Professional Documents
Culture Documents
August 1995
CTV: Comedy Television was the bastard child arising from the ashes of war between
MTV Networks’ “HA!: the TV Comedy Network” and HBO’s “The Comedy Channel.”
The merged entity came into existence with hundreds of millions of dollars in second
rate programming (SNL excepted) and personnel. And a basic difference in
programming philosophies between the owners.
We stepped into the fray more aligned with the HA! folks (who weren’t interested in
overpromising to the audience that everything on the channel would be funny) than the
Comedy Channel folks. They insisted that the word “comedy” be in the channel name,
but, other than that, were completely in the dark as to how to create a channel that had a
defined point of view in all promotion and programming.
The positioning reflected the vision of our team that felt a network could seem like a
place where America’s favorite comedy stars hung out and where all the rising stars
wanted to go; kind of like Rolling Stone is to music.
In fact, network management so bought into the vision that they renamed the joint
“Comedy Central” straight out of the positioning document. Now only if they had done
any more than that...
POSITIONING
CTV: Comedy Television
aka
Comedy Central
1991
THERE ARE TWO KINDS OF POSITIONING:
Descriptive
and
Aspirational
DESCRIPTIVE POSITIONING DEFINES AN EXISTING SITUATION.
Examples:
Avis was #2, and (at least theoretically) already was trying harder before they
came out with that position.
7-up didn't reformulate to become the "Un-cola". The position merely described
what the product already was.
ASPIRATIONAL POSITIONING DEFINES A GOAL FOR A PRODUCT OR
COMPANY.
Examples:
MTV positioned itself as "MTV vs. normal TV" before the channel even got off the
ground.
The positioning served as an aspirational yardstick for everything MTV did, from
advertising and programming to staffing and acceptance of paid advertising.
FOX's position was that it wanted to become the 4th broadcast network. It was a long
term goal that could not be accomplished overnight.
But it provided everyone at the company with a clear sense of purpose.
It gave a certain savvy section of the public someone to root for.
And, after careful selection of material and development of new product, it bore fruit.
Aspirational positioning is especially helpful when the "product" doesn't yet exist, as is
the case with CTV.
From its earliest days as an entertainment medium, TV has been dominated by comedy.
While there have been successful dramatic shows, TV's benchmarks are, and will always
be, Milton Berle, Lucy, Sid Caesar, Gleason, Dick Van Dyke, The Smothers Brothers,
Laugh-in, Mary Tyler Moore, M*A*S*H*, All In The Family,
Saturday Night Live, Cheers, Cosby, Rosanne, The Simpsons etc....
THERE'S COMEDY EVERYWHERE.
Fine, but why? How do we give CTV the sense of energy that you find with say, MTV
or CNN?
Now and then in the history of show business, time, resources, talent, and vision
fortuitously come together to form hothouses of creativity.
All of these emerged from relatively humble beginning and became creative factories
where exceptional talent could be discovered and thrive.
They were places where people who were passionate about movie making, or animation,
or music, or live TV comedy, were eager to come to work often for peanuts --they were
drawn to these places because there was an aura about them of being "the" place where
their dreams could come to life.
WHAT WOULD COMEDY CENTRAL BE?
CTV should see itself as encompassing all of TV comedy's past and future.
The place where TV comedy lives, in the form of classic shows, new shows being
created, new talents being discovered, and eventually new venues being explored (i.e.
feature films, Broadway shows, who knows?)
Like FOX becoming the 4th network, this will not happen overnight.
Like MGM, Disney, Motown and Saturday Night Live, it will mean slowly building a
consumer following around the talents that CTV has nurtured.
CTV COULD BECOME
THE TELEVISION COMEDY HOTHOUSE OF THE 90's...
"COMEDY CENTRAL."
Before we laugh that off as being too grandiose, let's look at what we have going for us.
