This is The Voice

Have you ever watched a competition show and found yourself arguing with the TV because your favorite person did not make it through? That is part of what makes shows like The Voice so much fun. You start out just watching, and before you know it, you have a favorite contestant and suddenly care way too much about whether they get another week on the show. I actually just started watching Season 30 of The Voice, and I am loving it so far. I have always loved music, and one of my favorite parts is seeing the contestants’ faces when they win or realize they are moving forward. You can see how much it means to them, which makes it hard not to get caught up in the excitement too.

More Than Just Watching

One of the smartest things The Voice has done is recognize that most people are probably going to have their phones nearby while watching TV anyway. Instead of competing with that second screen, the show found ways to make it part of the experience.

The Voice Instant Save was a great example. Viewers could use Twitter to help save an artist from elimination, and the results were revealed during the live broadcast (Shorty Awards, n.d.a). That gave people a reason to watch live and participate because their actions could actually affect what happened on the show.

The response was pretty impressive. During the December 8, 2015 episode, around 282,900 people sent approximately 1.4 million tweets about The Voice (Shorty Awards, n.d.a). That is a lot of people who were not just sitting at home watching. They were actually becoming part of what was happening on television.

Making Fans Feel Like Part of the Show

I think this is where The Voice really got it right. Fans did not just want advertisements reminding them to watch the next episode. They wanted to vote, talk about performances, follow their favorite contestants, interact with the coaches, and see things they could not see during the regular show.

The campaign gave them those opportunities through hashtags, backstage content, fan posts, voting, and even personalized content for people who participated online (Shorty Awards, n.d.a). That makes the whole experience feel much more personal.

I am honestly not someone who normally votes for contestants on television shows. I usually just watch and hope the person I like makes it through. However, if there were ever a show that could get me to actually vote, it would probably be The Voice. I love music, and once you hear someone’s story and watch them perform week after week, it is easy to start rooting for them. Then you see the look on their face when they hear their name called and realize they are moving forward, and suddenly you are almost as excited as they are.

That emotional connection is what makes the digital side of the show work so well. If viewers are already invested in a contestant, giving them a way to vote or interact makes them feel even more connected to what happens next.

Keeping Up With Social Media

If I could change anything about the original campaign, it would be how heavily it depended on Twitter. That made sense at the time, but social media has changed a lot since 2015. People are spread across so many different platforms now that I think it is important to give viewers several ways to participate.

The Voice has adapted to those changes. One example is its later #VoiceTok strategy, which created content specifically for TikTok rather than simply reposting clips from television. The strategy included real time content and paid attention to what fans were asking for in the comments (Shorty Awards, n.d.b). I think that is important because what works on one social media platform does not always work on another.

Bringing the Experience to Your Phone

The Voice Official App takes the interaction even further. Fans can vote for their favorite artists during live shows, build a fantasy team, answer trivia and polls, follow coaches and artists, and receive notifications when voting opens (NBC, n.d.). Basically, The Voice figured out that if we are going to be looking at our phones during the show anyway, they might as well give us something related to the show to do on them.

I think the app meets the needs of viewers because it makes participating easy and keeps everything in one place. Even for someone like me who normally does not vote, having everything right there on my phone would make me much more likely to participate if there was a contestant I really wanted to see make it through.

There is also a responsibility that comes with asking viewers to participate. If fans are voting and those votes can affect who stays in the competition, the process needs to be clear and fair. NBC provides information about voting methods and eligibility and requires an NBCUniversal Profile for voting (NBC, n.d.). Being upfront about how the process works is important because viewers need to trust that their participation actually means something.

Why It Works

What I like most about The Voice digital strategy is that it does not feel like the show is simply saying, “Watch us!” over and over again. It gives people a reason to care about what happens next. The contestants give viewers someone to root for, social media keeps the conversation going, and the app gives fans a chance to become part of the experience.

I think that is what makes the strategy so effective. The Voice took something that could have distracted people from the show, their phones, and turned it into another way to keep them interested. I am already loving Season 30, and for me, the music and seeing the contestants’ reactions are what make the show so enjoyable. I may not be someone who normally votes for contestants, but I can definitely understand why people do. Once you find someone you really want to see win, it becomes pretty hard not to get invested in what happens next.

References

NBC. (n.d.). Voting and playing along with The Voice Official App. https://help.nbc.com/hc/en-us/articles/360021810074-Voting-and-Playing-Along-with-The-Voice-Official-App

Shorty Awards. (n.d.a). The Voice. https://shortyawards.com/8th/the-voice-3

Shorty Awards. (n.d.b). The Voice: Television to TikTok takeover. https://shortyawards.com/16th/the-voice-tiktok-takeover