Contextual Analysis

2011 by Ad Age

The Walking Dead has been one of the most viewed dramas in basic cable history. The television series has been the top trend since October 14th (4th season premiere). The television show is about zombies. More importantly the show is about the post-apocalyptic world and how the lives of the survivors. "Walkers, as the cast of the show calls zombies, are everywhere and the show centers around a group of people who have managed to survive this walker apocalypse.


AMC's The Walking Dead acquired 16.1 million viewers (The Wall Street Journal, para. 1) for the season premiere, but not just that AMC has done a huge push to involve their mass amount of fans through social media. They use Facebook, Twitter, Story sync, and a few other sites. AMC engages their fans, uses creative hashtags, re-purposes old content, and has made The Talking Dead to follow up on new episodes. They have used social media to incorporate fan interaction. With these different methods it allows fans to engage during the episodes and have a continuous social conversation through out the week until the next episode (Social Media Today).

The Walking Dead has become one of the most iconic roles in our society. It is completely entertainment based, but many people have become so enthralled with The Walking Dead. It has come to the point where people have become emotionally involved with the characters of the T.V. series. People would like to think what would they do in this post-apocalyptic world. How would their views, hierarchy, or life change because of this new world. How would they scavenge, take care of their family, or react/relate with other people. Certainly the situations presented in The Walking Dead are situations that people could imagine themselves in. The could determine the best course of action to take, or determine if the characters decisions are the same decisions they would make. Many tweets on Sunday consisted of "why would Rick make such a decision?" "Would I make that same decision? Why would I do that?" They involve themselves. The show has become a setting where people involve themselves. It has come to a point where it is the topic of conversation and a person is considered weird for not watching the show. It has become a bond of sorts between people and their friends, and even "friends" on the internet.

AMC has done an extremely good job at keeping fans engaged not just with an emotional tie, but also involving people through a temporal context. Each week when a new episode airs many fans get on the AMC website for The Walking Dead story sync. This allows for real time interaction with fans, interactive games and changeling others, and constant updates about the episode including pictures, polls, and interesting facts about the series. This keeps fans involved and engaged throughout the whole show. Another aspect of the temporal context is how through twitter or Facebook there are consistent updates as to what is happening on the show. Many fans who are following are also commenting about a certain scene or decision made.

I think that it is amazing that networks can involve so many people at once to enjoy a television series. I think it's amazing all the effort and work put into making hashtags and involving fans with polls, games, chat, and apps to fully engage each individual. I believe with this, since the main demographic is 18-49 year olds, AMC really hit the mark on including this specific demographic because they use social media almost everyday of their lives. I think it is a pretty smart marketing technique to make fans keep wondering and engaged through conversations all week so that they and maybe more people will be tuned in for the next episode that following Sunday.