TV mega-docs, meet search demand analysis

Super-volcano (Source: The Independent)

There was an interesting piece in The Guardian yesterday about Jane Root's new venture in the world of blockbuster mega-docs.  It occurred to me that there are some parallels between the role of TV commissioning and elements of search engine optimisation, or more specifically 'search demand analysis'. Of course, not in terms of gravitas (who am I kidding) but in terms of how you reach the desired endpoint.

Firstly, what's a mega-doc?

Here's some examples given in the article:

• America: the history of us - viewed by a staggering 40m viewers
• Mankind: the history of us - coming this year covering topics like the Pyramids, the Great Wall of China, the Easter Island statues, technology breakthroughs, and a super-volcano
• How We Invented the World - about great engineering and science breakthroughs

While most websites might not have the budgets of TV, comparisons can immediately be drawn between the types of content themes emerging in these in mega-docs against trends in search demand for knowledge on the web. These 'big life' questions feature very heavily in the knowledge space online and offer a fertile source for further creative development. How do we know this? Because it's already been done through analysis of keyword referrals from any number of free and paid for analytics apps including Google Webmaster Tools. You can read more about we’ve done this at the BBC in a previous post on search demand analysis.

On a slightly different level think 'How Stuff Works' meets ‘Wikipedia’, and to perhaps a lesser extent ‘Qwiki’ and ‘eHow’ etc. 

I'd love to know at what point audience appetite falls into the creative development process and what point (if any) real world data is used when developing programme ideas, because search demand analysis would really help reduce the risk of delivering a turkey in a way that focus groups could never do.

Stretching the comparison further: "If you had three big things a year you were talked about”. 

Apply that to the search engine landscape where the currency is links - and we're all about performing well in for a manageable number of high-volume terms that we know lots of people are using to find stuff.

These mega-docs have succeeded because “Britain is world leader in premium, high-end, factual programmes,” Meanwhile, being successful in search engines requires high quality, authoritative content that clearly meets audience demand - in their language and that they want to talk about (ie link to).

(Too) much has been written about in this crazy new world of two-screened try-hard transmedia and I can’t help thinking that - while innovation is a great thing - some ideas just get too complicated to the detriment of the main event. Another form of innovation might be to apply what you can learn from the alternative world of web-search insights and weave that into the more creative programme development process. 


While it might not be suited to some formats, for factual docs at least it’s surely worth a look. After all, you have to work for your audience!