Time: This is a time when cable is ascending and the broadcast networks are on the
wane. (CNN is already assuming a prominent role in TV news.) Soon virtually all
American households will have cable, and the distinction between broadcast and cable
will blur until it disappears completely.
Resources: CTV is beginning life with a fair amount of publicity, thanks to the war
between HA! and the Comedy Channel. It is the offspring of the most credible, successful
parents in the basic (MTVN) and pay (HBO) cable businesses. It has the combined
financial and subscriber bases of the two, plus an impressive programming roster to
choose from.
Talent: The hottest new talents would spark to this positioning if it were properly
expressed to them. More established talents would be intrigued and would gravitate to us
as time goes by.
CNN, on the other hand, positioned itself as the world's place for news. They opened
bureaus and placed equipment in tiny burgs around the world. At first, people were
skeptical of CNN's vision. But now we're all watching live CNN feeds from Baghdad, the
Secretary of Defense cites CNN as giving the best coverage of the Persian Gulf war, and
the broadcast networks are interviewing CNN reporters on their air. CNN has, in fact,
become the world's place for news.
CTV has a little-known studio which can literally be the "hothouse" where talent and
material can be nurtured. Comedy fans (read: everybody) will be rooting for a channel
that not only gives them great comedy round the clock, but also is growing it from within.
It is the only channel that actually could become the "mythic visionary" of TV comedy.
SUMMARY
CTV is in a unique position to become the MGM Studios of television comedy. It can
provide and develop every type of comedy for every taste. It can build and nurture fresh
new material and talents. It can be Comedy Central, a home for everything from the solo
stand-up to the next Ghostbusters.
Comedy Central would win support and patience from the public.
It would place CTV in the role of pioneer, instead of just being one more cable channel
vying for attention.
It would make CTV a channel to watch, regardless of what you might see any specific
time you tune in.
WHAT COMEDY CENTRAL WOULD MEAN TO THE CABLE TRADE.
Comedy Central means that CTV would be a focused channel with vision.
A focused channel with vision translates into an exciting place on the dial--and therefore
an additional lure for new subscribers.
WHAT COMEDY CENTRAL WOULD MEAN TO THE
PRODUCTION/CREATIVE COMMUNITY.
It would represent a chance for freedom and experimentation for more established talent.
With careful development of material, it would eventually become the place to be for
anyone working in comedy.
WHAT COMEDY CENTRAL WOULD MEAN TO CTV.
Comedy Central would build pride and energy within the company.
It would give ad sales, marketing, on-air promotions, and programming a horn to blow
and a target to aim for.
And--if the history of television tells us anything--with luck, vision and hard work,
Comedy Central would succeed.
Assignment: POSITIONING MTV: MUSIC TELEVISION
Agency: Fred/Alan Inc.
Year: 1987
Positioning document written by Alan Goodman
MTV: Music Television was my first employer in television and a great example
of positioning by intuition. With good and focused leadership from Bob Pittman,
those of us on staff all knew what we were and what we were doing.
Years after the 1981 launch, with long-form successes like "Remote Control"
there was a move afoot to mess it up by claiming that the audience was "bored"
with music videos, repositioning MTV away from music and more as a lifestyle
service. Additionally, a shift to a second generation of management had taken
the initial gut instincts that built the joint and hardened them into inappropriate
"rules" that were brandished like capricious swords at new employees' heads.
1> formalized the intuition that let some people claim that
they "got MTV" to support whatever personal opinion they had at the
moment.
2> would take into account the evolution of the network into longer form
programming.
I think you’ll find, with some exceptions, the document holds up pretty well, and
that MTV pretty much follows it to this day.
POSITIONING MTV
Introduction
There are many reasons why we may want to be "the entertainment source for
young America." Or "a non-stop party." Or a million other things.
But these aspirations are ours, not our consumers. We must remember to look
inside the consumer's head.
And to successfully position a product for minds everyone else wants to occupy
in the age of overcommunication, it must be a simple message.
