ProMax at CTAM

It was clear why CTAM brought a ProMax panel to Summit. The "One Brand, Many Plaftforms" session was lively, insightful and occasionally funny. Rainbow ent services president Ed Carroll opened with great frankness. Noting sites like poemsforfree.com (750K uniques/mo) and the always trenchant rankmytatoos.com, he said "some of us [with linear networks barking] are getting our butts kicked." While panelists felt these well-visited niche sites will endure, they saw lessons for cable. "You must aggregate as much relevant content as possible at your site" while enlarging your existing brand, Carroll said. Examples at Rainbow are wegobridal.com, capitalizing on WE tv’s "Bridezillas" series. The site includes "all things wedding" and builds community through user generated content (basically wedding videos). There’s also medialab.com, IFC’s site (1.1mln unique views/Q) that has aggregated 10K short films, submitted by users. But it’s crucial to keep on message. "Platforms are a position, not a strategy," Carroll warned. ESPN’s chief marketer Katie Lacey boiled it down to consumer needs. "It’s our job to fulfill as many of those shared needs as possible… to find the right balance." The most recent online product from Bristol is its Football Fantasy Hall of Fame. The irreverently toned product includes a faux Hall saluting unsung players whose stats make them prominent in fantasy football leagues. Based on video clips, ESPN’s done it up, including a red Hall of Fame blazer, an unusually shaped faux Hall of Fame building in Bristol, CT, and hilarious commercials for linear TV featuring fantasy Hall of Famers like Mike Alstott. But content remains king: "It all starts with an idea," Lacey said, then we think how it can be spread to other platforms. Her example here was ESPN’s Monday Night Football multi-platform push. The root of the "Is It Monday Yet?" effort was a basic understanding of the consumer, Lacey said. Another key is starting early on multi-faceted campaigns.