Prima has concentrated its hobby programmes around Sunday lunchtime. The series of programmes forms an important vertical, which it also exploits commercially.
Four shows broadcast between 12:00 and 14:00 every Sunday formed the backbone of TV Prima’s Sunday programming this spring season. To the trio of established programmes Receptář prima nápadů, Libovky by Pepa Libický and Vychytávky by Láďa Hruška, the programme Zahradník po ruce was added in mid-April. Prima has already announced that hobby topics will become an important axis of one of its thematic verticals, which it will offer to advertisers. In addition to TV shows, this media group includes the websites Českýkutil.cz, Primanápady.cz, Zahrádkářská poradna.cz and PrimaDoma.TV. The range of online video programmes with a hobby focus is even wider than the aforementioned TV titles. Social media and performance campaigns for clients are also on offer. We spoke about hobby shows with representatives of Prima Doma Media, which creates hobby content for the Prima Group. Stanislav Knotek (12%) and Jiří Kadrnka (8%) are also minority owners of this company, which is majority owned by Prima Media Club Group.
This spring, Prima has expanded its Sunday hobby shows to include the new feature Gardener at Hand. The number of programmes in this block increased to four and the novelty complemented Receptář prima nápadů, Vychytávky Ládi Hruška and Libovky Pepa Libický. How is the whole block doing on air?
It is essential to say at the outset what a hobby is. The band airs around Sunday lunchtime, when the whole family is sitting in front of the TV, and our job is to make the shows interesting for all members of the household who are watching. So that every member of the family can find their own theme in our hobby programmes. From the kids, to the parents, to the grandparents. So it’s not just about introducing workshop topics such as tools, gardening, or affectionate dog training, but the whole household, which is a broader range, including insurance, energy, savings and so on. Newly in Libovky, for example, modern building technologies, or on the contrary, the nowadays very resonant topics of recycling and upcycling.
The four programmes have a net time of two hours, which is equivalent to the length of a feature film. The entire block reaches an audience of around 300 000 viewers over the age of 15, with a share of 16-18% of the audience, which we consider to be a solid result in this day and age. Moreover, we are only talking about the viewership in a linear TV broadcast without reruns. The other thing is that each show has its own social media accounts, including active industry groups, which bring in tens of thousands more followers and millions of users on the networks. For example, within Prima Doma’s online portfolio, that’s 12 million views of short hobby videos a year. We also leverage partner resources, such as Stream.cz, where there are an additional 2 million views of our videos per year.
Can the reach of hobby shows be described in summary? Or do you provide clients with reach numbers on a channel-by-channel basis?
One thing is the reach of linear broadcasting, which we talked about. Prima Doma is the primary vertical in the hobby segment, which means we cover everything from TV broadcasting, to online, social networks and the print magazine (Prima gadgets, published in cooperation with Prima’s agency Solootions and Mafra, ed.). The aggregate reach is wide. Each week, around 25 videos are produced during the shoot, which we continue to use in various digital forms on our websites and networks. This content now represents over nine thousand videos that we work with.
“Each week, around 25 videos are created during filming, which we continue to use in various digital forms on our websites and networks. This content now represents over nine thousand videos that we work with.”
Do you only create video content for the web from what is created for linear broadcast, or do you create additional content for social media and the web?
Yes, we create separate videos mainly for social media and trailers to promote shows when it comes to new viewers. Separating content in the form of videos for the internet is also necessary due to cross media campaigns so that we reach the relevant audiences well.
Hobby shows took up time around noon on TV Prima’s Sunday schedule. Have viewers got used to it?
Yes, they now know that they can find hobby programmes on Prima at this time. Of course, they have to try in a certain way to find the ideal place for a programme. It is true that it also helps that the hobby block starts at 12:00. This suits the audience, as we have found out when there were some shifts and it started later. It’s a golden time for our slot. We may have tried other slots with similar shows, mostly on the weekend, and it didn’t really work for us.
This year, the hobby shows band expanded to include a new show, Gardener at Hand. What was your intention in launching it?
