.
For marketers the key question is
whether they should invest in the show or not. Many - who naturally
are not in the show's target market - reject integration
opportunities as a result of their personal feelings towards the
show. They may have to change their views, however, as the economic
climate has changed. After 10 years of impressive growth when there
was little need to take risks, Russia is now different.
Growth rates have now shrunk to around
4% - from around 6-8% - and brands need to find new media
solutions. At the same time, dramatic media inflation have also
pushed traditional strategies out of reach for some brands.
Sponsorship on shows such as Dom-2 can generate a big impact at a
relatively low cost.
Those that do take the plunge need to
make sure they take full advantage of the opportunities Dom-2
provides. Once you enter The House there can be no half
measures.