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Speaker 1: Welcome to Strictly Business Varieties, weekly podcast featuring conversations with

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Speaker 1: industry leaders about the business of entertainment. I'm Cynthia Littleton,

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Speaker 1: business editor of Variety Today. My guest to New York

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Speaker 1: is Jacqueline Parks, Parks's chief marketing Officer and Executive vice

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Speaker 1: president of Digital Studios for Viacom's MTV, VH one, CMT

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Speaker 1: and Logo Group. In our conversation, Parks breaks down the

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Speaker 1: marketing campaign for MTV's recent relaunch of the reality franchise

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Speaker 1: The Hills. Parks details the process that began in early

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Speaker 1: two thousand seventeen with social media teases and other breadcrumbs

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Speaker 1: for fans. This was well before MTV announced that the

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Speaker 1: franchise was officially coming back. Parks also reflects on how

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Speaker 1: the discipline of marketing has changed so dramatically in the

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Speaker 1: three years since she joined m t V after a

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Speaker 1: twenty one year career with Major League Baseball. Okay, Jacqueline Parks,

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Speaker 1: chief Marketing Officer and Executive vice president of Digital Studios

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Speaker 1: for MTV, v H one, CMT and Logo Group, thank

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Speaker 1: you for taking a break from marketing all those channels

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Speaker 1: to sit and talk with us today. Well, thank you

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Speaker 1: for having me, Cynthia. I'm a huge fan of you

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Speaker 1: and your podcast on a variety overall off chucks, thank you.

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Speaker 1: Let's start by talking about a bit what I'm sure

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Speaker 1: has been a big project for you in the last

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Speaker 1: year and a half, the relaunch of The Hills, of

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Speaker 1: really beloved MTV franchise that hadn't been on the air

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Speaker 1: for a while. It just came back now under the

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Speaker 1: new title of The Hills New Beginnings. Talk about the

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Speaker 1: process of how you how the company identified this property

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Speaker 1: as as a good one for relaunch. Near as I

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Speaker 1: can tell, the first rumblings of rumors that The Hills

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Speaker 1: could come back in some form to MTV started about

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Speaker 1: May June of tell us from behind the scenes. At

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Speaker 1: what stage was your effort at that point, had you

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Speaker 1: I'm guessing you had already been working on this for

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Speaker 1: some time. Yeah, good intel their Cynthia. About two years ago, UM,

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Speaker 1: when Chris McCarthy took the home overall for the music brands,

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Speaker 1: one of the core things to our strategy was really

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Speaker 1: to crystallize, reimagining I P that we had you know,

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Speaker 1: in this era with their content everywhere on every platform,

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Speaker 1: consumers have more choices than ever and great news is,

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Speaker 1: as we all know, they're consuming more than ever before. UM.

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Speaker 1: But in order to get them to choose your product

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Speaker 1: or your programming, UM, having i P is a really

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Speaker 1: secret weapon. It really draws consumers, and it draws media

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Speaker 1: and it galvanizes interest. UM. So we took a look

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Speaker 1: at our entire vault, and we took a look at

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Speaker 1: what was on the air UM currently, and UM immediately

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Speaker 1: looked at how do we make our strong franchises stronger.

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Speaker 1: So franchisees like The Challenge and Redique Listeners, we invested

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Speaker 1: and we doubled down on to make them stronger. And

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Speaker 1: then we looked at i P that had been retired

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Speaker 1: and was our opportunity. So right around Mai June when

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Speaker 1: you heard rumblings, we had just launched Jersey Shore to

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Speaker 1: tremendous success Jersey Shore Families Vacation, and we knew that

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Speaker 1: The Hills was another massive i P that fits strategically

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Speaker 1: to what we believe was the core ethos of MTV,

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Speaker 1: which is a show that celebrated quintessential life stages. So

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Speaker 1: MTV at its core has always been there with you

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Speaker 1: from your first date to your first expression of identity,

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Speaker 1: to pro social choices that you're making two things that

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Speaker 1: are important to you. MTV was really the first one

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Speaker 1: to put a camera microphone there for youth and for

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Speaker 1: the Hills. It was all about quintessential life stages. It

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Speaker 1: was your first date, your first new job, your first apartment,

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Speaker 1: getting into college. So um, you know, lo and Behold

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Speaker 1: that cast is just around turning thirty now, and we decided,

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Speaker 1: Chris McCarthy and Nina Diaz and the development team, that

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Speaker 1: would be the right time to bring back this franchise.

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Speaker 1: Can I ask you was that strictly on gut or

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Speaker 1: did you do any like any research, any focus groups

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Speaker 1: at all to see what the residence of the brand was. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: we have UM social channel, so we did do a

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Speaker 1: little bit of testing UM on the q T to

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Speaker 1: take a look at the impact that the property and

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Speaker 1: the stars still had socially UM and it's quite strong

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Speaker 1: and it continues to be one of the franchises at

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Speaker 1: fans on the MTV brand channel we'll ask us to

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Speaker 1: bring back, So a little bit of social listening UM

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Speaker 1: as well as once we decided, we started to queue

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Speaker 1: up some more Hills content and see how it was

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Speaker 1: doing on all platforms, so we ran some reruns UM

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Speaker 1: on different or different nets, and then we also put

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Speaker 1: some more social content out there and just saw the

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Speaker 1: fan reaction to it UM, and then we teased a

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Speaker 1: promo in the Vienna's in two thousand and eighteen. It

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Speaker 1: was a Twitter moment and it was one of the

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Speaker 1: most social moments of the VMAs. And that was before

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Speaker 1: you formally officially said that the show was coming back.

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Speaker 1: That was our moment to say it's coming back. We

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Speaker 1: didn't know exactly how at that point. One of the

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Speaker 1: key things that Chris did was building a team that

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Speaker 1: could actually build the content. We're makers ourselves, So at

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Speaker 1: that moment we saw the reaction and all the plans

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Speaker 1: went into motion to build out the Hill's new beginnings.

