How “Who Wants to Marry My Mom?” put a Spanish spa in the spotlight

Quantifying the “TV effect”

The decision to locate the Spanish version of reality television show “Who Wants to Marry My Mom?” in the Balneario de Mondariz, one of the best spas in Spain, provides me with the opportunity for a quick analysis of the effect of television on a company’s presence on the web and social networks of direct and complete information.

The show’s production company, Eyeworks España, contacted a very well-known spa in the Galician town of Mondariz (NW of Spain), which, after assessing that the impact on its brand was positive and mutually beneficial, reacted proactively. The production company was given the standard discount on the more than 70 people it checked into the spa over a six-day period. Obviously, the move raised a number of initial issues: principally whether the long-standing and traditional Mondariz brand was compatible with the spirit of the program, how the spa might best anticipate the needs of the show, and how they would impact on its running.

The spa’s staff says that one of the most important elements that contributed to the success of the initiative was establishing a good relationship with the production crew and participants by offering help in selecting interesting locations, etc. At the same time, staff had to accept that shooting would take time, and often involve shutting off large areas of the complex, with the concomitant impact on other guests staying there. This good relationship played a key role in making sure that, although it wasn’t literally specified in the contract, viewers were frequently reminded visually and verbally as to where the show was taking place.

The program was shown on channel Cuatro, the second-most popular of the eight broadcast-to-air channels of Mediaset, which is part owned by Silvio Berlusconi’s Fininvest group. Viewing figures from the first of the two episodes of “Who Wants to Marry My Mom” shot in Mondariz were 1,256,000 people, an audience share of 7.5 percent, while the second, the program’s season finale, attracted 1,343,000 viewers, 7.7 percent of the share. The program was not a leader in terms of audience share, but nevertheless it attracted a respectable number of viewers.

In the run up to the program’s emission, there was intense activity on the Twittersphere, with the production company creating the #QQCCMM4 and #QQCCMMFinal hashtags (the initials stand for the Spanish name of the series: “¿Quien Quiere Casarse Con Mi Madre?”) The spa’s marketing department used the hashtags as part of its own Twitter campaign to take advantage of the event by offering a weekend’s free stay in the spa, complete with treatment and other activities in return for users following and retweeting. As a result, the spa’s Twitter account, @Balne_Mondariz, was Spain’s second-most popular trending topic, generating more than 1,500 retweets, more than the program’s own hashtag. The second Twitter initiative, already associated with a specific hashtag: #invitaMondariz, was even more successful, establishing itself as the top trending topic, with 1,345 retweets and 86 favorites.

It had taken the spa almost two years to attract the first 1,200 followers. This figure rose to 1,800 in the first week, and more than 2,500 in the second. At present, there are around 2,424, following a slight drop after the prize winners were announced for the all-in weekend prize.

The spa’s web page has also witnessed an increase in activity. Over the course of this year, an average of 885 people visited the site; in December, that figure was 813. On Tuesday, December 10, the day the program was shown, that figure rose to 2,100, with a further 1,402 on the Wednesday, and with a 70 percent increase in visitors, and a 15 percent rebound rate. The corporate video of Mondariz, which is normally played around 25 times a day, was seen by 90 people. The following week, there were 1,080 new visitors, with a rebound rate of 16 percent. In comparison, the results obtained far outstripped the web-based advertising campaign carried out last summer, and that was considered a good return on investment.

Modest figures, perhaps, but that nevertheless represent a notable impact on business activity: each contact, each additional visitor to the web, and each subsequent reference representing a key part of what marketing academics like to call the “consideration set”.

In short, an important event for all concerned, and particularly positive for the spa: good publicity, with Mondariz being seen over an extended period of time by a significant number of people, and that would be impossible to repeat via traditional advertising campaigns. All accompanied by a large number of tweets and other activities, along with improved morale among staff, in part due to their new-found notoriety.

(En español, aquí)