Will Breaking Bad Fans Tune Into Season 3 of Better Call Saul? Understanding TV Audiences and Fan Loyalty

How Loyal Are Breaking Bad Followers?

Season 3 of Better Call Saul, a spinoff prequel of the hit series Breaking Bad, is scheduled for release in early 2017. The storyline, which follows Saul Goodman, a lawyer introduced in Season Two of Breaking Bad has received critical acclaim and was created with the intent that viewers didn’t need extensive Breaking Bad knowledge to enjoy the show. As shared by its creator, “none of the episodes hinge on the knowledge of Breaking Bad.” (But hey, we think it helps!)

With Season 3 currently filming, I wanted to understand the fan loyalty between Breaking Bad and it’s prequel Better Call Saul.

Understanding TV Audiences Through Network Connections

To begin to understand fan loyalty, I ran an Affinio report on anyone following Breaking Badand/or Better Call Saul. Analyzing those who follow the shows allows us to understand the fans of the shows. Even though Breaking Bad is off the air, the show still has an active social presence, and new or old viewers can watch the shows anytime on Netflix! If you haven’t seen Breaking Bad, let the binge-watching begin!Using this data, networks are armed with the cultural insights needed to make better strategic decisions to grow, cultivate, and better nurture their diverse fan communities over time.As shared by Juliana Lewis, Consumer Insights Strategist at VaynerMedia“Affinio is able to add colour and dimension to a TV audience that listening cannot do alone. Affinio adds qualitative, human features to a 2D landscape.”

[CASE STUDY: Discover How VaynerMedia Leveraged Affinio to Understand TV Fandoms]

Do Breaking Bad Fans Actually Watch Better Call Saul?

Breaking Bad has approximately 1.2 million followers, whereas Better Call Saul has just over 230k. This is quite the size disparity! Our algorithm segmented the individuals following these accounts into naturally-forming audience clusters based on their shared interests and affinities. You can check out what this looks like below.Once the clustering was completed, we can then see the overlap of the two audiences. Approximately 117,000 users were identified as following both Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul.With this logic,

Only 10% of the Breaking Bad Audience is interested in Better Call Saul
Now, let’s consider the audience size disparities.
While only 10% of Breaking Bad’s audience follows Better Call Saul, they make up 50% of Better Call Saul’s total audience. 

While Better Call Saul has captured the attention of fans outside of the Breaking Bad World, there is a huge opportunity to bring in more of the original Breaking Bad fans and get them to engage with the show.

How Can Better Call Saul Win Over The Breaking Bad Viewers?

If the storyline didn’t initially draw in ex-Breaking Bad watchers, how can Better Call Saul promote Season 3? By leveraging the interest graph and taking an audience-first approach, Better Call Saul’s team and TV network can understand the communities initially attracted to Breaking Badintimately. Using this data, they will be armed with the cultural insights needed to make better strategic decisions in order to grow, cultivate, and better nurture their diverse fan community over time. Whether this be through data-driven creative and content, ads, influencer campaigns etc.Marketers need to focus on who and what matters most to their fans, so that you can create tailored content that enhances a viewing experience and encourages social engagement.

TV[R]EV is written, curated and incubated by the BRaVe Ventures team. Find TV[R]EV on Facebook and Twitter, and sign up for the newsletter to stay up to date on the TV[R]EVOLUTION

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