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Speaker 1: And obviously it was core talking to the talent Heidi

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Speaker 1: and Spencer, Adrina and the whole crew, and then, like

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Speaker 1: you said earlier, bringing in new talent for the show

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Speaker 1: as well. Was it UM. Lauren Conrad was obviously a big,

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Speaker 1: you know, the focus of the show in its original

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Speaker 1: iteration from two thousand and six to two thousand and ten.

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Speaker 1: UM she was. She's been pretty vocal that she did

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Speaker 1: not want to be a part of it. When you,

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Speaker 1: I'm guessing you got that message from her. Was that

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Speaker 1: at all a speed bump at all in terms of

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Speaker 1: can we do this without her? Yeah? I mean absolutely.

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Speaker 1: Lauren was massive part of the original Hills. Um and

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Speaker 1: the talent team and the development team talked to all

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Speaker 1: of the talent that had been on it, and I think, um,

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Speaker 1: you know, everybody would have liked everyone to come back,

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Speaker 1: but just like any other show, just like Jersey Shore,

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Speaker 1: any of the other remakes, that doesn't always happen. And

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Speaker 1: we certainly respect where everyone is in their life stage.

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Speaker 1: The franchise is massive, and it's iconic, and it transcends

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Speaker 1: individual actors or actresses, and um, we saw that with

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Speaker 1: the launch just last week, so massive success. Actually the

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Speaker 1: largest launch and cable reality this year for women eighteen

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Speaker 1: to forty nine and second and people overall behind Double

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Speaker 1: Shot of Love, which is another one of our extensions

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Speaker 1: of the Jersey franchise. If you have to come in

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Speaker 1: second to somebody, may as well be around show totally.

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Speaker 1: It's not that that's great. So you have the big

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Speaker 1: teaser Twitter moment, that's that's right. You know, wrapped into

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Speaker 1: the MTV Movie Awards, right, um what and you see

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Speaker 1: a great response? What do you do from there to capitalize?

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Speaker 1: So we basically had a strategic plan laid out for

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Speaker 1: all platforms. The show team went busy into developing the

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Speaker 1: show and doing research around you know how they could

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Speaker 1: bring that show to life for two thousand and nineteen.

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Speaker 1: And in the marketing and digital side, our job was

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Speaker 1: to fuel those people who were the Hill fans, and

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Speaker 1: then just strategically worked to identify who were audiences that

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Speaker 1: we thought we could reach that maybe didn't watch The

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Speaker 1: Hills in its original iteration. So we partnered with Google

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Speaker 1: Insights and we took a look at where trends were

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Speaker 1: going in terms of audiences around the current Hills, and

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Speaker 1: then we did some testing of some hypothesis around people

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Speaker 1: who didn't watch The Hills but love reality, and then

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Speaker 1: around another group that were just MTV fans but didn't

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Speaker 1: watch The Hills. So we had three targets. It was

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Speaker 1: the group that watched The Hills in the original day,

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Speaker 1: then may or may not be on MTV today, reality

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Speaker 1: fans overall that just love reality programming and are right

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Speaker 1: for the demo. And then people who are on MTV

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Speaker 1: that just aren't never watched The Hills, and we developed

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Speaker 1: content across all platforms to reach each one of those

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Speaker 1: fan bases to fuel their fandom so that when we

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Speaker 1: did bring the show back, we would have success. Because

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Speaker 1: you know, launching a success and a hit is harder

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Speaker 1: than ever um. So all of that was a part

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Speaker 1: of strategically fueling that fandom. And then we launched a

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Speaker 1: pop up channel on Pluto TV where you could watch

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Speaker 1: every single episode of the Hills from the beginning. You

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Speaker 1: said you partnered with Google Insights. Can you give us

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Speaker 1: some sense of what what exactly Google Insights brought you,

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Speaker 1: What kind of data, what kind of information that they

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Speaker 1: that they provided you that you couldn't have gotten on

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Speaker 1: your own. Yeah, we work with Google, their strategic partner,

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Speaker 1: a marketing partner as well as a business partner of

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Speaker 1: ours UM and in this instance, we worked with a

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Speaker 1: group called Google Insights UM and we created some hypotheses

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Speaker 1: around what we thought these different audiences might be interested

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Speaker 1: in with the Hills, and we tested those hypothesis by

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Speaker 1: developing content and then putting it on YouTube, and then

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Speaker 1: we were able to see reaction from audiences to understand

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Speaker 1: which creative would be stronger creative to connect to broader audiences.

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Speaker 1: So this was done well before we developed our actual

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Speaker 1: final creative. It was proof of concept that enabled us

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Speaker 1: to see consumer reaction and then to each one of

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Speaker 1: those targets that identified what would be the right creative

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Speaker 1: for those targets to bring them in. So no surprise,

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Speaker 1: the people that never watched The Hills were brought into

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Speaker 1: The Hills based on the nostalgia of quintessential life stage moments.

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Speaker 1: Everybody remembers their first kiss, everybody remembers the nervousness of

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Speaker 1: their first day at college, um the idea of reconnecting

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Speaker 1: with an X. Those are quintessential life stages, stages that

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Speaker 1: were very much a part of The Hills, and they

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Speaker 1: played so well to people that never saw the show.

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Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, the strongest piece of creative

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Speaker 1: that we had going across all three audiences was the

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Speaker 1: song Natasha ben Fields song Arrest is still unwritten, So

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Speaker 1: that was so connected to the original show, connected to

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Speaker 1: the show, but people that never saw the show said

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Speaker 1: they had chills from the minute they heard the song

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Speaker 1: coming on, which was just fascinating because if you had

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Speaker 1: never seen the property. Why would that song resonate so strongly?

