You’ve probably seen that Clarkson and the boys returned to the small screens in Top Gear The Grand Tour on Amazon Prime the other day.
What’s weird about it is that I’ve been fully aware of the impending premiere of the show.
And what’s even weirder is that I can see myself becoming a regular viewer.
Now just to be clear, I am not a Clarkson fan. I’ve probably watched half an hour of Top Gear in my whole life. And Clarkson’s shtick has always been very ‘marmitey’.
And yet, from the first trailer, I was hooked.
And there’s definitely a lesson there.
Firstly, I think the fact that I’m an Amazon Prime user makes a HUGE difference. I love Prime, I use it at least once a week, and they’ve been promoting the series that they paid gazillions for for what seems like months.
Secondly, the BBC covered the launch of the series on primetime breakfast TV.
Thirdly, everywhere I look – in newspapers, magazines, social media – everyone’s talking about it.
For business owners, there’s the first big lesson: create a buzz around what you do and get people talking about you, and the sales will follow.
But it doesn’t end there. I hadn’t decided to watch The Grand Tour, but I popped over to Amazon to have a ‘quick look’ and saw that it had received a 9.8 out of 10 rating on IMDB (The Godfather only got 9.2).
You don’t get a rating like that without being pretty good.
This gives us a powerful reminder and demonstration of the value of recommendations from trusted sources. Amazon, BBC and IMDB all gave me the ‘green light’, and this reduced any friction I might have had – if these trusted organisations are endorsing it, it must be decent.
For all of us in business, it’s worth us taking these learns on board. How can we get recommendations for our businesses?
Interestingly, The Grand Tour have used existing followings and ‘piggy-backed’ on the back of them to reach a larger audience – is there any way you can do that in your sphere?
Now I’m off to watch some expensive fast cars with amusing dialogue thrown in!