Often, positioning a product is easier when that product has competitors -- Avis
"tries harder," Lite Beer is "everything you want, and less," 7-Up is the "uncola,"
etc.
But MTV is "Music Television," and nothing else is. So MTV has no competitors.
Right? Wrong!
The Environment Defines the Competition
MTV exists in an environment where there is more choice available than ever
before. Cable television.
WTBS is shows, just like Channel 2. So is USA Network and Lifetime. And
when the Pay services show movies you don't want, they may as well not be
there at all.
For real consumers, television is television. And there are certain things about
television that MTV isn't.
We need one word that instantly identifies us and our competition to our
audience.
We know what we are: MTV. So what is the competition, all those other TV
channels out there?
When programmers talk of "Miami Vice" as having MTV attitude, they mean "not
like normal cop shows."
When commercials are said to have and MTV look, it means disjointed,
disconnected, musically-rhythmic but not linear or logical -- in other words,
"not like normal commercials."
It's
Normal TV is boring.
• Programs
• Specials
• Promotions
• Contests
• Advertising
• Staffing
1988 Campaign
Objectives
Strategies
-- point-of-purchase
Tactics
Results
"We've had the best ratings year we've ever had, and in
terms of the value of our trademark -- we've now been
able to develop ancillary businesses."
Bob Friedman
Senior Vice President
MTV Marketing
1989 Campaign
Objectives
Strategies
Tactics
Results
Tom Freston
Chairman
MTV Networks
Assignment: POSITIONING MTV: MUSIC TELEVISION
Agency: Fred/Alan Inc.
Year: 1987
Positioning document written by Alan Goodman
MTV: Music Television was my first employer in television and a great example of
positioning by intuition. With good and focused leadership from Bob Pittman, those
of us on staff all knew what we were and what we were doing.
Years after the 1981 launch, with long-form successes like "Remote Control" there was
a move afoot to mess it up by claiming that the audience was "bored" with music videos,
repositioning MTV away from music and more as a lifestyle service. Additionally, a
shift to a second generation of management had taken the initial gut instincts that built
the joint and hardened them into inappropriate "rules" that were brandished like
capricious swords at new employees' heads.
1> formalized the intuition that let some people claim that they "got MTV" to
support whatever personal opinion they had at the moment.
2> would take into account the evolution of the network into longer form
programming.
3> gave guidance to creative decisions, business decisions so they would be
consistent with, and build further, the network’s brand character.
I think you’ll find, with some exceptions, the document holds up pretty well, and that
MTV: Music Television pretty much followed it until they became MTV.
POSITIONING MTV
MTV: Music Television
There are many reasons why we may want to be "the entertainment source
for young America." Or "a non-stop party." Or a million other things.
But these aspirations are ours, not our consumers. We must remember to
look inside the consumer's head.
But MTV is "Music Television," and nothing else is. So MTV has no
competitors.
Right? Wrong!
The Environment Defines the Competition
For real consumers, television is television. And there are certain things
about television that MTV isn't.
We need one word that instantly identifies us and our competition to our
audience.
We know what we are: MTV. So what is the competition, all those other TV
channels out there?
When commercials are said to have and MTV look, it means disjointed,
disconnected, musically-rhythmic but not linear or logical -- in other
words, "not like normal commercials."
It's
Normal TV is boring.
• Programs
• Specials
• Promotions
• Contests
• Advertising
• Staffing
The End.
Assignment: POSITIONING NICK-AT-NITE
Agency: Fred/Alan Inc.
Date: 1987
Positioning document written by Alan Goodman
I’ve worked on a lot of networks, but Nick-at Nite is one I truly enjoyed.
The idea of America’s first oldies television channels scared a lot of people; my partner
and I tried to sell a broadcast version of it to ABC for at least two years. But we loved
TV so much we kept trying. The idea of seeing the good stuff again was appealing to us
and, with not too much persuasion, the whole Nickelodeon staff.