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Speaker 1: But I did, and so that was core to our

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Speaker 1: marketing for all three targets. So when you're talking about

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Speaker 1: doing hypothesis and proof of concept and gathering, you know,

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Speaker 1: kind of looking at the audience, it sounds like that

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Speaker 1: your team is working so closely with the content team

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Speaker 1: to figure out what is the you know, kind of

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Speaker 1: what is the the ingredients for success. It sounds like,

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Speaker 1: you know, it sounds like you and the marketing are there,

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Speaker 1: you know, at the very sort of beginning of the

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Speaker 1: ideation about about this process. We often hear from you know,

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Speaker 1: we also we often hear pretension between production and development

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Speaker 1: and the marketing department. Marketing is brought in at the end.

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Speaker 1: It sounds like you had to see at the table

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Speaker 1: from the very get go. Yeah, the way Chris Orchestrate said,

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Speaker 1: and you know, special thanks to Nina who runs our

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Speaker 1: development team. We're all at the table together and needed

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Speaker 1: totally runs development, but she always wants to hear our

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Speaker 1: voice and our thoughts because all of us look at

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Speaker 1: what we do as the consumers in the center of

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Speaker 1: everything we do, so hearing what the consumer has to

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Speaker 1: say want and need is core to all of us

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Speaker 1: being successful. Um and you know, sometimes we get insights

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Speaker 1: from the talent that they'll share with us that fuel

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Speaker 1: some of our creative iterations. Sometimes we share insights from

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Speaker 1: people like Google that helped make the development stronger as well.

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Speaker 1: So we're lucky. We're a small, nimble group and um,

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Speaker 1: we're able to react really quickly together. So you've got

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Speaker 1: so you've got the ball rolling, you've got the buzz going.

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Speaker 1: What as you get into like summer fall of two

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Speaker 1: thousand and eighteen, are used to kind of dropping still

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Speaker 1: breadcrumbs for people to to whip their appetites. So we

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Speaker 1: did a bunch of content Remember When, so really short

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Speaker 1: six ten second um drops that ran on all platforms,

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Speaker 1: but most specifically on social between all of the cast

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Speaker 1: members and then our social following for The Hills, we

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Speaker 1: reunited that that base. It's about forty million followers across platforms,

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Speaker 1: so it's a really nice audience to go out to

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Speaker 1: and start to pepper them with more content. Um and again,

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Speaker 1: it was all around remember When, And then we ran

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Speaker 1: some marathons for those fans on MTV that maybe didn't

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Speaker 1: watch The Hills. UM summer weekends when you know people

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Speaker 1: had extra time, we know they're on the channel, and

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Speaker 1: we reintroduced them that way on linear as well. UM

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Speaker 1: and then Liza and our comms team strategically followed the

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Speaker 1: cast that was going to be a part of the

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Speaker 1: show and stories UM were placed and stories were told

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Speaker 1: around where those people were in their life. So Comms

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Speaker 1: plays a really core role with us as well and

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Speaker 1: making sure there's that organic conversation happening UM across across

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Speaker 1: all of the platforms UM and I think that's core

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Speaker 1: because with so much content coming at consumers, you need

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Speaker 1: to be a part of their life cycle on their day.

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Speaker 1: And so it's not just through the content that you

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Speaker 1: organically placed or you put on your channel. It's you know,

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Speaker 1: being a part of a variety post or being a

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Speaker 1: part of what is in People magazine or buzz feed,

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Speaker 1: you know, the ten best moments of the Hills. Those

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Speaker 1: those content connections are equally important. And would you say

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Speaker 1: that that that UM, outside of your own social channels,

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Speaker 1: that it's important to have to have people talking about

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Speaker 1: where our spencer and hiding now, what's up with Lauren.

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Speaker 1: It's important to have you know, mainstream media coverage feeding

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Speaker 1: into this. Yeah, I mean absolutely, you know, I think

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Speaker 1: what MTV always did best and now or why we're

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Speaker 1: hitting our stride is we're a part of the cultural conversation.

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Speaker 1: If you're only a part of the conversation that you're

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Speaker 1: having with your core group, you can't break through. And

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Speaker 1: when today you're not going to add more people to

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Speaker 1: your crown, absolutely not. You need to be a part

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Speaker 1: of a cultural conversation. You need to tap into life stakes,

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Speaker 1: stakes um, life moments that connect with people. And so

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Speaker 1: for us, the positioning for the show was all about

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Speaker 1: the rest is still unwritten. We can all universally connect

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Speaker 1: to that. Like at any life stage you have, you

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Speaker 1: still have that unwritten portion, and people want to see

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Speaker 1: how the rest of the story is going to be written.

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Speaker 1: Right at all of thirty, you've got got quite a

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Speaker 1: bit to go. They sure do, and you know, it's

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Speaker 1: it's been great to you know, connect back with them

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Speaker 1: and their life stages and see where each person is

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Speaker 1: and they're very different um and we benefit from the

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Speaker 1: relationships they had with the audience that was there in

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Speaker 1: the beginning. And then we saw immediately on social it

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Speaker 1: was a super busy night UM on Monday. Monday's always

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Speaker 1: big night on television, but we were five of the

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Speaker 1: top trends UM and again that's that only happens when

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Speaker 1: you're part of the cultural conversation. How backing up from

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Speaker 1: from the this month, sorry, the June, backing up from

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Speaker 1: the June launch, At what point did did your marketing plan?

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Speaker 1: Did it shift into a higher gear as you got

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Speaker 1: closer to a premier date? Like how how did you

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Speaker 1: did you accelerate the messaging? Yeah, and we're finding a

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Speaker 1: lot of research that tells us that, UM, the last

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Speaker 1: week is when consumers are really making decisions, but the

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Speaker 1: last forty eight hours is when they decide what they're watching.

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Speaker 1: And we're seeing radical shifts in consumption of media UM.

