BY ERIN SOMERS Wrestling icon Vince McMahon, Family Guy creator Seth McFarlane and political activist Jesse Jackson delivered keynotes at this year’s 53rd annual Promax BDA conference, which ended June 19 at the New York Hilton, in Manhattan. Promax is a Los Angeles-based nonprofit organization for marketing professionals, while BDA, also based in L.A., is an association of broadcast and multimedia designers. The two organizations have a combined membership of about 3,000 companies, and have been united almost from the beginning, though they maintain two separate boards. The general consensus among attendees of the associations’ main annual event was that although the convention’s three headliners were all engaging, the three-day conference was disappointing, at least for TV marketing professionals in attendance. For those who had shunned the event in droves, the outcome was, one could assume, predictable. While in the past, Promax has been an important event for television promotion gurus, this year’s edition in particular seemed to be targeted at new media companies and composed more of flashy gimmicks than informative TV sessions. Despite rising attendance figures, startlingly few TV-related exhibitors were on hand and even fewer TV promotions executives graced the mostly empty floor of the Hilton. In an interview, recently appointed association president Jonathan BlockVerk boasted that Promax “has seen participation go up, while other conferences have seen it go down.” However, only 31 exhibitors (of which 19 were only loosely TV-related) could be found in booths in the Networking Village and kiosks outside the grand ballroom, and only nine companies set up shop in suites. The booths were occupied primarily byWeb-based music companies like Musicbox and Rumblefish, as well as new media promotion firms. A few venerable giants, including ESPN, MTV, Sony and Warner Brothers, represented the television sector, albeit in a low-key manner. According to Block-Verk, Promax’s new emphasis on Internet-based marketing is a response to the changing face of the entertainment industry. He explained that, in the technology and effects-driven world of promotion, the Web is becoming increasingly important. “Of course we’ve talked about the Internet before at Promax,” he said, “But this year we’re talking about innovation, we’re talking about what the Internet means to the business and how you can use it and what opportunities are out there.” And although Promax seems to be in a period of evolution from a TV-based event to a new media-centric conference, BlockVerk is confident that “it continues to lead the international conversation on the role of marketing, promotion and design.” On opening day, Block-Verk summed up Promax’s shifting focus best. “As an industry, we’re at a crossroads of the most challenging, but also the most exciting time in the history of entertainment…it’s not about television — it’s about entertainment and information content marketing.” Block-Verk’s speech was followed by remarks by Seth McFarlane, the young creator, producer and writer of popular animated series Family Guy . Though McFarlane’s humorous commentary was highly enjoyable, the speech was more of a stand-up routine than a look at the promotional tactics that have made his series a hit. Similarly unrelated was a Q&A session with U.S. political activist, the Reverend Jesse Jackson, hosted by a CNN news anchor. Jackson talked at length about Barack Obama’s battle during the primaries, but didn’t say anything about the links between campaign promotion and television marketing, a logical anticipation at such gatherings. The most relevant of the three speakers was World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) top man Vince McMahon, who was presented with a well-deserved Promax BDA Lifetime Achievement Award. At the ceremony, the everhumble wrestling bigwig said, “I really appreciate this extraordinary award. And you’ll probably never hear anyone else say this, but I really deserve it.” Indeed, as one of the conference workshops “Case Study: Wrestlemania — 24 Years of Excitement,” clearly demonstrated, McMahon and his team have used marketing and promotion to build a multi-million-dollar empire that encompasses television, print, licensing, and live events. When asked what makes for a good promotion, McMahon remarked, “You first and foremost want to be in touch with your audience and communicate with them on their level. Audiences appreciate creativity and honesty. The WWE brand is so flexible, so malleable, that we can do anything. But the most important thing is to create content that is contemporary and interests our audience.” McMahon also explained the reasons why the WWE brand has been so successful internationally. “The product is easily understood,” he said, “But we have to change branding for each individual country.” For example, the company takes into account the cultural sensitivity in each region, like the aversion to sexuality in the Middle East and the distaste for violence in Europe. Aside from McMahon’s speech, only a handful of panels and workshops, out of a total 70 sessions, managed to address good old-fashioned television. Sessions that drew the TV crowd were the “30 Minutes With…” dialogues that gave audience members direct access to some of the design and marketing industry’s leaders. The roster of participants included Adam Stotksky, svp, Marketing and Brand Strategy, NBC Universal Sci Fi; Jakob Trollback, founder and creative director of Trollback + Company; Douglas Scott, senior partner/president of Ogilvy Entertainment; Lee Hunt, president of Lee Hunt LLC; and Dave Martin, director, Interactive Media, Ignited. Additionally “The Network Television CMO Summit” brought together a roundtable of some of the leading broadcast TV marketers in the U.S., including executives from ABC and CBS. The panel discussed the difficulties of promoting programs to audiences who have seen it all. “The challenge for us,” said ABC’s Michael Benson, “is how do we take the formats we traditionally have and break through those.” It was challenges like this that, in years past, used to be at the center of Promax conferences. Finally, in one of the most informative presentations, “Deciphering Digital Transition,” Barry Goodstadt, senior vice president of Los Angeles-based Centris, a media market research firm, presented new findings on the decline of over-the-air (OTA) households. “An analysis of Centris data collected since early 2004 shows that the number of OTA households has declined from nearly 24 million to about 17 million in first quarter 2008, a loss of seven million OTA households,” said Goodstadt. “We estimate that with consumer choice information and the evidence of potential reception problems factored in, this number could drop to between four to five million once the transition has ended. This substantial reduction in the number of OTA households has serious implications for broadcasters and the TV industry.” In other words, the transition to digital television may result in viewers’ reevaluation of how they receive their local television. And up to 13 million households might decide to get rid of off-air reception in favor of cable or satellite. If and when this happens, towers and transmitters that are currently aimed at a diminishing number of OTA viewers will be devalued, resulting in lower stock prices. Also, government regulators might have to change their views in respect to broadcast spectrum that will be used to reach only a handful of people. Of the few U.S. studios that did attend, all declined to comment on whether the importance of Promax is diminishing for television executives. Additionally, the Italian, French, German and British contingents, including promotion executives from major U.K. TV companies, were nowhere to be found. This is despite official figures that claimed attendance from 48 different countries. Promax will return to the New York Hilton in June of 2009. The exact dates of the conference are yet to be finalized. Leah Hochbaum Rosner contributed to this story. V I D E O • A G E OC T O B E R 2 0 0 8 16 T h e P r o m a x S t o r y TV Takes A Backseat At Troubled Trade Show Vince McMahon accepting the Lifetime Achievement Award
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