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There’s a big explosion on the Property Brothers set. All cameras all rolling to capture the footage, and it’s a wrap.
Then series co-star Drew Scott pulls out his phone and takes a selfie, which he’ll post on his personal Twitter.
“Those raw behind-the-scene moments … That is just as golden as some of the larger content that you do have to script out, like the action sequences,” Drew said.
Property Brothers has helped HGTV rise to cable’s number-five show. The series has generated 10 million page views and 12.3 million viewers for double digit growth since launching its Brother vs. Brother campaign, and much of the secret lies in the producers’ 360 approach to content and collaboration.
Drew, his brother and Property Brothers co-star Jonathan and their other brother J.D. spoke alongside Heather Jagels, vice president of creative services, HGTV, DIY Network and Great American Country; Neil Berkeley, owner of BRKLY; and Santos B. Lopez, executive producer creative content, Brother vs Brother campaign, HGTV, DIY Network & GAC; during the keynote session “Beyond the Spot: Turning Campaigns into Content” at PromaxBDA: The Conference 2016.
The team discussed how they get out of a linear mindset by really utilizing every second of their two days of filming to create content, from capturing behind-the-scenes footage to harnessing the value of unscripted moments, and doing it all by working together.
“Some of the absolute best digital content we’ve come up with is not scripted,” Jonathan said. “It’s something that came up during the day.”
Jagels said it’s important to understand the fluidity of working on set by “having no fear with it and thinking of yourself as a content creator, not just a promo maker.”
“Give them something to walk away with, and they’re going to watch the show.”
How, exactly?
“We wanted to be jumping 30 feet off the ground, smashing buildings, for the promos to be cool,” Drew said about about the start of the series.
In season two, Berkeley brought in the Marvel stunt team—under one condition from HGTV:
“Don’t kill the number one talent,” Berkeley said.
“What I want to know is, which one of us is the number one talent?” Drew quipped.
As the two design-expert brothers face off on challenges, competing against each other by jumping over obstacles and destroying things—while also managing to turn crumbling abodes into dream homes—there is literally no down time during the two days of filming. They go from being on camera, to conducting interviews, to being a part of behind the scenes footage, to posting on social media, to expecting the unexpected—all generating as much content possible during that short timeframe.
“You may be filming an an episode, you may be creating a promo, but in between, this campaign gave us so much content—little teases to put out to fans,” Drew said.
Jagels stressed the importance of being open and flexible to what can happen on the set.
“Plan well … and then be prepared to change it if you see something awesome happen,” she said. “And have another camera ready to shoot it.”
One of the key elements to Property Brothers’ success is their willingness to participate.
“They’re probably the most giving talent we have on HGTV,” Lopez said.
Berkeley makes it a point to get them on board early, and that’s often the trick—or the challenge—for any show.
“The problem is it has to convenient,” Jonathan said. “If you make it easy for the talent, the talent is usually more than willing to do it. Keep it bite sized.”
There’s also value in making sure there’s a plan for how you’re rolling out the content, Jonathan said. He has friends on other shows who don’t take that strategy to heart.
“Excuse the crude version, but they’ll blow their content load,” Jonathan said. “They’ll take content you could space out and optimize over the period of a week, and they’ll throw it all out in one day, and you’ve just wasted all that content.”
Because the set is so open to people taking videos and photos, producers also have to make sure none of the content is leaked.
“We’re always doing stuff but a big challenge is to make sure nobody puts it out that day,” Berkeley said.
It’s also a matter of understanding how content varies across all social media sites.
“In digital, the audience engages in a completely different way, and a different way on each platform,” Drew said.
Social has been a great way for them to listen to their audience. Property Brothers heard fans saying they wanted to see Jonathan and Drew compete against each other without teams, so in season three they changed the whole format of the show.
Another thing they heard is that fans wanted to see more of their family.
“I think the most important change of that season is I was actually on the air,” J.D. said. “I think that’s why it did so well.”
Drew’s girlfriend also makes appearances on the show—and was managing a live Periscope footage of the PromaxBDA session.
And never underestimate the element of surprise.
“Our content that really goes viral, and that really gets picked up, is the stuff that catches people off guard,” Jonathan said.
Lopez said he always want to give the fans something new. As the brothers headed back to their hometown of Vegas for season four, Lopez suggested one of them go shirtless.
“So what you’re saying is, sex sells,” Drew joked.
This promo for season four demonstrates an effective use of the shock factor—and its easy to imagine the behind the scenes footage and social media nuggets and all the other content that stemmed from the making of the teaser.
“The toughest thing was probably getting permission to the Elvis outfit,” Drew said.
“No, the toughest thing,” Jonathan said, “was walking in heels.”
RELATED: Guest Column: 11 Questions I Am Dying to Ask the Property Brothers
[Photo courtesy of Image Group LA]
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