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Speaker 1: So other than time sensitive content, we're seeing you know,

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Speaker 1: more and more on demand. So that led us to Okay,

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Speaker 1: we have had this campaign since August of two thousand

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Speaker 1: and eighteen. We've been strategically planting the seeds and connecting

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Speaker 1: with the three targets that we talked about with over

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Speaker 1: two pieces of content before we even got to our

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Speaker 1: launch campaign. And the last three weeks we started to

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Speaker 1: amp up with paid media really reaching out to that

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Speaker 1: audience that didn't watch The Hills before, those people who

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Speaker 1: love reality programming, and our goal was not just as

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Speaker 1: much to drive them to the premiere, but to get

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Speaker 1: them to market on their DVR so that they would

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Speaker 1: watch it. They didn't watch it live, they'd watch it

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Speaker 1: on demand. And um, it worked. It totally delivered. Like

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Speaker 1: I said, we're number one for women eighteen to forty nine.

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Speaker 1: The wonderful thing is the marketing brought in new audience.

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Speaker 1: Of the audience that was brought in had never watched,

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Speaker 1: had not been on MTV in the last four months.

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Speaker 1: That's it's significant. And you know, kudos to our research

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Speaker 1: and strategy team that helped us identify those targets and

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Speaker 1: where we could reach them, and then to the creative

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Speaker 1: team who really built compelling, creative assets that connected with people.

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Speaker 1: And um, you know again, it was wonderful to see

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Speaker 1: us light up all platforms. So seeing that Twitter not

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Speaker 1: just trending one in the United States, but globally, we

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Speaker 1: took over and it was for six hours, So um,

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Speaker 1: you know that talks to the on demand nature of

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Speaker 1: content today and how consumers continued to watch and we're

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Speaker 1: rooting for these uh, these young people and where they

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Speaker 1: are in their life stages, and um, you know, I

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Speaker 1: think everybody was just really excited to see where they

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Speaker 1: were and how they came back and um, you know

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Speaker 1: who who was going to end up with who? And

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Speaker 1: whose marriage was in what state? And uh, you know

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Speaker 1: it's it's amazing franchise with great talent and um a

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Speaker 1: great fandom that's been fueling it all along. As you

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Speaker 1: as you let up to the premier, as you get

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Speaker 1: to that crucial forty eight hours, what were the metrics

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Speaker 1: or what was the traction that you were looking for?

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Speaker 1: What was what told you that you were on track

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Speaker 1: and we're going to deliver an audience on So we

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Speaker 1: were really excited because we saw our social following grow

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Speaker 1: significantly or up almost three in terms of followers. But

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Speaker 1: we did this binge phase where we put all of

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Speaker 1: the episodes out on our app to try to get

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Speaker 1: people in and we encouraged people to binge. Then we

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Speaker 1: put some paid money behind the binge and um, you

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Speaker 1: know that was about creating um connections for all those

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Speaker 1: people on streaming platforms. So we went to all the

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Speaker 1: streaming platforms and we specifically we know you're binging on

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Speaker 1: those platforms, So how do we get you to binge

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Speaker 1: our content so that when we do launch, we get

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Speaker 1: you in UM And it was the highest binge campaign

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Speaker 1: we'd ever done, so we had I believe we brought

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Speaker 1: in um something like two point one million people to

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Speaker 1: that binge and you know that's two point one people

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Speaker 1: that maybe hadn't been exposed to the hills before, but

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Speaker 1: then we're connected to it before we launched our really

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Speaker 1: big robust campaign the two weeks out. Another thing that

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Speaker 1: we're seeing in research is again meet buying media the

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Speaker 1: way everybody traditionally bought media is amazing and it's super important,

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Speaker 1: and television still converts the highest to television. But we

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Speaker 1: needed to connect with people and where they were in

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Speaker 1: their lifestyle cycle. So we did some first of kind

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Speaker 1: marketing partnerships. One was with dry Bar, so a lot

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Speaker 1: of young women get their hair blown out one morning,

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Speaker 1: they all have lovely locks on. They sure they do.

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Speaker 1: I need to get more time so I can do

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Speaker 1: it um. But we partnered with dry bar all across

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Speaker 1: the country UM for the month leading up and then

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Speaker 1: specifically the ten days out where you get your hair

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Speaker 1: done like any of the stars, but more importantly, in

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Speaker 1: every drive board they have screens, and more importantly, we

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Speaker 1: took over their screens and we played the Hills for

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Speaker 1: the entire month leading up to the premiere. And this

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Speaker 1: is k KO runs this area for us just simply

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Speaker 1: genius because it's the target audience you're looking for. Over

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Speaker 1: fifty thou people came in for blowouts during that period,

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Speaker 1: and then the week out we had specific ones in

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Speaker 1: New York and l A where we did a stunt

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Speaker 1: and then day we gave away free blow drives in

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Speaker 1: New York and l A. So again we became a

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Speaker 1: part of their day. We didn't just rely on traditional

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Speaker 1: means to do that UM, which was great, and then

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Speaker 1: we also did we partnered with Bumble to integrate They

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Speaker 1: have this BFF platform, so like again reconnect with your BFF.

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Speaker 1: We partnered with Bumbo and um and then we worked

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Speaker 1: with Amazon Alexa. So every day one of the most

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Speaker 1: asked questions is you know what should I wear? Instead

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Speaker 1: of creating an Amazon skill where you had to say,

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Speaker 1: I want to hear what the Hills have to say,

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Speaker 1: we asked the talent to be a part of this execution.

