V I D E O • A G E Se p t e m b e r/ Oc t o b e r 2 0 0 9 32 The 2009 Promax|BDA conference, which took place last June at the Hilton Hotel in New York City, continued in its effort to get out from under its diminishing reputation as a television industry event past its prime, a curse it suffered during former chairman Glynn Brailsford’s tenure. This time around, the event made every attempt to appeal to attendees’ creative bones and address the all-media need for solutions to the problem of changing business models, as the “Leading the New Economy of Marketing and Design” tagline indicated. With the help of Promax|BDA president Jonathan Block-Verk, who took over in 2007, the event is trying to recapture some of its former glory. As with many international media conferences, attendance was down this year. Despite this, Block-Verk remained sunny about the lineup. “While the number of attendees has changed, the caliber of registered delegates is topnotch. In essence, the same major media companies are coming, but they’re sending fewer people. Attendees are generally v.p. level and higher.” Television executives were a quieter presence than in years past, largely relegated to the various panels and seminars on offer as opposed to meetand-greet receptions and exhibitors’ booths. In the busy halls, one might bump into to Disney’s executive v.p. of marketing for domestic syndication, Sal Sardo, or Warner Bros.’ Susan Kantor (who received a Brand Builder award), or drop in on Warner Bros’ TV International’s hospitality suite. Fox Television was there in name, sponsoring the PROMAX reception area. Still, it was a far cry from the time when television dominated the agenda and the exhibition floor. Perhaps Block-Verk’s announcement that the event would be moving to Los Angeles next year after six consecutive years in New York symbolizes a desire to get back to the core of the conference’s television promotion roots. Explaining the decision for the 2010 move, Block-Verk said, “Los Angeles is the television capital of the world, making it a natural location for the Promax|BDA annual conference. And as the leading organization for marketing and design professionals in the entertainment industry, it is important that we keep a fresh perspective, which the move to the state-of-the-art LA LIVE venue will help accomplish.” This year, presentations were a mix of straight-forward lecture-style panels, as with the Media Leaders Summit, and playful performance pieces, as with recording artist Peanut Butter Wolf ’s audio-visual DJ set and the wellattended Ralph Steadman seminar, during which the renowned illustrator took the stage and smashed an iPhone with a hammer. These more whimsical interludes served less to inform or instruct and more to remind attendees of the innovations and creative possibilities at the root of any successful business. When asked what Steadman’s work had to do directly with the subject matter at this year’s affair, Block-Verk said, “Promax|BDA is all about where marketing and creativity intersects.” For a conference that has for all intents and purposes undergone something of a rebrand itself, it’s perhaps not surprising that many of the topics at the center of this year’s conference had to do with rebranding, reinventing, and adapting in the face of a changing audience, new means of media consumption and an economy just now recovering from a catastrophic nose-dive. During a talk about how the media has suffered from the fiscal downturn, CNN’s chief business correspondent Ali Vashi discussed a term he coined, the “new frugality,” which refers to a new approach to capitalism wherein consumers are re-evaluating what they can and can’t do without. “We’re moving from a society that buys a TV and pays for it over two years to one that saves for two years and then buys a TV.” And after all that time’s elapsed, there’s no guarantee that the money will be spent on the item it was originally allocated for. He ended by saying that advertisers and marketers can embrace this “new frugality” by addressing content’s overall value, quality, and longevity, saying that by and large, aspirational luxury won’t resonate with TV viewers any longer. Speakers at the Media Leaders Summit contradicted some of the messages that Vashi put forth in his discussion of the “new frugality,” harping on escapism in programming as the key to weathering the financial turmoil of the current recession. In speaking about USA’s new show Royal Pains , set in the ritzy beach community of the Hamptons in New York, NBCU Cable Entertainment and Universal Cable Productions president Bonnie Hammer said, “Aspirational escapism is working well. People don’t want to watch bleak, dark, depressing things … Shows like Dallas and Falconcrest thrived during an economic downturn. It’s a guilty pleasure.” The global marketplace was at the forefront of the Media Leaders Summit’s talk. Hammer emphasized the urgency of creating content that can translate across borders and oceans. “It’s hugely important to expand globally. Everything we touch is with an eye to developing it internationally.” Rich Ross, the president of Disney Channels Worldwide, echoed this sentiment, and Comcast Programming Group president Jeff Shell added that global awareness is an essential instructive measure. “We learn about how people receive their media by being aware of global trends,” he said, giving the example of the mobile explosion in Asia. Over at the A&E rebrand panel, appropriately titled “Real life. Drama,” s.v.p. of marketing Guy Slattery made no bones about the reputation A&E had back in 2004 as a cable channel geared toward the silver-haired set, with its lineup of factual biographies and British mystery shows. He emphasized that in order to reinvent itself as a relevant channel over the last several years, A&E had to take a gamble that essentially alienated its core audience of sixty-somethings, ushering in a slate of reality TV programming like Growing Up Gotti and Dog the Bounty Hunterthat would court a newer, younger audience. Researchers identified a target demographic that they dubbed the “Lean Forwards” and began developing content that elicited “a visceral reaction rather than escapism.” Slattery also discussed the need to acquire original off-net shows like The Sopranos , for which they hired British creative consulting agency Devilfish to churn out a series of cinematic and darkly funny promos. Richard Holman, creative director of Devilfish, spoke more specifically about the process by which A&E rebranded its image and the mission statement that he and his colleagues developed to create cohesion amongst the seemingly disparate shows on the channel. Other noteworthy elements of this year’s conference included a talk given by UnitedSenses CEO and creative director Markus Schmidt, who had the unique job of revamping Georgian Public Television in the midst of a political conflict with Russia last summer, as well as a number of talks celebrating the 30th anniversary of sports behemoth ESPN International and one talk given by President Barack Obama’s chief political analyst, Jim Margolis. Of the ESPN-related content at the conference, Block-Verk said, “It is a common opinion that ESPN has been one of the most important, fastestrising, aggressive and creative brands in history.” Regarding Margolis’ talk, Block-Verk added, “The marketing and branding of Obama is the number one marketing story of the past 12 months.” For the statistically inclined, media strategist Lee Hunt presented his findings from a study of DVR’s effects on promotion and advertising, illuminating the behaviors of the TiVo generation and its implications for advertisers. (For example, in broadcast, viewers fastforward through promotions the least during sports programming, and for cable, the same is true of animation.) And a little celebrity muscle was flexed at this year’s conference as well, when Robert Redford accepted a Lifetime Achievement award for his visionary work developing the Sundance Film Festival brand on the final night of the event. P R O M A X R e p o r t TV Role At Promo Event Loses Focus But Finds Hope Scenes from Promax 2009
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