We launched it for two reasons. Firstly, we see that the hobby shows band attracts viewers and can command viewership. We felt it was still untapped. And the second is that – as they say – you can never have enough garden and gardening topics. But we wanted to come up with a garden show that was something unique. We see that uniqueness in the emphasis on organic growing methods and a sustainable approach to gardening. It’s a highly topical subject today, and with this show we have the opportunity to show TV viewers through practical advice and demonstrations how they can grow their own food without the use of aggressive chemicals, how to create natural oases for the whole family, whether in the garden or on the balcony. We also feel a social obligation to make this topic more widely known.
Do you envisage expanding the block with another programme?
The entire hobby block of programmes is based on our mainstay, which is Receptář prima ideů. We can call it our incubator. If we see that some topics or sections are more interesting to our viewers, we try to offer them as separate shows, “pulling them out of the drawer”.
This is what we did, for example, with the aforementioned Gardener at Hand. The presenter of the show, Tomáš Trejbal, with his recipe column is proof of this. Tomáš is a very good presenter, an expert in the word, the show is full of ideas and he pulls it all off. We’re actually playing it safe. His ideas and tips that he presents to the audience are beneficial.
As we said, we also try to respond to trends in society, which is the case with The Gardener at Hand. It focuses on natural gardens or balcony gardening in cities. He advises people on how to grow their own potatoes in a small space in a fabric pot or save space in the garden with potato towers. Everyone in our company is familiar with mycorrhizal fungi and their effect on the soil and crops. Protecting flowering fruit trees and shrubs has certainly been something we have all dealt with in the country this year, and advice on dealing with pests using attractant plants and mechanical barriers will also be used by every gardener. This is the Gardener at Hand. It seeks to show how to care for the garden in a sustainable natural and permaculture way. We think we hit the zeitgeist and the social mood thematically as well.
And if we go back to the topic of other shows, we still have that imaginary hobby drawer full.
How big is the group of people in the Czech Republic who might be interested in hobby topics? According to Nielsen research, up to 40% of the Czech population visits chains like OBI, Hornbach or Bauhaus once a quarter, which means that the broad base could be in the millions.
Obviously, that group is not entirely small and can be measured in different ways. It can also be measured by the online portfolio, i.e. our websites, which are visited by up to 800,000 people per month depending on the season, generating up to 3.5 million marketable banner impressions and, as we said, a million views of short videos. The second metric is social media, where we have about two million people that we have a relationship with and can reach with client performance campaigns.
So a client can buy a campaign across all of the channels that you talked about…
There are several levels to this. Either we deal directly with the end client or we deal through an agency. Usually the pillar is TV, which delivers the overall reach in the population, online then reaches the younger population. With social we then target performance, i.e. leads, product sales on clients’ e-stores. On the positive side, because of our knowledge of the target audience, we can guarantee unit, minimum performance prices in advance.
“Usually the pillar is TV, which delivers the total reach in the population, online then reaches the younger population. With social, we then target performance, i.e. leads, product sales on clients’ e-stores.”
Are clients interested in using the entire vertical to its fullest?
They’re trying it out. And they usually conclude that they will increase their cooperation with us financially next year. Especially on social media, which is also due to our active work with non-commercial content. A huge asset is our social hobby audience, with whom we actively work on a daily basis. We’ve been successful so far in making performance campaigns pay off for clients. The uplift is then ultimately down to the combination of TV, online and social.
The flagship show of the entire hobby block is the Recipe Book of Primo Ideas. But are you thinking of changing any of the other hobby programmes or their faces?
Certainly not this autumn. Receptář prima idejaů is a clear constant, the flagship is also Libovky by Pepa Libický. We’re waiting to see how the new Gardener at Hand will establish itself this autumn. So far it has done well, with a total of eleven above-average episodes in the spring. And Láďa Hruška, the key face of Vychytávky, will be closing the whole hobby block in the autumn schedule. We are working with the fact that the block can be extended, we have prepared variants, but we do not count on them within this autumn.
Source: mediaguru.cz
