Andy Bryant - The TV Brand Builders: How to Win Audiences and Influence Viewers

When we set out to write a book about global best practice in TV marketing we knew that the project would stand or fall on the quality and breadth of our contributors. By the time we hit our deadline we had interviewed 50 leading practitioners from eight countries. They invited us to their offices, they met us in hotel lobbies, bars and coffee shops or they accepted conference calls across multiple time zones. They offered their encouragement and were unfailingly generous with their time, even when (in the manner of the TV detective Columbo) we kept returning to ask just one more thing. In the process we learned so much more than we could ever have written from our own experiences and secondary research. So, first and foremost, we need to say a huge thank you to our TV Brand Builders:

ABC (Australia): Diana Costantini

AMC (USA): Linda Schupack

BBC (UK): Philip Almond, Justin Bairamian, Jane Lingham

Bravo/Oxygen (USA): Ellen Stone, Adam Zeller

CANAL+ (France): Olivier Schaack

CANAL+ (Spain): Germn Sela Orbe

CBS (USA): Beth Haiken

Channel 4 (UK): David Abraham, John Allison, Chris Bovill, Dan Brooke, James Walker

Comedy Central (USA): Walter Levitt

Discovery Networks (UK): Robin Garnett

Discovery Networks (Denmark): Carsten Lakner

DreamWorks (International): Jennifer Lawlor

ESPN (USA): Aaron Taylor (until 2015)

Fox (International): Liz Dolan

Fox (USA): Robin Benty

FX Networks (USA): Stephanie Gibbons, John Varvi

HBO (USA): Sabrina Caluori, Chris Spencer (until 2015)

Hulu (USA): Jenny Wall

ITV (UK): Clare Phillips, Tony Pipes, Rufus Radcliffe

Lee Hunt LLC (USA): Lee Hunt

loyalkaspar (USA): Daniel Drnemann, David Herbruck

NBCUniversal (International): Marco Giusti, Lee Raftery

PromaxBDA (USA): Steve Kazanjian

Sky (UK): Robert Tansey

Sparkler (UK): Magnus Willis

Stun Creative (USA): Michael Vamosy

Syfy (USA): Michael Engleman (until 2015)

Trailer Park (USA): Rick Eiserman

truTV (USA): Puja Vohra

UKTV (UK): Simon Michaelides, Steve North

United Senses (Germany): Markus Schmidt

USA Network (USA): Jason Holzman, Alexandra Shapiro

Viacom (International): Kerry Taylor

Vice Media (USA): Rafael Sandor

Yle (Finland): Riikka Takila

(Please note that all titles and companies were correct at the time of writing.)

From the list above, our thanks go to two people in particular. As well as giving us insightful interviews themselves, Lee Hunt and Steve Kazanjian provided the keys to ensuring that our research covered a lot of ground in the US. Lee supported us from day one and opened the doors to some of our first interviews, which gave us confidence that we could make the whole project happen. Steve picked up the baton towards the end of the process and made introductions that helped us gather some vital contributions. Without the help of Lee and Steve this book would have been narrowly Euro-centric.

Alongside our interviewees were also very grateful to the people in their organizations who helped us so diligently and cheerfully in responding to our e-mails, setting up meetings, nagging their bosses, securing permissions and supplying rights-cleared images. As a result of their efforts we ended up with enough material to fill three books and were left with the problem of what to leave on the cutting room floor. We started to write a list to thank everyone by name but once it exceeded 100 we realized that wouldnt be practical (and also realized what a task this had turned into). However, we would like to say a special thank you to Helen Prangnell at Channel 4, Jo Pitman at ITV and our colleague Uzma Painchun, who all put in a lot of effort beyond the call to help us secure key images without which the book would have looked a bit naked.

We set out to make this book as representative as possible. Despite television being, for understandable reasons, an IP-obsessed industry, almost everyone we approached was happy to share their thinking and their creative work and just a tiny minority werent allowed to play. So, if you wonder why we didnt include network x, entertainment company y or campaign z well, we tried.

We are indebted to our good friends from the Department of Culture, Film and Media at the University of Nottingham, Paul Grainge and Cathy Johnson, who encouraged us to believe there could be a gap in the market for this book, and to Andy Milligan, who supported us with huge amounts of practical advice. Andy guided us on how to write a half-decent proposal, it was thanks to his introduction that we found Kogan Page, and he was there for us as a phone a friend throughout the journey. Quite simply, this book wouldnt exist without his help.

Talking of Kogan Page, wed like to thank the team there who guided these first-time authors patiently through the process. Jasmin Naim believed in the project from the beginning, Philippa Fiszzon produced it skilfully and our thanks in particular go to Jenny Volich, our brilliant commissioning editor, who supported us indefatigably every step of the way.

The creative directors, designers, creatives, producers, production coordinators, researchers, account handlers and strategic planners who have been vital to us at Red Bee are numerous, and to single any individuals out here would be impossible. Occasionally we have credited people alongside particular pieces of work, but that is not to elevate them or their achievements above all the many other talented individuals whose work has been consistently of industry-leading class. They have been collectively and deservedly the most consistently awarded and genuinely nice people you could hope to spend years in the trenches with.

We must also acknowledge our clients, particularly the marketing department of the BBC, without whom much of the work described in the book would not have been commissioned. Again, far too many to mention individually, but for every bold creative decision and standout piece of promotional work, there had to be a bold marketer to sign it off, and we salute them.

It is important also to thank the craftspeople who over the years have made all our work exponentially better. For the last time, too many to list, but we will single out Thomas Ioannou, editor extraordinaire, who has modestly been the making of many creative careers. His eye and ear should be preserved in the BFI.

Our special thanks go to colleagues who helped to make the book possible to write in ways they may not even realize: Aileen Madden and Lisa Matchett, for putting up with us rambling about the project on long flights and train journeys and for offering wise advice and encouragement at the right times; Mandy Combes, Laura Gould and (for much of the time) Michelle Marks, for keeping the business on the rails in case our attention ever momentarily strayed. Thanks also to Thorsten Sauer, Elena Galkina, Stella Medlicott and Malin Allard for their support throughout the venture.

I want to thank my mum and dad, who always encouraged me to write a book. Well, it took me this long to write half a book, but its a start

And there are not enough thanks for my wife Julia, whose achievements in recent years make this little project seem insignificant by comparison. Without her patience and understanding The TV Brand Builders could never have been written.

I would like to thank my parents, whose disapproval of television in my early life was only matched by their enthusiasm for developing creativity and originality of thought. Hopefully demonstrating the latter has made up for a career in the former.

Thanks to Sue, Kit and Jem who have put up with a lot of writing over the years, much of which has still to find an audience.