This positioning paper was written after the dust settled to give everyone working on
Nick-at-Nite a re-grounding in what the network was, and how to communicate the
attitude of America’s first oldies TV station.
Positioning Nick-At-Nite
reruns
quality shows
New shows and specials are being created to take advantage of the unique
environment Nick-At-Nite allows.
DEFINING NICK-AT-NITE --
TWO EXAMPLES OF ORIGINAL PROGRAMMING
TV COMEDY TEST -- While the National Health Test Show and National
Driving Test Show tested people's knowledge of elements important to
real life, Nick-At-Nite used the same format to test our knowledge of the
phony, make -believe garbage we love on TV.
The same way David Letterman is self-conscious about being a talk show,
and Garry Shandling is self-conscious about being a sitcom, and Saturday
Night Live is self-conscious about being a variety show, Nick-At-Nite is
self-conscious about being a network.
But all along the way, we hear this nagging voice in our heads:
It's TV LAND.
They buy the network, the attitude, the promotions and specials, the
mood and emotion, not the black and white reruns.
The End.
Turner Broadcasting System purchased the company in 1991 and became determined to
do what it does best: create value in tired assets by focusing energies and resources.
The positioning here was created to remind the company of its roots and what it does
best, often the best strategy for winning.
HANNA-BARBERA
WHO ARE WE?
(Hint: The answer lies somewhere in the question)
Revised 2/16/95
A quick refresher course.
Why position?
Positioning is essential to the success of any product. It is especially important when the
“product” is entertainment. Properly done, it should serve as the yardstick against which
we measure every decision.
So...we must position ourselves as something we actually are, and aspire to be something
we actually can be.
We’re cartoonists.
We knocked around individually for a while. Then we teamed up at MGM and things
started really happening for us.
We created Tom & Jerry, a cat and mouse team. They were adversaries, but they were
undeniably a team.
We stuck together and came up with a way to make cartoons viable for TV.
We created a studio: Hanna-Barbera. There were two names on the door. It was a
team effort.
We created a whole string of tremendously successful cartoons. And, guess what? Most
of them were teams: Ruff and Reddy; Yogi and Boo Boo; Augie Doggie and Doggie
Daddy; Fred and Wilma; Fred and Barney; Pebbles and Bamm Bamm ...the list goes on
and on.
We’re still here thirty years later. We don’t run the company anymore, but we still
actively contribute to it, and our team spirit still guides it.
HOW IS HANNA-BARBERA’S HISTORY DIFFERENT
FROM THE OTHER MAJOR ANIMATION STUDIOS?
The first-person plural can not be applied with any credibility to Disney or Warner Bros.
Those studios dealt in loners.
• Snow White was the benevolent boss of the seven dwarfs--not their friend.
• Bambi was existentially alone in the forest.
• Pinnochio went alone into the world too. Jimminy Cricket was his conscience, not a
full blown character.
• Dumbo--same thing: A freak with a minute conscience character telling him what to
do.
• Cinderella: Alone with a cruel step-family and a menagerie of subservient helpers.
Only Lady and the Tramp, of all the Disney classics, approaches the we’re-in-this-
together feeling that can be found in nearly every Hanna-Barbera cartoon. But even here,
most of the film involves Lady confronting a hostile world alone...with helpers. She and
the Tramp are opposites, drawn together by circumstance, who form a “happy”, if uneasy,
alliance at the end.
Disney Studios has not strayed from this Existential-loner-with-helpers
formula.
Something in that formula spoke to Walt Disney. It had the ring of truth. The audience
heard the ring of truth and responded. They are still responding today. Disney’s latest
films follow their tried and true formula slavishly, and their success speaks for itself.
• Bugs Bunny was Groucho--the third of the Marx Brothers who was always on his
own. Fearless, utterly unpredictable, anchored to nothing.
• Daffy was the flip side of the same coin. The two-man shtick Bugs or Daffy got into
with Elmer Fudd and their other antagonists went no deeper than the banter between
Groucho and Margaret Dumont. It was hilarious, inspired, but not sincere.
