JN201 Week III Blog Forum Pt 1

Topic I: Advertising and PR

For this I will be using an example that cannot be viewed anymore on any platform, but I still remember vividly (thanks to my sister) as does any fan of this show in all likelihood.

1) There is a rather popular show, you may or may not have heard of it. Steven Universe? Yeah, you probably have. If you don't watch it, someone you know probably does, friend or family. 

Now here's the thing about the show that made storyboard artist Ian Jones-Quartey (yes I know I share his first name) comment in a (now deleted) tweet "being a Steven Universe fan is suffering": the show has one of the most draconian and strange airing schedules this side of TRON: Uprising (ask me about that one later). Instead of simply airing a new episode each week like a normal show, with maybe a month or two long gap between the first and second half of the season (the approach taken by fellow cult show My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic), new Steven Universe episodes are instead aired in groups of five called "Stevenbombs" over each day of a week with several months between each Stevenbomb. This despite the fact the seasons have still pretty much finished production. Whether this is the result of the more serialized nature the show has taken, or Cartoon Network (CN) trying to make room for their others show I don't know; I presume it is a combination of both. 

So how the hell do you market a show with an airing schedule like that? Well, I'm not sure CN even knows for certain. They still tease the next episode(s) at the end of a Stevenbomb (sometimes), but for the most part their efforts to advertise the show have led to problems since the Stevenbombs half the time seem to come out of nowhere. The example I am using is their approach for the "Out of this World" arc. As a sort of cross-promotion, CN posted all five of the arcs episodes on their website and new streaming service that I'm not sure even exists anymore. Then they promptly removed all except the first episode 24 hours later. The episodes eventually aired later, but not before plenty of people had seen and started talking about the episodes. This method of airing and advertising kind of annoys fans (although I find my sister's reactions to it hilarious). 

But what does this have to do with using social media to advertise? Simple, they are not really using it to their advantage. Because the show airs so irregularly it's hard to tell if even the shows creators know when something is going to be released. If CN actually bothered to use the Facebook and Twitter effectively they probably could advertise the Steven Universe a lot more effectively.

2) Having said that, does this approach work instead of using social media? Well, actually yes, it kind of does. In an era where binge-watching has become a thing, this method of airing new episodes starts to make more sense. It's is essentially what Netflix does with its original shows, save that they place entire seasons (usually). And it is not like CN has not used this method before. I'd go into more detail but this is taking long enough already so I'll instead point you to this AV Club article I used while writing this: https://tv.avclub.com/steven-universe-s-frustrating-schedule-is-crucial-to-it-1798246668

3) While I imagine that Rebecca Sugar, the creator of Steven Universe, feels the plight of the shows fan base, considering the current method works I doubt she will being changing it anytime soon. That said if I were in command of the situations (and if I ever make an animated television series like I want to, I will be), I would still recommend the usage of social media despite my personal distaste for it. It is still an effective way to reach the shows audience and let them know in advance when the show is airing new episodes if it has a less traditional airing schedule that people are used to. 

In my effort to avoid future walls of text I have split this weeks blog forum into two posts. 

Part II shall be written after lunch.