When marketing your business you can learn many things from some unusual sources.

Last night  there was a reunion of an Australian TV show called Hey Hey It’s Saturday. The show had run for 28 years; however it has been off air for the past 10 years.

If you can’t see the video click here.

There was a comforting feeling of welcoming old friends back into your living room and it beat all the other TV programs in ratings defying critics that thought it would be a loser.

There were a few marketing lessons I took from the reunion:

Fans

A long time fan helped bring the show back by setting up a Facebook page. When the show aired it had 200,000 fans urging that it be brought back and the last time I checked the count was nearly 235,000. The studio audience was made up of diehard fans and people even watched the show via Internet around the world even though it was only 5am and 6am. 

Marketing Lesson: To state the obvious your fans can make a big difference for your brand, especially when they are nurtured over a long time and not put aside or forgotten when new customer arrives.

Technology

They were smart enough to utilise technology. They had set up a Hashtag and email address to connect with their fans. For most of last night #heyhey was the top trending topic on twitter and the emails poured in. They even crossed live to an entertainer in another city who sang a song for his own live theatre audience as well as those viewing Hey Hey It’s Saturday Reunion. As well there were live crosses via the internet to fans in the USA and Canada.

Marketing Lesson: By carefully utilising the right technology when marketing your business you can extend your reach and increase involvement with your customers.

Essential Features

One thing about the show is that they kept the features that the fans loved over the years. Sure this was a reunion, however they didn’t not use all segments that they could have, just the ones they knew were popular.

Marketing Lesson: Knowing what are the most popular features of your products and services and the key benefits they provide is important. Customer feedback and involvement can help your business to stay relevant in their minds and hearts and away from your competitors.

Enjoyment

What was obvious from the start was the fact that the host Daryl Somers and the others were really enjoying themselves. As you were watching you could not help get involved, smiling and laughing with them.

Marketing Lesson: Laughter, fun and simple enjoyment from us can be infectious with our customers. We do not have to be serious all the time and doing something as simple as sending a funny video or email or even telling a poor joke can help strengthen your customer relationships.

I enjoyed the show and I did laugh at Russell Gilbert’s interpretation of how to add half a cup of chickpea and loved the way they did the Great Aussie Joke.

There are probably reunion TV shows like this is in other countries and have similar lessons and if so please share your stories and marketing lessons.

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