• Sylvester and Tweety were not chums deep down, they way Tom & Jerry were.
• Neither were the Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote. This was just the ultimate chase
and gadget gag repeated brilliantly ad infinitum.
The Looney Loner formula had the ring of truth for Leon Schlesinger’s
cartoon unit.
The audience heard the ring of truth and responded. And they continue to respond.
Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies continue to be great crowd pleasers wherever they
go.
(But it’s interesting to note, if only for the sake of discussion, that, unlike Disney,
Warner Bros. has not remained true to its formula. Recently reopened under the
wing of Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Productions, they’ve dropped the formula of
proud, dangerous Looney Loners who might explode at any moment. The neo-
Warner characters seen on Animaniacs and Tiny Toons come in groups. They
have next-to-no individual identity. And they’re very surface. They declare
themselves to be zany from the get-go, and constantly make self-referential
comments. The classic Warner stars simply were zany and only occasionally
broke the fourth wall. What will be the fate of the neo-Warners cartoons? Time
will tell.)
But enough of this pontificating. What can we learn from all this?
WE ARE “WE”
We are a team. That’s what separates Hanna-Barbera from the rest of the animation pack. The
essential ingredient is the word “we”. The question isn’t “What is Hanna-Barbera?” The
question is “Who are we?” Let’s explore this idea further...
We are the descendants of Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera.
They were the rescuers of cartoons. We have set out to be the rescuers of cartoons.
We are First in TV Cartoons. (And all the other firsts we can think of.)
WE ARE
CARTOONS
Hanna-Barbera: We Are Cartoons
This is a concept so simple that, at first, it seems stupid. That’s often a good sign.
WE ARE CARTOONS says that there is a “We”--starting with Bill and Joe and evolving into us,
today, tomorrow, as far as the eye can see. It says that We Are something definite, and that the
something definite is Cartoons. We may do other things--books, movies, dolls, clothes, etc. But
our ancillary products always stem from cartoons or take us back to cartoons because we are
cartoons.
What A Cartoon shorts--48 New productions in the classic funny cartoon mold, many of which
feature teams (George & Junior, Powerpuff Girls, Cow & Chicken, etc.)
Jonny Quest--a team that carries on the tradition the adventure cartoon form we invented in the
’60s.
Ted Turner is a team kind of guy. Not that he doesn’t make mny autocratic decisions--he
does. But look what those decisions have created--a team of networks that, together,
form one of the most powerful forces in cable TV.
He purchases properties, not to pillage and lay waste, but to increase the strength of his
team.
Ted Turner perceives Hanna-Barbera as a valuable part of his team. That’s one of our
major strengths. By being part of the TBS team, we can form alliances, like the one we
have formed with the Cartoon Network for “What-A-Cartoon”.
Again, this may seem stupefyingly simple. But compare our situation to, say, David
Letterman a year ago. He wasn’t part of the NBC team. GE doesn’t have Ted Turner’s
team spirit. And now they don’t have David Letterman. Real team spirit is a rarity.
By the way, Ted Turner also saw fit to buy the Atlanta Braves--a team if ever there was
one. And he goes to the games.
How about our audience?
Kids are our audience. Always have been, always will be.
We aim to become kids experts, and provide a world of Hanna-Barbera products for kids.
Why?
Cartoons
For reasons that remain mysterious, cartoons land squarely on kid psyche. Many adults
like cartoons, but virtually all kids eat ’em up.
Teams
Teams represent comraderie, family, community.
Teams are warm and cold, in and out, exclusive and inclusive at the same time.
A team is something you can belong to.
You can love Arnold Schwarzenegger, but you can’t belong to him or with him. Same
with Pee We Herman, Robocop, Batman--even Bugs Bunny.
But you can belong with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,
You can belong with the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, the Three Musketeers--or The
Flintstones.
