Nat Geo Wild’s ‘Sharkfest’ ratings soar during ‘Shark Week’
The 2015 Super Bowl runner-up Seattle Seahawks. NBA second place Cleveland Cavaliers. The World Series almost champ Kansas City Royals. The Japanese National Women’s Soccer Team. And Nat Geo WILD!
We are proud to stand on the shoulders of these great competitors, and take a bite out of a summer TV staple. At the finish of this year’s annual week of shark TV,SharkFest proudly finished as the second highest rated network airing programming honoring the apex predator.
“You know what they say about sharks,” said Nat Geo WILD SharkFest mascot, Shark on the Street. “It’s not the ones you see that you have to worry about. It’s the ones you don’t see.”
SOUTH AFRICA: Underwater scene of two Great White sharks with sardines in their mouths circling a sardine bait ball.(Photo credit: © Aquavision TV Productions)
This year SharkFest posted impressive gains among viewers P2+ in primetime (+60%) compared with a year ago. According to Nielsen, SharkFest also increased its primetime audience (+100%) compared with the previous six weeks, and its P25-54 viewers (+44%). After all, what’s better than a week? Clearly, a festival!
Nat Geo WILD’s SharkFest event was helped along this year by an irreverent on-air promotional video that AdWeek called “hilarious,” which worked to build buzz around the network’s third annual dip into shark-infested waters, capturing the attention of the national media, including the “Today Show,” “CBS News,” “Inside Edition,” The Atlantic and others.
“We’re not that other week of SharkTV,” comedian Rory Scovel quips in the spot. “We want you to confuse the two. And you will. And we don’t care — because it gets us ratings.” And it did.
“It’s the same friggin’ sharks anyway,” Scovel goes on. “Sharks cannot sign an exclusive contract with a network … we’re pretty certain on that.” Still pretty certain.
Nat Geo WILD is already hard at work on next year’s SharkFest, premiering the same time as that other week (when they announce it).
