TV is a classical medium. Classical media are out. Social media are in. If you have a TV channel, you are the loser of the social media revolution.

Not true at all!

This story proofs that even TV channels can successfully integrate  social media into their concept. Check out this example by Showtime, an American TV channel.

To promote the premiere of the new season of the TV show “Weeds“, the US TV Channel Showtime has recently launched a 2-minute viral video telling the history of all different kinds of drugs (like ganja, cannabis, paca lolo, marijuana, snop,..)

280px-Weeds showtime_logo

The video was launched only a week ago, but it already started creating buzz around the show. On YouTube it attracted  more than 260.000 viewers. There are already 1.315 comments. In addition to this there is a rating. So far 1.529 people have voted. The result: 5 stars (out of 5)!

Watch the video here..

I think this is a smart tactic. Users have started watching the video with enthusiasm. Due to the fact that they think it is cool, they rank it with five stars and recommend it to others.  People of today listen to other people more than to media. This means, those who receive the recommendation from a friend are very likely to watch the video themselves.  Some of the viewers will  copy-paste it into their blogs/websites etc. This is how the buzz spreads. The fact that they like the video on YouTube might encourage the viewers to watch the TV show as well.

Of course Showtime also announces the the new season of  “Weeds” on TV. However, I’m quite sure the YouTube method is more efficient This is because people choose to watch the video, they are not just confronted with it – as on TV (Nice side aspect: Uploading content on YouTube is for free)