CBC ratings are up, and one of the major secrets to the public broadcaster’s recent success is a marked shift in its approach to marketing and promotion.

According to the network, CBC’s market share rose from 6.7% in 2004/05 to 7.4% in 2006/07, and it was up to 7.8% from Oct. 1, 2007 to April 6, 2008, surpassing Global, which lacked new U.S. shows because of the Writers Guild of America strike. Top shows such as Little Mosque on the Prairie, which brought in average weekly audiences of more than a million viewers in its first season and maintained nearly 800,000 viewers into its second season, have been driving this shift.

‘We’re really happy,’ says Kirstine Layfield, CBC executive director of programming. ‘We’ve gone up a tremendous amount, particularly in primetime. Our 9 p.m. slot is up 30% from the year before, which is really good because that’s the one-hour drama slot, which has been a hard nut for us to crack.’

According to Layfield, one of the strategies for building CBC audiences has been to concentrate promotion on just a few of the top shows. CBC traditionally spread promotional efforts and dollars more evenly throughout the schedule, an approach that made it difficult to create the breakthrough shows that have pushed the broadcaster up in the ratings.

‘It’s not like our overall budgets have gone up. If anything, they’ve remained the same or even gone down,’ she says. ‘It’s not like we’re spending more money. We’re trying to be better about how we spend it and concentrating on areas where people are going to notice it most…which has brought attention to the CBC in a positive way for lots of shows.’

Little Mosque producer Mary Darling of WestWind Pictures says the CBC’s approach to promotion has been a welcome change in that producers and outside marketing and publicity teams have worked together with the pubcaster to come up with effective strategies.

On previous WestWind shows, such as Designer Guys, which aired on HGTV Canada, she says much of the effective promotion was conducted by Word Of Mouth Public Relations, which WestWind hires independently to promote its shows.

‘Usually [broadcasters] are not as passionate and excited as we are about our shows, but CBC blew us out of the water,’ says Darling, who is quick to credit Layfield with the vision for success. ‘What I love about the CBC is that promotion is an open conversation.’

Alison King, president of Media Profile, which handles publicity and media relations for most CBC shows, agrees.

‘Kirsten has been great at identifying strong shows and then saying let’s put the muscle of the entire entertainment team behind them,’ she says. ‘The great thing about the CBC is that they bring us in early in the process.’

Working closely with Layfield and her team helped King develop innovative publicity strategies such as the falafel picnic/press conference for the premiere of Little Mosque, which launched in January 2007.

Building on the success of the series’ first two seasons, King plans on increasing the number of public appearances by the cast.

‘They have become recognisable stars now. We’re not in a position where we have to generate crowds,’ she says.

King and Darling did not divulge additional details about what is planned for the launch of season three, but Darling did say that it would not be a traditional campaign.

Putting extra weight behind its top new shows is an important part of CBC’s new promotional strategy, but Layfield says campaigns for subsequent seasons are crucial in continuing to build audiences, although they require a different approach.

Going into season two of The Tudors and The Border, for example, promotion will focus on highlighting the appeal of the shows’ individual characters, rather than pushing the overall stories behind the series, which was the approach on season one in each case.

‘We’re really paying attention to those shows again because they were still building audiences at the end of last year,’ says Layfield.

For the The Tudors, the CBC specifically targets viewers who may not traditionally tune in to the pubcaster by focusing more on publicity and paid media – sources that will reach new audiences (rather than cross-promotion on CBC airwaves). The Tudors averaged 665,000 viewers in its first season, with the second season set to air this fall.

Layfield plans to hold back CBC’s new shows, such as The Wild Roses and The Session (both are likely to have name changes before they air), for a January premiere, to take advantage of promotion opportunities created by audiences tuning in to CBC’s holiday programming in December.