A Case for Different Strokes : Blacks’ TV Choices Differ From General Public, Ad Study Shows

Suppose you are a big TV advertiser--like Pepsi or Burger King--with fistfuls of ad money. You spend $177,000 for a 30-second spot on “Roseanne.” You toss in another $155,000 for an ad on “60 Minutes.” For good measure, you fork over $154,000 for a spot on “Murphy Brown.”

These were the three most popular TV shows during the first half of the 1991-92 television season. To reach all segments of TV viewers, you can’t go wrong with them, right? Wrong.

“Roseanne” doesn’t even rank among the top 20 shows among black viewers. While “60 Minutes” rated as the 20th best-liked show among blacks, it was No. 2 among viewers overall. And “Murphy Brown” didn’t even finish in the top 50 among black households.

For the first time in broadcast history, the top 10 shows for blacks are completely different from the top 10 for viewers overall, according to a study by the New York ad agency BBDO Worldwide. The results serve as a stern warning to advertisers that have relied upon mass market advertising for too long. And they indicate a clear schism between blacks and whites in network viewing habits.

“No longer can blacks be viewed as amorphous, general consumers,” said Doug Alligood, vice president of special markets at BBDO, which based its conclusions on Nielsen Media Research data for the first half of the 1991-92 TV season. “If you just buy the top 10 shows on TV, you will not be reaching blacks.”

Results of the study could have a profound effect on how advertisers purchase TV time. And consumers who watch black-targeted shows--such as the two most popular programs among blacks, NBC’s “A Different World” and “Fresh Prince of Bel Air”--may see an increasing number of TV shows--and commercials--aimed at black viewers.

“This may be the final shot that, once heard by marketers, will prove to them that segmented marketing is here to stay,” said J. Melvin Muse, chairman of the Los Angeles-based minority-owned ad firm Muse Cordero Chen. His agency has placed ads for American Honda on “A Different World.”

The difference between the TV shows that blacks and other viewers watch has become more pronounced over the last four years, said BBDO’s Alligood. In fact, only five of the top 20 shows in black households also rank among the overall top 20.

“ ‘Roseanne’ is certainly of no relevance to black families,” said Byron E. Lewis, chairman of New York-based Uniworld Group, which specializes in creating ads aimed at minorities. “Nor is ‘Murphy Brown’ pertinent to blacks,” said Lewis, whose clients include Burger King and Eastman-Kodak.

“There has long been this feeling among advertisers that you don’t have to do anything different to reach black consumers. That is absolutely false,” he said.

But even the shows best-liked by blacks must have strong appeal to other viewers to be successful, said Alligood. Although “A Different World” is the most popular show among black viewers, they make up only 35% of its audience, he said.

In the BBDO study, Fox television’s “In Living Color” and “ROC” ranked as the third and fourth most popular shows among blacks. Among all TV viewers, however, “In Living Color” ranked 48th and “ROC” placed 73rd.

“This proves what many of us have known for a long time: The mass market is dead,” said Miles Turpin, chairman of the Western division of Grey Advertising. “If you did surveys like this of Asian or Hispanic television viewers, the results would be just as different.”

That is precisely why last September, Nielsen--which has been faulted for paying too little attention to ethnic viewership data--began accumulating detailed demographic data on black households and selling it to advertisers.

This fall, Nielsen will also for the first time track the TV viewing preferences of Latinos.

Why has the giant television ratings service waited so long? “Until someone out there was willing to pay for it, there was no reason to do it,” said Jack Loftus, a spokesman for Nielsen. Now, he said, clients are more interested.

Although Pepsi officials declined to give details, the soft drink giant has bolstered its minority marketing efforts in recent years. “Where you have TV shows that feature black stars, you will also find more black viewers,” said Sam Hall, a Pepsi spokesman. “Blacks are above average drinkers of cola, and we want our messages to go where our consumers are.”

Briefly . . .

Several Major League Baseball clubs have sold out to the Eveready Energizer bunny, which will be making surprise on-field appearances at a number of stadiums this week . . . Sega of America has placed under review its consolidated $65-million ad account now shared by two L.A. firms, Bozell and Della Femina McNamee . . . The partnership is unraveling at one of San Francisco’s most successful ad agencies, with Andy Berlin, co-chairman of Goodby Berlin & Silverstein, leaving to become president of the New York office of giant DDB Needham . . . Pepsi’s attempt to outsmart Coke marketers at the Final Four playoffs in Minneapolis was blunted over the weekend when Pepsi’s popular “Uh-Huh Girls” were escorted by security guards from court-side after officials of Coke--which is an NCAA sponsor--spotted them . . . Len Matthews, former president of the American Assn. of Advertising Agencies, has joined the San Diego agency Capener, Matthews & Walcher . . . Sunday Media Group of Los Angeles plans to publish the first free Sunday paper on the Westside, Sunday Beverly Hills/Westside.

Ranking the TV Shows The top 10 television shows favored by black viewers are completely different from the Top 10 viewed by general audiences. Here are the top 10 shows that black viewers preferred and the top 10 shows among all viewers during the first half of the 1991-92 television season:

Top 10 TV Shows in Black Households

Rank Rank black viewers Show all viewers Network 1 A Different World 13 NBC 2 Fresh Prince of Bel Air 22 NBC 3 Bill Cosby Show 15 NBC 4 In Living Color 48 Fox 5 ROC 73 Fox 6 Blossom 40 NBC 7 Family Matters 29 ABC 8 Married With Children 34 Fox 9 Royal Family 63 CBS 10 In the Heat of the Night 31 NBC

Top 10 TV Shows in All Households

Rank Rank all viewers Show black viewers Network 1 60 Minutes 20 CBS 2 Rosanne 25 ABC 3 Murphy Brown 56 CBS 4 Cheers 11 NBC 5 Designing Women 50 CBS 6 Home Improvement 27 ABC 7 Full House 21 ABC 8 (tie) Coach 51 ABC 8 (tie) NFL Monday Night Football 14 ABC 9 Major Dad 97 CBS 10 Unsolved Mysteries 33 NBC

Source: Nielsen Media Research