The hit TV show looks to online as a tool for extending its relationship with fans.

For its first three seasons, "American Idol" has maintained the top position in television ratings, and the American Idol brand is now one of the entertainment world's most recognizable. With unprecedented viewer interaction, American Idol captured over 30 million American viewers each week, and its loyal fan base participated in the show's progress every Tuesday and Wednesday night.

Looking ahead to season four, FremantleMedia, the program's co-producer and licenser looked for ways to involve fans seven days a week, 365 days a year. 

"As brand stewards for American Idol, we are constantly looking for activations which connect with our audience and allow them to experience the brand even when the show is not on," said Jason Turner, director of interactive marketing for Fremantle. 

To accomplish this, Fremantle's approach was to turn to an incredibly popular and always-on communication channel: instant messaging (IM). "The American Idol Experience Messenger is the most dynamic IM service on the market, generic or otherwise," adds Turner.  "I'm always looking for ways to create a community which has a similar affinity towards American Idol, and an American Idol-branded IM service was a crucial way to achieve this online."

Roots of the American Idol Experience Messenger

In January 2005, MECA Communications, a provider of branded IM applications, signed an agreement with FremantleMedia to develop a proprietary IM integrated with American Idol content. Previously, MECA had successfully created similar "Experience Messengers" for other top brands, in each case developing a fully branded application allowing users to personalize their IM interface with themed content and graphics. FremantleMedia recognized the value this application could have in efforts to keep millions of fans involved, as well as the intrinsic viral marketing potential of direct branding on the communication channel.

Product development matching the brand

Dubbed the "American Idol Experience Messenger," MECA's goal was to make this new application fun, easy to use, and attractive to American Idol fans. In order to integrate this demographic's existing IM habits as seamlessly as possible, the American Idol Experience Messenger was designed to be interoperable with major IM platforms -- Yahoo! Messenger, MSN Messenger, AIM and ICQ -- allowing fans to conveniently combine all their buddy lists into one application. 

For the Experience Messenger's main menu a Buddie Remote was designed and shaped like a remote control, letting fans see their full buddy lists across each IM platform, supported by a variety of target advertisements. A Media Channel within the Buddie Remote enabled fans to view exclusive photos, interviews and streaming video of the contestants. Via this portal, fans were able to download images of their favorite American Idol contestants for use as their "skins," i.e. the interface of their actual text window. 

Targeted audience captured

On March 15, 2005, the American Idol Experience Messenger was officially unveiled and fans began downloading new skins to personalize their messengers. In addition to extending the brand beyond the weekly show, the American Idol Experience Messenger provided FremantleMedia with useful statistics about American Idol fans' preferences and lifestyles.

In accordance with FremantleMedia's goals in introducing a branded IM, fans demonstrated their eagerness to keep interacting with American Idol after the hour-long show was over. Wednesdays and Thursdays, the days following a performance or selection show, were the most active days for new registrations to the American Idol Experience Messenger. In addition, it became clear that American Idol is a phenomenon not limited to American interest -- forty percent of the American Idol Experience Messenger's registrants came from outside the country. 

The most interesting phenomenon demonstrated by user activity regarded the skin downloads of specific contestants. Carrie Underwood, the eventual champion of "American Idol" Season Four, was drawing nearly twice as many downloads as any other contestant over two months before the contest ended, showing that she had been a fan favorite from the very beginning of the competition. 

After Carrie's victory, downloads of her skin jumped from 21 percent of the total to over 35 percent, nearly three times more than fellow finalist Bo Bice and five times more than Constantine Maroulis. This demonstrated American Idol Experience Messenger users' activities to be strongly correlated with events occurring on the latest show, a continuation of the spirit of interactivity that makes American Idol so popular on television (see Figure 1).