I just read a recent article detailing that the Tournament of Roses parade will be going through a makeover. I’m assuming this is to make 117 years of tradition more “hip” to today’s TV viewers.
Sandy Cohen, Associated Press Entertainment writer, writes that the following additions will be made:
So, the annual Tournament of Roses on Monday — a day later than usual because of a “never on Sunday” policy — will kick off with a splashy performance by Grammy-winning singer LeAnn Rimes — complete with dancers and aerial performers.
The extravaganza will be jazzed up further by mid-parade performances — yes, the whole parade will roll to a pause — by singer Toni Braxton and magician Lance Burton.
Basically, the idea is to attract a younger crowd. CBS has pulled out of covering the parade because ratings have declined since 1988. They attribute this to the fact that because several networks are providing coverage of the event, it’s just becoming overload. I imagine that to avoid this with other networks, the parade’s organizers are looking to snazz things up.
Tournament of Roses president Libby Evans Wright insists that plans to include entertainment elements in the 2006 parade were in place before CBS opted out. The additions were based on years of market research that found viewers wanting more entertainment from the petal-pumped procession, Wright said.
“When you’re looking at yourself as a brand or a product or a business, you always want to keep renewing yourself,” she said. “You want to keep yourself vibrant and interesting to your market.”
 Ironically, these changes are only geared toward TV viewers - most of the parade-goers probably won’t even see these performances. Most of the attendees naturally turn out just to see the parade itself as they have every other year. Cohen interviews several people who don’t think the faithful will even be all that interested in seeing Rimes, Braxton, or Burton.
Still, the networks see the new direction the parade is taking as an opportunity.
It’s still smart for the Tournament of Roses to freshen up the festivities with made-for-TV elements, said NBC’s Sharp.
“They need to continue to make it entertaining and relevant to today’s audiences,” he said. The Tournament plans to explore Internet and telephone broadcast opportunities in the future, Flinn said.
I’m curious to know what audience or audiences they are hoping to reach as part of their “re-branding” effort. Typically, I think most of the viewers are an older crowd - more like my parents who are in their 50s. I’ve grown up watching the parade, but I have an appreciation for various things, quite different than most people my age. They either won’t even think about watching the parade at all, or will quickly change the channel out of boredom. In my mind, I can only see the scheduled entertainment as being more enticing to those who actually know WHO they are.
This is actually my first time hearing about the change. Shouldn’t the PR & Advertising people really be capitalizing on this re-branding? The parade will be held on Monday, Jan. 2 at 11 a.m., instead of Sunday (the policy is “Never on a Sunday”) which could prove to be bad in terms of ratings. Most schools will be back in session and most parents will be off to work. Are we going to be able to assume that most people will tape it and watch it later? I’m not certain if trying to be hip will really matter if noone is even around to watch the parade.
I guess we’ll know once the ratings are out.
Source: Here