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Speaker 1: So if you were to say to Amazon Alexa the

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Speaker 1: week of launch, what should I wear? It would be

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Speaker 1: Adrina saying you should wear this today. And so again

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Speaker 1: us organically connecting our conversation and our stars where people

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Speaker 1: already are in their life cycle, and we're seeing that

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Speaker 1: resonate really really well for us UM and we're going

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Speaker 1: to continue to double down on that. And something like

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Speaker 1: that that Amazon Alexa, that's fascinating. That's a paid placement

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Speaker 1: or is that something Amazon will do with you just

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Speaker 1: as a promotional that that is also kind of something

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Speaker 1: fun for Alexa. It was a partnership, so it was

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Speaker 1: absolutely pure partnership benefit on both sides UM And obviously

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Speaker 1: they're seeing great value in it and we're seeing great

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Speaker 1: value in it. And Amazon's strategic partner of Viacom as

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Speaker 1: well as all of our brands. I just all of these,

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Speaker 1: all of these elements that you're talking about, all these partnerships.

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Speaker 1: I know, these are all things that take time to

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Speaker 1: be negotiated. At the I'm trying just the amount of time,

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Speaker 1: and it seems like like like a military campaign, like

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Speaker 1: plotting when these pieces will drop, when the partnerships will

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Speaker 1: go into effect. And I'm thinking about you doing all

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Speaker 1: of this for one franchise while also minding for for

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Speaker 1: four full channels with a lot of I'm sure plenty

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Speaker 1: of hungry mouths to being it's really we were. Once

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Speaker 1: we got the green light that this campaign was this,

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Speaker 1: this franchise was coming back, we set up a SWAT team.

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Speaker 1: So I don't doubt if you need a SWAT team,

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Speaker 1: because you need people who are obsessed with this and

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00:21:48,680 --> 00:21:51,479
Speaker 1: then listening to the consumers and then if consumers were

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Speaker 1: asking for something specific about justin Bobby, we could react

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Speaker 1: and create content. And like I said, we developed over

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Speaker 1: two assets before we even got to the premiere week.

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Speaker 1: So um, that was a lot of listening to audience

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Speaker 1: and then serving back content that they were looking for.

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Speaker 1: And that SWAT team involved the development team and develop

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Speaker 1: the comms team and development scheduling team. Everybody had to

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Speaker 1: be at the table together. And when I say, like

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Speaker 1: a lot of people sometimes take for granted some of

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Speaker 1: those other teams, but scheduling is like super important for

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Speaker 1: us to develop those marathons and those binge nights and

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Speaker 1: the weekend stunts, and you know, working with Roku, working

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Speaker 1: with all of our different partners are content distribution team

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Speaker 1: had an amazing partnership. So Comcast, Charter Direct TV all

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Speaker 1: did stunts around the launch of The Hills, and then

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Speaker 1: our AD sales unit, we had something like seven massive

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Speaker 1: marketing partners that as soon as we announced in the

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Speaker 1: v m as that we were bringing the Hell's back,

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Speaker 1: people came clamoring to us to have integrated partnerships. So

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Speaker 1: Crest had Crest White strips. It wasn't just an AD

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Speaker 1: that they placed. We actually had that within the act.

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Speaker 1: Sure Sure Laurel had custom marketing partnerships with us with

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Speaker 1: our Drina and the talent Um we had special partnerships

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Speaker 1: with McDonald's and Pepsi and Vitamin Water, and then Interesting

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Speaker 1: Universal Pictures actually actually partnered with us. It was the

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Speaker 1: same week of their launch of Yesterday, and we partnered

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Speaker 1: with our talent and their talent to create content that

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Speaker 1: resonated to both audiences. So all of that took a

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Speaker 1: lot of time and planning, and so there was a

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Speaker 1: swat team across all these different disciplines that met on

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Speaker 1: a weekly basis and plotted out and then shared with

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Speaker 1: the leadership team how we were trending. And um, I

434
00:23:36,840 --> 00:23:39,880
Speaker 1: think that's vital for for you to do in today's

435
00:23:39,920 --> 00:23:42,760
Speaker 1: dand age and able to move things forward successfully. I

436
00:23:42,760 --> 00:23:45,280
Speaker 1: think all of this just underscores your point about the

437
00:23:45,320 --> 00:23:48,199
Speaker 1: importance of i P, which I P can sometimes be

438
00:23:48,280 --> 00:23:51,280
Speaker 1: just tossed off as as reference, you know, referring to

439
00:23:51,320 --> 00:23:54,880
Speaker 1: kind of content in general. But what this whole example

440
00:23:55,280 --> 00:23:59,040
Speaker 1: explains is the importance of an established property. You had,

441
00:23:59,840 --> 00:24:02,280
Speaker 1: you had a title, you had characters to work with,

442
00:24:02,600 --> 00:24:05,200
Speaker 1: and you probably wouldn't have had those incoming calls if

443
00:24:05,240 --> 00:24:08,080
Speaker 1: you on the MTV Awards had had tried to launch

444
00:24:08,119 --> 00:24:13,399
Speaker 1: a new property. Absolutely, that's the value of established brands.

445
00:24:13,400 --> 00:24:16,000
Speaker 1: So think about it. Immediately, as soon as we announced it,

446
00:24:16,080 --> 00:24:18,639
Speaker 1: there was a core fan base. The media knew what

447
00:24:18,680 --> 00:24:20,560
Speaker 1: it was, most of them had grown up watching it.

