Identifying the sizeable community of “Glee" fans on Tumblr and the opportunity the platform offers to engage fans on a more visual level, “The Glee Project" became the first reality television program to establish an official presence on Tumblr, staying true to the Oxygen's innovative approach to reaching fans across platforms and leveraging new technologies to expand the brand's social media marketing mix. Fans who follow “The Glee Project's" Tumblr blog, which has the look and feel of a high school newsletter, get access to compelling video, photo and blog content from the show and its contenders. “The Glee Project" Tumblr blog has built community around the show by highlighting the best in Glee Project user generated content including graphics, drawings, fan fiction, and animated GIFs featuring clips and/or cast members from the show. Visitors to the Tumblr blog can also interact with Twitter and Facebook modules that allow them to follow the show on those platforms and peruse “The Glee Project's" latest tweets and Facebook posts. Post-season, engagement continues with a weekly article featuring contenders’ current activities and hot conversation topics. Fans are continuously with unique UGC quests that tap into what’s happening in our fans’ worlds at large – recent quests have included a contender look-a-like contest, “Glee" and “The Glee Project" inspired Halloween costumes, holiday gift ideas, etc. Fans were also able to access live feeds of photos from open calls in NYC, Chicago and Nashville, allowing those at home an early glimpse at the potential future stars of “The Glee Project". Results: Since its launch in Spring 2011, “The Glee Project’s" Tumblr has gained 9.5K followers. This growth has helped boost additional traffic to Oxygen.com. During the season, Tumblr was a Top 15 source of external referrals to all of Oxygen.com. (source: Omniture SiteCatalyst, 06/12/11—8/21/11) Throughout the season, “The Glee Project" was consistently in the top 200 tags on Tumblr. The Tumblr account helped drive high levels of awareness that support on-air ratings growth. Since its premiere on 6/12/11, the series has posted impressive triple-digit growth with +196% among A25-54, +174% among A18-49, +172% in total viewers and +167% among W18-49. On a time shifted basis across the first eight episodes, “The Glee Project" averaged over one million total viewers (1,095,000). Additionally, “The Glee Project" has reached almost 39 million viewers on multiple platforms, including on-air, Oxygen.com, Hulu.com and VOD. Source: Nielsen Media Research, Omniture, Partner Portal, Rentrak.
