6 Lessons I Learned While Building a Reality TV Empire

For my inaugural newsletter installment, I'd like to revisit a piece I wrote in March 2021, reflecting on my early journey in the creator economy alongside the original pioneers of performance-based influencer marketing: Reality TV personalities. In this post, I'll share some of my early and long-term insights into the hidden value of Reality TV personalities, including their social media channels and audiences.

Bold colors, heart-pounding music, table-flipping, and a tasty chickpea spread. Welcome to 2020 Super Bowl LIV! This groundbreaking?commercial ?helped catapult Sabra Hummus into the living rooms of over 100 million viewers.

Using pop culture icons, professional athletes, social media influencers, and Reality TV stars, Sabra Hummus appealed to a cross-generational market. The snack for everyone.

Two of the campaign’s most notable stars were?Real Housewives of New Jersey?cast members, Caroline Manzo and Teresa Giudice.

We now live in a world where reality TV stars command the same audience recognition as Hollywood heavyweights. The evolution of the Reality TV star into a household name didn’t happen overnight; it took years of persistence and tenacity to reach this level of success.

Here are the 6 Lessons I Learned While Building a Reality TV Empire

Timing is everything

In 2012, I started working at?Central Entertainment Group, a full-service talent agency. Within a few short years, we evolved from solely focusing on talent representation to an influencer marketing agency. Growing our business, we were able to see the raw potential in the Reality TV market.

Pioneering shows such as?Survivor,?Real World?and?Road Rules,?Jackass, and?The?Jersey Shore?became the gold standard for unscripted TV. At the same time, social media also began to take shape — and by the end of the decade, platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and eventually Instagram had evolved into a powerhouse of promotional tools.

Reality TV and social media have always had a symbiotic relationship. As these shows grew in popularity, they produced charismatic personalities that continued to boost ratings while driving attention to their social media channels.

In turn, these stars leveraged their own social media properties to expand their connectivity with fans, while growing their own personal brands. This action increased viewership loyalty, which established long-term profitability for TV networks.

Recognize (and seize) opportunities

The demand for access to Reality TV stars grew with the influx of network programming. NBC, ABC, CBS, and Viacom were all vying for high ratings. This created an explosion of requests for personal appearances by these newly-minted celebrities.

By the mid-2000s, Reality TV stars earned money from traditional avenues such as sponsorships, endorsements, television contracts, and in-person appearances. From nightclubs to boardrooms, Reality TV stars could command anywhere between $1,500 to $200,000 for a brief in-person appearance.

However, this steady income stream was short-lived. With the rise of EDM (electronic dance music), many of the Reality TV stars that relied on in-person appearances were sidelined for expensive DJs. Unfortunately, many nightclubs ended up closing due to overinvestment in entertainment and failure to remain profitable. This once lucrative revenue stream for Reality TV talent began to slowly disappear.

Early investors in Reality TV, like myself, caught on to this trend and looked for diverse forms of profitability. The most obvious being social media platforms.

By identifying markets, creating social media equity, and paying close attention to the Reality TV empires launched by networks such as NBC, Viacom, ABC, and CBS, we were able to replace a once perceived loss with greater opportunity.

Patience is the key to success

Bravo, an early pioneer in the Reality TV market, wisely invested in multicast series with recurring seasons — but much like scripted TV, not all reality TV programming was successful. Although e-commerce and direct-to-consumer brands now recognize the social power of Reality TV stars (and their fans), their value wasn’t always as transparent.

Much like major networks, I’ve invested time and effort in talent that ended up on canceled shows and programming that failed to capture audience attention. Remember?A Shot At Love? No? That’s exactly my point. Throughout the process, I’ve learned to have patience while gauging which markets and social media strategies work best.

This notion can also be applied to business negotiations. Educating brands and establishing a roadmap to develop talent should be an ongoing process. Much like the platforms themselves, our tactics are ever-evolving to match market growth.

Developing a business edge through creativity

I’ve had the privilege of working with startup founders, CEOs, marketing executives, entrepreneurs, and tech pioneers. Observing their work has inspired a new level of creativity and allowed my team to develop original strategic processes. From securing non-linear partnerships to utilizing newer promotional channels, we’ve been at the forefront of live-podcast tours, and virtual happy hours.

Credit: Fiber One/General Mills

The 2019 Fiber One campaign titled, “Work Done ” is a prime example of combining traditional and cutting edge digital marketing tactics. Working with top Reality TV talent, Tamra Judge (Real Housewives of Orange County), Dorinda Medley, and Sonja Morgan (Real Housewives of New York), and well-established advertising professionals, we created an interactive and highly targeted promotional campaign for Fiber One. By using social media channels as well as traditional advertising platforms, we were able to achieve wide-ranging national exposure.

Our goal is to invest in relationships and opportunities that lead to long-term business success for clients — transporting them from the screen to the boardroom.

Leadership isn’t always easy

The more networks pushed out original Reality TV programming, the greater the opportunity became to unite emerging digital brands and social media influencers.

Together with my forward-thinking colleagues and partners, we built an infrastructure to provide leadership and opportunity to all of those around us.

Making tough decisions and navigating through delicate situations is a daily occurrence. My team is trained to identify whether a potential brand partner or influencer aligns with a company’s values. They also have to determine if these specific relationships will be short-lived (i.e. single campaign focused), or have the power to cascade into multi-year and platform partnerships.

The future is wide open

Reality TV ushered in a new wave of programming, expanding the way consumers view and follow celebrities. Aided by social media platforms, major networks, streaming services, Reality TV stars, and e-commerce brands were able to forge highly lucrative partnerships.

As our dependency on social media grows, so do our consumption patterns. Much like the rise of the Reality TV celebrity, social media influencers have flourished within a new programming medium.

From Instagram to TikTok, social media growth is constant. Celebrity, undefined by vehicle, has proven to be profitable for fortune 500 and e-commerce brands alike.

As streaming services continue to eclipse traditional forms of consumption, the future of digital partnerships are endless.