Hanna-Barbera: our very name is a team.
Our body of work is full of pairs, groups, teams. If we can plant the idea in the public’s
mind that we are the place where their kids find fun and friendship and dependable
entertainment, they’ll love us...even when we screw up. Because we’ll be their team.
Is We Are Cartoons a strong enough phrase on its own to put across our team message?
HANNA-BARBERA
The Cartoons People
HANNA-BARBERA
The Cartoon Team
HANNA-BARBERA
We Are Your Cartoon Team
HANNA-BARBERA
Teaming up to make Cartoons
HANNA-BARBERA
The Team That’s Teeming With Cartoons
Let’s take a look at We Are Cartoons in action and see how it fairs...
We Are Cartoons!
We Are Cartoons!
We Are Cartoons!
On the preceding page, an interesting interplay takes place.
At the top we see Top Cat alone, above the slogan We Are Cartoons! It feels pretty good.
Not pompous or over promising. Fun.
The next level shows Fred and Huck in rectangles flanking an oval of T-Bone. There is
an energy here. The two classic characters seem to be looking at the newcomer
affectionately. Their approval softens T-Bone, and T-Bone’s attitude heightens the hip-
quotient for Fred and Huck.
On the third level, two ovals of Jonny Quest and T-Bone flank two rectangles of Yogi and
Top Cat. Here we get a real group energy, and a quick glimpse of the range of our
company. Jonny Q’s pose seems to point us left to right. There is a sense of history. The
full scope of our company is suddenly being defined.
This mixing and matching of logo shapes, styles characters and eras can go on
indefinitely.
WE are cartoons!
we ARE cartoons!
we are CARTOONS!
This statement swings no matter where you put the em-PHA-sis...
WE are cartoons!
We’re that studio in Hollywood.
We are the team who invented the television cartoon and won the hearts of kids around
the world.
We are the ones who gave birth to The Flintstones and a host of other timeless characters.
We are the raw young talents working on making new cartoons to delight a whole new
generation of cartoon lovers.
We ARE cartoons!
Disney is theme parks in California and Florida, and live-action feature films, and a cable
channel, and animated features.
Warner Bros. is a wonderful old library and a bunch of “Toons” by Seven Spielberg.
Only one word springs to mind when you think of Hanna-Barbera: cartoons. Cartoons are
our very being. We couldn’t give them up if we tried.
We are CARTOONS!
When you say it that way you just have to define the word.
Here’s what “cartoons” means to us:
Most of the films that appear in animation festivals are not cartoons, because they
don’t have mainstream appeal. We only want to make cartoons that will appeal to
a large audience, made up mostly of kids.
Cartoons aren’t exaggerated satires of the real world. They are an unreal world,
filled with events that couldn’t possibly happen in reality.
The Flintstones is a half-hour cartoon.
The Simpsons is not a cartoon, it’s an animated sitcom.
What’s the difference?
If Homer Simpson tried to power his car with his feet, he wouldn’t be able to.
Space Ghost is a cartoon because it’s exciting, short, and unrealistic.
Jonny Quest almost isn’t a cartoon, because of its Indiana Jones-like reality. The
new Jonny Quest series makes the cartoon cut thanks to the addition of the virtual
reality segments, along with the fact that no ordinary boy could ever have the type
of adventures that Jonny has.
The same goes for clothes, games, software, food, theme parks, hotel chains--anything
we might someday produce or be involved with. If it doesn’t have cartoons at its root, or
ultimately take us back to cartoons, we don’t do it.
Example: If we had been involved with making the live action movie Dumb and
Dumber, we could have justified that decision by reasoning that it would be a cartoon-y
movie that could eventually become a real cartoon, and that the cartoon might well have a
longer life and generate more revenues than the feature. That same reasoning could not
be used to justify making, say, “Fried Green Tomatoes”.
It will help us fulfill our business objectives: Attract Talent to create Hits to make
Money.