"This one's for fans of NFNS runner-up, Jeffery Saad- the Ingredient Smuggler is back with exclusive web-only videos! http://bit.ly/tIoqC"Avid viewers like myself immediately recognized the name of the second-place finisher on their wildly-popular show, "Next Food Network Star." And, if they're anything like me, they immediately clicked on the link to be regaled by Jeffrey as he made tilapia tacos with Anise seed.
Jeffrey was an early front-runner for the show's grand prize, a series on the Food Network, and was clearly very popular with FN viewers. But this strikes me as something exquisitely more well-planned than just a bone-throw to the runner-up and his fans. What the Food Network is doing is exhibiting excellent understanding of audience, medium, and content.
In the end, NFNS judges deemed Saad's appeal slightly too narrow for an entire series on the network. Saad's "culinary point of view" focuses on unusual ingredients folded into everyday cuisine. It is hip, exotic, and appeals to a different set than the deserving winner, Melissa D'Arabian, whose specialty is providing helpful tips to survive everyday culinary challenges drawn from her equally impressive reservoir of food knowledge.
It strikes me that the Food Network's marketing team did its homework in launching Saad's online series. Generally speaking, the set attracted to Saad's style view food in an almost recreational capacity: It is sustenance, to be sure, but for these adverturers food also represents a hobby, a way to experience new cultures, and a chance to branch out from the mundane. These are seekers and travelers who enjoy spice in their lives as much as on their plates.
The most effective way to reach these people - and they are still a demo FN should reach - is not a 30-minute show airing at 12:30 PM ET on Sundays (when D'Arabian's show airs), when many of them are mid-weekend adventure or recovering from it. Instead, this audience is better-served by cutting the "unnecessary" portions from a 30-minute show, briefly describing a new ingredient, and showing how it is made in 5-7 minutes online, when it can be viewed at their leisure.
My hunch is the FN was looking for a chance to try this web-only launch of a show. In Saad, they found a known entity with a built-in fan base through which to give it a go. Kudos to them on a fine job of marketing and audience recognition. Content is always king, but it is surely helped by providing the right medium to the right audience, as Food Network has done.
Marketing/PR colleagues, you feel me?
AF
So many facets to this decision, well thought out marketing, I fear, the least of them. Reactionary, definitely.
ReplyDeleteGiving J his own web show was a way for FN to calm the rioting, torch-wielding fans without having to secure network advertising dollars. And it was a way to compromise the split decision between FN execs. Smart and Cheap.
WGD - They sell advertising on the site as well, and specifically on Jeffrey's videos. And I'm not sure how catering to Saad's built-in audience is a bad move, as you're seeming to imply.
ReplyDeleteIf you think I'm giving the FN marketing shop too much credit, fair enough. Perhaps they were just lucky to have 2 finalists on NFNS with such a strong individual following. It was clear no matter who won, both would be FN employees in some form.
But I stand by my contetion that Jeffrey's show is a natural fit in the web format. The extent to which that is by design or by dumb luck, I suppose is open for debate.
Just one more thought - Food Network has a history of finding talent through one series and exercising it on another. Teddy from last season of NFNS was originally featured in an episode of Throwdown with Bobby Flay episode ("Moules Frites"). Pat and Gina Neely were originally featured on Road Tasted. Nigel Spence has been on several different shows, including Throwdown ("Jerk Ribeye") and Chopped. And of course there's Adam Gertler, a NFNS finalist who was also thrown a bone with his own show (though that, I may grant you, was not well-planned).
ReplyDeleteMy point is that there is precedent here by FN to think outside the box when it comes to evaluating and applying talent. In my view, precedent equals forethought equals planning. That Jeffrey has his own gig is not a random occurrence or even that surprising. It is clearly standard operating procedure for the FN, not necessarily "reactionary" in the sense I take you mean.
The method by which the FN is choosing to use him is novel, however, and that prompted my original post.
By the way, I checked your blog, and here's hoping you're the next FN personality originally featured in one series and starring in another! Good luck!