Research - Analysis of "The Beautiful Life : TBL".

"The Beautiful Life : TBL" was a television drama centered around models living and working together in New York City, which was produced for and aired on The CW network in the US during September 2009 and was due to be aired on Channel 4 in the UK, as announced prior to the show's cancellation.

("The Beautiful Life : TBL"'s show title card.)

As "The Beautiful Life : TBL", overall, is an example of a media product of our genre which wasn't a success, there's little from its actual production that we have been looking at with the intention to imitate or draw inspiration from (though we have looked at a few episodes to attempt to pinpoint where they went wrong and learn from their mistakes); however, certain aspects are proving useful to us to look at and draw inspiration from.

For example, the show's advertising campaign. Somewhat surprising considering the show's almost immediate cancellation, the advertising campaign was considered a success. The campaign generated a buzz about the show, to the extent that (ironically) after the Pilot was presented, The CW ordered a full season of episodes for the show, and several iconic figures were confirmed as guest stars; including coveted designers Zac Posen (New York-based), Erin Fetherston (New York-based), and Matthew Williamson (London-based), who's transatlantic bases (and Channel 4's picking the show up before it's airing) suggests that anticipation for the show managed to spread from the US to the UK.

I believe the show's marketing's one downfall was that it was too well targeted, creating a niche audience that resulted in the show's low viewer numbers. For The CW network, this would seldom be an issue - the entire network is targeted towards females 18-34 (the same demographic to which we are targeting our film), with each show fitting certain niches. 

For example, The CW's current "big hit", "Gossip Girl", still fails to pull in viewer numbers greater than "The Beautiful Life : TBL" did each week, supporting itself through the buzz it receives from its cult following - the fashion crowd and their impressive media - and, somewhat therefore, product placement.
However, "The Beautiful Life : TBL" was launched during an inevitable cut causing recession, and, as it was targeted towards the fashionable audience that "Gossip Girl" had already attracted, The CW may have made the decision to cut a new show without offering it a chance rather than to cut one of their established shows.

As our group will be working on promotional ancillary tasks to compliment our film trailer, we will be looking at "The Beautiful Life : TBL" and its advertising campaign, having been a success with our target audience despite the show being a failure on its network, in greater detail in the near future.