448
00:24:21,359 --> 00:24:24,320
Speaker 1: The talent community knew what it was, the media agency

449
00:24:24,359 --> 00:24:26,560
Speaker 1: world knew what it was. So out of the gate,

450
00:24:26,640 --> 00:24:29,359
Speaker 1: we have a flag post for all of these constituents

451
00:24:29,359 --> 00:24:32,240
Speaker 1: to resonate around and get ready for, and then we

452
00:24:32,240 --> 00:24:34,720
Speaker 1: can just build from there versus new i P, which

453
00:24:34,760 --> 00:24:38,199
Speaker 1: obviously we're investing in new i P as well, but

454
00:24:38,320 --> 00:24:41,200
Speaker 1: in this instance enabled us to really create this massive

455
00:24:41,280 --> 00:24:46,880
Speaker 1: hit on all platforms and make our channels stronger by

456
00:24:46,920 --> 00:24:50,240
Speaker 1: bringing back a franchise like this. Your channel is not

457
00:24:50,240 --> 00:24:53,320
Speaker 1: not only linear, but your digital sites. Of our channels

458
00:24:53,320 --> 00:24:55,439
Speaker 1: on Pluto TV, the Hills pop up channels one of

459
00:24:55,440 --> 00:24:59,320
Speaker 1: the best performing channels. So, um, really all boats rise,

460
00:24:59,359 --> 00:25:02,520
Speaker 1: and you say around the office, it's you can't think

461
00:25:02,560 --> 00:25:06,399
Speaker 1: about content creation anymore for one platform. It's not either

462
00:25:06,560 --> 00:25:09,399
Speaker 1: or it's more. And you know, we look at the

463
00:25:09,440 --> 00:25:13,280
Speaker 1: lifetime value of content creation and it's it's with that

464
00:25:13,560 --> 00:25:16,359
Speaker 1: very much in mind, all of your operations sound like

465
00:25:16,440 --> 00:25:18,959
Speaker 1: you very much sound like you're a team coach. And

466
00:25:19,000 --> 00:25:22,040
Speaker 1: of course you came to MTV into two thousand and

467
00:25:22,080 --> 00:25:25,400
Speaker 1: sixteen from after twenty one years at Major League Baseball.

468
00:25:25,880 --> 00:25:29,360
Speaker 1: How did your experience on the on the baseball diamond

469
00:25:29,400 --> 00:25:32,359
Speaker 1: and in the sports world, how how have those skills

470
00:25:32,359 --> 00:25:36,920
Speaker 1: translated to television. So you know, it's it's been awesome

471
00:25:37,560 --> 00:25:42,520
Speaker 1: because sports is all about real time and you're marketing

472
00:25:42,520 --> 00:25:46,640
Speaker 1: a real product. So it's, um, you have a plan,

473
00:25:46,760 --> 00:25:49,720
Speaker 1: but your plans never fully written because you have to

474
00:25:49,760 --> 00:25:52,760
Speaker 1: constantly evolve to what's happening in the world around you,

475
00:25:52,800 --> 00:25:54,760
Speaker 1: and it could be great or it could be challenging.

476
00:25:54,840 --> 00:25:56,600
Speaker 1: And you need to be able to be mobile, and

477
00:25:56,640 --> 00:25:59,199
Speaker 1: you need to be able to move. Sports are all

478
00:25:59,240 --> 00:26:03,320
Speaker 1: about team, it's all about collaboration. So coming to MTV

479
00:26:03,440 --> 00:26:05,480
Speaker 1: at a time where the brand was down five years

480
00:26:05,520 --> 00:26:08,400
Speaker 1: in a row and really in a state of crisis

481
00:26:08,760 --> 00:26:13,200
Speaker 1: and the industry in a state of crisis, having always

482
00:26:13,320 --> 00:26:16,439
Speaker 1: on approach and as you said, being a coach, you know,

483
00:26:16,440 --> 00:26:18,520
Speaker 1: I was. People ask me all the time like, what's

484
00:26:18,520 --> 00:26:19,800
Speaker 1: it like to have your job, and I'm like, it's

485
00:26:19,920 --> 00:26:22,280
Speaker 1: very much like being a chief motivational officer. You know,

486
00:26:22,400 --> 00:26:25,320
Speaker 1: you have the strategy from Chris overall these amazing vision

487
00:26:25,800 --> 00:26:28,240
Speaker 1: we have this great team. I would say we've got

488
00:26:28,240 --> 00:26:31,400
Speaker 1: the all star team in the industry. But then it's

489
00:26:31,480 --> 00:26:34,120
Speaker 1: our job to chart the path forward and make sure

490
00:26:34,160 --> 00:26:36,440
Speaker 1: that we have key metrics along the way, and it's

491
00:26:36,680 --> 00:26:39,480
Speaker 1: my job to then make sure that everybody's delivering and

492
00:26:39,560 --> 00:26:41,120
Speaker 1: you know what, we hit it out of the park

493
00:26:41,160 --> 00:26:43,520
Speaker 1: a lot. But just like in baseball, if you hit

494
00:26:43,560 --> 00:26:45,960
Speaker 1: three thirty three, you're one of the best players in

495
00:26:45,960 --> 00:26:49,240
Speaker 1: the league. With with success comes a lot of risk,

496
00:26:49,600 --> 00:26:52,639
Speaker 1: and it also comes failure, and it's being able to

497
00:26:53,440 --> 00:26:57,359
Speaker 1: embrace taking risk because if you're not trying new things,

498
00:26:57,440 --> 00:26:59,320
Speaker 1: like you know what, maybe the dry board thing wouldn't

499
00:26:59,320 --> 00:27:01,600
Speaker 1: have worked. It did, but maybe it didn't. And if

500
00:27:01,680 --> 00:27:04,080
Speaker 1: you if you look at this new landscape and you

501
00:27:04,119 --> 00:27:07,200
Speaker 1: think we're just going to stay with the same model

502
00:27:07,280 --> 00:27:10,280
Speaker 1: that we've approached, you know, marketing a certain amount of print,

503
00:27:10,359 --> 00:27:13,400
Speaker 1: certain amount of TV, it just doesn't work. And and

504
00:27:13,440 --> 00:27:18,199
Speaker 1: so I think the new era of media UM is

505
00:27:18,280 --> 00:27:20,240
Speaker 1: going to be a lot of testing and a lot

506
00:27:20,280 --> 00:27:22,760
Speaker 1: of learning and listening to the consumer and then a

507
00:27:22,840 --> 00:27:27,480
Speaker 1: reevaluation of what is success right like cable cable ratings,

508
00:27:27,880 --> 00:27:34,280
Speaker 1: social ratings, where consumers actually are UM, they're buying your product,

509
00:27:34,440 --> 00:27:37,320
Speaker 1: you know, Instagram Shop. It's getting very exciting to see

510
00:27:37,600 --> 00:27:41,000
Speaker 1: how I P connects people in all parts of their life.

