Idol Chatter " Musings on The #1 Show Site
By Marnie Sloan
Welcome to the juggernaut we call American Idol. I write this basking in the calm aftermath of another intense, non-stop season of fun but challenging work. Im the Staff Writer for Americanidol.com and heres some insight into how it all goes together.
This year, Americanidol.com has become the number one show site on the web, with traffic exceeding Dancing With the Stars?, The Bachelor?, Greys Anatomy?, Survivor? and Lost? combined, according to ComScore Media Metrix. However, in November 05, just two months before the season premiere, we decided to completely overhaul the site – converting it from a pure marketing site into a more robust offering that could engage users and also be attractive to advertisers.
The new design took usability issues and deeper content to task which also led to the formation of an entirely new American Idol community called MyIdol. MyIdols blogs and boards have become the place for avid fans of the show to discuss, debate and submerge themselves into everything American Idol. With the exception of moderators watching for inappropriate content, its a safe place for them to express what they really think. Americanidol.coms Vice President, Jeff King, was confident that MyIdol would take off, but said it more than exceeded my greatest expectations?.
The most popular sections of the site are photos, videos, style and our season finale offerings. The video and photo sections provide an opportunity for those who might have missed the show or simply want to re-experience it to be able to catch the highlights. The Americanidol.com video section boasts over 400 clips that generated 75M+ views for the season. The clips from the video section range from audition footage to performances and behind-the-scenes glimpses of the contestants and judges. With 12,500 photos on the site garnering 290M page views, the photos section became one of the most heavily trafficked areas. The style section originated as a way for people to see how the contestants looks came together and grew to include Style Weekly, Hair Style, Fashion Idol, Get the Look, and Beauty Secrets.
A live web-cast during finale week was just one more way we attempted to get the fans closer to the action. We had two hosted camera positions on the red carpet cut live from a satellite truck streamed out on Americanidol.com in real time. The AI.com audience was thrilled to see former contestants like Constantine Maroulis and Anthony Federov giving their opinions on Season 5. Traffic for the two finale days broke all previous single day traffic records, for all seasons.
Also new this past season, we offered digital downloads of performances from the show in both audio and video. Our expectations were far surpassed. During the short test period this season, 175k units were sold in 8 days. Knowing a good thing when we see it, were hoping to offer this feature all season next year.
Overall traffic to Americanidol.com has increased significantly, with a 56% increase in monthly unique visitors and a 156% increase in page views, according to ComScore. We monitor the traffic extremely closely, noting how long people stay on a page, where they go next, etc. and make adjustments accordingly.
The entire Americanidol.com team is more than thrilled with the success of this years site. V.P. Jeff King adds that we have a few more tricks up our sleeves for this summer and next season. Our goal is to keep up with our audience and give more tools to enhance their Idol experience.?