Food Network Star has become one of the Food Network’s biggest tent poles. Justin Warner was recently crowned the winner as the show concluded its eighth season. Beyond an impressive Pinterest strategy, the Food Network has seen an impressive growth in its social footprint for the past season.
The network saw a 300% increase in online viewer engagement during the season 8 premiere compared to the season 7 premiere. They also ramped up their lower-third #hashtaging by including #FNStar and #FNStarTrivia throughout the episode. Just halfway through the season @FoodNetwork added 67,000 followers and was averaging 1,825 new followers per day.
Did the growth of their social channels help drive ratings? Angela Moore, Vice President of Digital for Food Network didn’t say yes, but she did tell Lost Remote that “social media drives deeper engagement” and that “when you have a multi-week elimination and want the audience to play an active part in selecting a winner, taking advantage of all resources to build and retain involvement is key.”
She also described why they were so successful with social this season. “Food Network Star began its eighth season with an opportunity to grow our audience’s interest and our mentors’ unique and individual voices in a more significant way across social platforms,” she explained. “The refreshed show format afforded Food Network Star an added layer to the social media conversation surrounding the week-to-week competition – it allowed for intense audience investment in the show, the mentors and hopefully a contestant or two,” she added.
“All in all, social was more integral to this season than ever before.”