511
00:27:41,400 --> 00:27:45,600
Speaker 1: So UM, I feel like my background and I'll be

512
00:27:45,640 --> 00:27:49,720
Speaker 1: really well positioned me for walking into what was pretty

513
00:27:49,760 --> 00:27:52,960
Speaker 1: much a state of crisis UM at MTV at the

514
00:27:53,000 --> 00:27:54,600
Speaker 1: time when you came in. It wasn't it was a

515
00:27:54,640 --> 00:27:56,600
Speaker 1: low B for the channel. It was a low EBB.

516
00:27:56,800 --> 00:28:00,359
Speaker 1: And you know, again with a leadership team that truly

517
00:28:00,440 --> 00:28:04,360
Speaker 1: is the all star team in the industry, and everyone

518
00:28:04,359 --> 00:28:08,399
Speaker 1: holding hands and knowing that it's going to be very chaotic,

519
00:28:08,680 --> 00:28:14,920
Speaker 1: UM tons of work and building that building versus buying approach.

520
00:28:15,000 --> 00:28:17,399
Speaker 1: So we had outsourced a lot of elements of what

521
00:28:17,440 --> 00:28:20,760
Speaker 1: we did historically, but at the core of MTV, when

522
00:28:20,840 --> 00:28:24,399
Speaker 1: MTV was originally started, everything was built in house. So

523
00:28:24,440 --> 00:28:27,639
Speaker 1: we embraced that approach of will be more successful if

524
00:28:27,680 --> 00:28:30,639
Speaker 1: we build these things internally, because well, it will be

525
00:28:30,680 --> 00:28:32,520
Speaker 1: able to be more nimble. We know our brand better

526
00:28:32,560 --> 00:28:34,520
Speaker 1: than anyone else, we can listen to consumers, we can

527
00:28:34,560 --> 00:28:37,960
Speaker 1: react faster. So we've approached that bill versus buy in

528
00:28:38,240 --> 00:28:40,240
Speaker 1: every aspect of what we do. Is there also a

529
00:28:40,240 --> 00:28:44,959
Speaker 1: cost savings to a tremendous cost savings. UM. We've reduced

530
00:28:45,000 --> 00:28:49,800
Speaker 1: headcounts significantly. UM. We have reduced the cost of a

531
00:28:49,800 --> 00:28:55,040
Speaker 1: development of creative assets significantly. UM. And you know the

532
00:28:55,120 --> 00:28:57,840
Speaker 1: company used to be set up. Digital was one group,

533
00:28:58,280 --> 00:29:02,520
Speaker 1: Linear was another. Bobs brought it all together UM, and

534
00:29:02,600 --> 00:29:04,959
Speaker 1: Chris has it all under us. So we're developing content.

535
00:29:05,000 --> 00:29:08,360
Speaker 1: We're not thinking about what we're doing just for cable.

536
00:29:08,440 --> 00:29:10,480
Speaker 1: We're thinking about what we're doing for all platforms. So

537
00:29:10,480 --> 00:29:15,240
Speaker 1: there's tremendous savings just in in that alone. And then

538
00:29:15,240 --> 00:29:20,240
Speaker 1: you're just having your your brand voice is consistent across platform.

539
00:29:20,280 --> 00:29:23,760
Speaker 1: And I would imagine the Hills was a larger campaign

540
00:29:23,760 --> 00:29:26,720
Speaker 1: than you than you would mount for absolutely other types

541
00:29:26,760 --> 00:29:29,240
Speaker 1: of shows. Absolutely, the Hills was one of the larger

542
00:29:29,280 --> 00:29:32,080
Speaker 1: campaigns that we've launched in the last two years. I

543
00:29:32,120 --> 00:29:35,760
Speaker 1: would say, Um, you know, like we said earlier on

544
00:29:35,800 --> 00:29:39,560
Speaker 1: in the conversation, breaking through today is more challenging than

545
00:29:39,600 --> 00:29:42,840
Speaker 1: ever before. So there's only about five million shows on

546
00:29:42,880 --> 00:29:45,160
Speaker 1: the air at any given time, plus everything most of

547
00:29:45,320 --> 00:29:48,760
Speaker 1: what everything else has been produced in the past sixty years, right,

548
00:29:48,840 --> 00:29:51,840
Speaker 1: So what the Nielsen ratings make us all tear up

549
00:29:51,840 --> 00:29:55,280
Speaker 1: with excitement, but equally excited to see five trends when

550
00:29:55,320 --> 00:29:57,960
Speaker 1: the show goes live. To actually get a part of

551
00:29:58,000 --> 00:30:01,400
Speaker 1: people's day is so much we're challenging in this streaming

552
00:30:01,480 --> 00:30:03,600
Speaker 1: on demand world that we live in. So the fact

553
00:30:03,600 --> 00:30:06,080
Speaker 1: that that many people stopped it made the Hills are

554
00:30:06,120 --> 00:30:09,959
Speaker 1: part of their day and hopefully they do it again tonight. Um,

555
00:30:10,000 --> 00:30:13,200
Speaker 1: that's that's when you know. I P is power. Hits

556
00:30:13,200 --> 00:30:17,160
Speaker 1: transcend platforms and franchises really are forever if you're smart

557
00:30:17,200 --> 00:30:19,400
Speaker 1: about it. Can't just bring back and we've seen other

558
00:30:19,440 --> 00:30:22,440
Speaker 1: people try to bring back i P. And if you

559
00:30:22,480 --> 00:30:25,320
Speaker 1: don't do it the right way, it doesn't resonate the

560
00:30:25,400 --> 00:30:28,480
Speaker 1: right way. What do you by the time you get

561
00:30:28,520 --> 00:30:31,880
Speaker 1: to the final episode of this revived season, what what

562
00:30:31,960 --> 00:30:34,120
Speaker 1: are the metrics that you're going to be looking for most,

563
00:30:35,560 --> 00:30:38,800
Speaker 1: but definitely it's going to be the cultural conversation, making

564
00:30:38,800 --> 00:30:41,800
Speaker 1: sure that we maintain and grow from where we launched it.

