The Holly and The TV

Saturdays alright for fighting

British soap Hollyoaks – which won six awards at this year’s British Soap Awards – is to utilise its 3M strong audience as a marketing platform for both an upcoming girl band and the pop aspirations of its own cast.

Girl band The Saturdays are guest staring in an episode of Late Night Hollyoaks in November. The band appears competing against a band made up of characters in the show. ‘The Dirty Diegos’ features members of the Hollyoaks cast: Josh Ashworth on lead guitar, singer Michaela McQueen, Sasha Valentine on keyboards and Amy Barnes on drums. The fictional TV band released an actual single entitled Play on 24th November. The song is a cover of the version originally recorded by short-lived late 1990’s band Dimestars. The Dirty Diegos have signed to Fascination Records, the same record label that represents The Saturdays and Girls Aloud.

So what?: If the likes of Bebo can create online dramas based around music – such as The Secret World Of Sam King – then the traditional TV soaps should be able to as well right? If Universal is involved (as it is with Bebo), the answer is yes. Hollyoaks builds its eventual product – a band signed to Fascination Records – slowly, letting the audience grow with the group. If you already have a captive audience then marketing new artists within a show and blurring the lines of reality and fiction is an easy and effective way of positioning new acts.

“Social media is revolutionising the humble TV soap, with music playing a key roll in its development. However traditional dramas have yet to truly grasp the power of embedded music acts. Unless you count Gary Barlow’s appearance in Heartbeat at the turn of the Millennium.”
Giles Fitzgerald, Editor, Five Eight

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