565
00:30:41,880 --> 00:30:45,360
Speaker 1: Premier premiers always tend to spike, and you want to

566
00:30:45,360 --> 00:30:47,360
Speaker 1: make sure that you cannot just maintain that, but you

567
00:30:47,400 --> 00:30:51,080
Speaker 1: can actually grow to finale. UM linear ratings are obviously

568
00:30:51,120 --> 00:30:54,240
Speaker 1: going to be core to that UM and then just

569
00:30:54,560 --> 00:30:58,160
Speaker 1: the social and digital following. We're seeing great growth on Instagram.

570
00:30:58,160 --> 00:31:01,440
Speaker 1: We're gonna be launching a YouTube Hills channel all UM

571
00:31:01,480 --> 00:31:04,520
Speaker 1: just again all feeling that that fandom, and then continuing

572
00:31:04,520 --> 00:31:07,200
Speaker 1: on with Pluto TV, which has just been an amazing

573
00:31:07,720 --> 00:31:10,360
Speaker 1: platform for us to experiment on and to see how

574
00:31:10,600 --> 00:31:13,880
Speaker 1: fans are reacting to UM to our show. And what

575
00:31:13,920 --> 00:31:17,840
Speaker 1: was interesting about the ratings was the younger rating was

576
00:31:17,920 --> 00:31:21,200
Speaker 1: so strong, so we really did reach that percent audience

577
00:31:21,200 --> 00:31:23,040
Speaker 1: that we brought in. It was a majority eighteen to

578
00:31:23,120 --> 00:31:25,680
Speaker 1: thirty four. The kids were in elementary school when the

579
00:31:25,840 --> 00:31:29,880
Speaker 1: show first air and that's the fastest UM group leaving cable,

580
00:31:30,240 --> 00:31:34,840
Speaker 1: so that makes that success that much more impressive. Um,

581
00:31:34,880 --> 00:31:38,200
Speaker 1: it's a game of stealing share and it's a game

582
00:31:38,480 --> 00:31:42,800
Speaker 1: of connecting in all touch points and owning that cultural conversation.

583
00:31:44,720 --> 00:31:48,280
Speaker 1: Have you seen, UM, did you start to see the

584
00:31:48,280 --> 00:31:52,000
Speaker 1: the marketing challenges shift during your time during your time

585
00:31:52,040 --> 00:31:54,840
Speaker 1: at MLB or is this something that these that the

586
00:31:56,160 --> 00:31:58,920
Speaker 1: huge swings in media consumption or something that are much

587
00:31:59,080 --> 00:32:01,520
Speaker 1: in much more sharp foot because now that you're in television,

588
00:32:01,560 --> 00:32:03,479
Speaker 1: I don't want to date myself too much. But about

589
00:32:03,840 --> 00:32:09,040
Speaker 1: fifteen twenty years ago I was at a Fox UM

590
00:32:09,080 --> 00:32:12,200
Speaker 1: planning meeting where Rupert Murdoch talked about the power of

591
00:32:12,280 --> 00:32:16,280
Speaker 1: time sensitive content so far ahead of kind of when

592
00:32:16,280 --> 00:32:19,960
Speaker 1: people were really thinking about time sensitive content, and it

593
00:32:20,040 --> 00:32:23,200
Speaker 1: always stood with me. Sports and news, no matter what,

594
00:32:23,320 --> 00:32:25,640
Speaker 1: people want to see it live. And we know that

595
00:32:25,720 --> 00:32:27,880
Speaker 1: because when you put the World Series on. After the

596
00:32:27,880 --> 00:32:30,920
Speaker 1: World Series, the writings are like nothing. Even for the

597
00:32:30,960 --> 00:32:34,000
Speaker 1: Super Bowl, the most watch show of all time, they

598
00:32:34,080 --> 00:32:36,600
Speaker 1: run it again and it gets almost new rating. So

599
00:32:36,680 --> 00:32:41,160
Speaker 1: sports and news people consume live entertainment content. You have

600
00:32:41,200 --> 00:32:44,320
Speaker 1: a place in people's lives today. What it looks like tomorrow,

601
00:32:44,920 --> 00:32:47,400
Speaker 1: who knows. But what, like we said, I P has

602
00:32:47,440 --> 00:32:50,840
Speaker 1: power and it connects us, and so we were building

603
00:32:51,920 --> 00:32:55,479
Speaker 1: a model that enables people people to connect with us

604
00:32:55,520 --> 00:32:58,000
Speaker 1: when they want to connect with us, not just the

605
00:32:58,040 --> 00:33:01,160
Speaker 1: premier moment um and where they want to connect with us.

606
00:33:01,160 --> 00:33:03,160
Speaker 1: So if they want to connect on YouTube, they want

607
00:33:03,160 --> 00:33:06,080
Speaker 1: to connect on Pluto. We have to give people more choices.

608
00:33:06,120 --> 00:33:08,720
Speaker 1: We can't expect the behavior that was even two years

609
00:33:08,720 --> 00:33:13,360
Speaker 1: ago to be today. Thanks for listening. Be sure to

610
00:33:13,400 --> 00:33:16,120
Speaker 1: tune in next week for another episode of Strictly Business