Viacom: Driving the Cultural Conversation Viacom Synergy - Staying Ahead of the Future

They say that the future is not written. But it is possible, with perspective, data and innovation, to come close to what can be expected in the media market going forward. How can a corporation stay ahead of the future?

I sat down with five executives - Valerie Bischak, EVP, Marketing and Partner Solutions, Deb Brett, SVP, Marketing and Partner Solutions, Sarah Iooss, SVP, Business Development, Gabe Bevilacqua, SVP, Data Strategy and Kiel Berry, SVP, Co-Head, Viacom Labs - to look ahead and explore the future from both a personal and corporate perspective. Here are some insights from the group:

Do What Has Never Been Done Before

Experimentation and curiosity are the cornerstones in navigating a successful future. When it comes to corporate success, according to Brett, it is Viacom’s ability to bring advertisers “the ‘bright and shinies’ – things that have never been done before” that make it an innovative leader with clients and the creative community. “We have the infrastructure for the speed to market,” she added.

Viacom’s (and the media industry’s) ability to mine data for bright and shiny insights has never been better. “Viacom is up to some very interesting forward thinking things in the realm of data exploring what the evolution of television looks like,” Bevilacqua explained. “The data space is changing just in the year and a half I’ve been here. Data in general has gone from ‘this is a test’ to ‘this is part of the conversation’ and while not every advertiser may be executing television primarily with data, we have moved beyond the pilot phase to something that can work at scale.”

Creative Hiring

Cohesion starts with the people. It used to be that companies sought new hires with specific work experience in the field of the job opening. Now, not only does one not need a strict media background to qualify for work in media, many far flung areas of work experience can be applicable and even advantageous. 

When it comes to hiring, Bevilacqua noted, “everyone I interview gets asked the question – are you excited about solving a problem that no one has solved before? There are not going to be instructions on what I am going to put on your desk. If you are not excited about that, this is not the role for you.” Iooss mines for talent through social media, “in my own network, Linkedin, Facebook to seek people with untraditional backgrounds.”

Flexibility and optimism are also factors in future success. “The exciting part of our jobs,” Brett said, “is that we are going to be in something in 5 years that may not exist yet. And we are going to be bringing these same best practices and the same foundation to it. But what we will apply it to may not yet have come into the mind of the entrepreneur inventing it.” Bevilacqua added, “I am excited and optimistic about change. It will be fun and there will be opportunity. At Viacom we are embracing that in a big way.”

Make Strategy Part of the Job Description

For some, predicting the future is part of the job description. “Viacom Labs began in Spring 2016. At Labs our job is to look five years out,” replied Berry. “We are definitely grounded in the present in terms of what our brands are currently doing but we are futurists. Within five years we will be looking five years further out. We know that there will be some burgeoning trends that will materialize and we can start to work with them in our brands.”

Despite the constant change, there are certain things that are everlasting and sacrosanct. Bischak explained, “There is one constant and that is that we will still be looking for great ways to connect great advertisers to our great content wherever fans are consuming it.”

This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com

Viacom: Authentically Engaging Audiences Viacom Synergy - Rallying around "Fans First"

The fragmentation and increasing complexity of today’s media landscape has resulted in more opportunities but also greater challenges for traditional media corporations. How can you move a company forward in an ecosystem of expanding consumption platforms, fickle consumer tastes, greater viewer control over time allocation and expanding technological and data driven applications?  

For a company like Viacom, it is both internal and external curation; carefully choosing the right team of employees, fostering a culture of collaboration, and forming a rallying point, like Fans First.

I sat down with five executives from different departments at Viacom – Valerie Bischak, EVP, Marketing and Partner Solutions; Deb Brett, SVP, Marketing and Partner Solutions; Sarah Iooss, SVP, Business Development; Gabe Bevilacqua, SVP, Data Strategy; and Kiel Berry, SVP, Co-Head, Viacom Labs – to discuss how to authentically engage audiences as well as synergize this effort both internally and externally. These are their takeaways:

Fandom as a Connector

Fandom as a connector between departments and a unifying concept externally for marketers permeates the organization. For Bischak, her role is to insure that the marketers see how differentiated Viacom is from competitors. “Each of our brands has unique fans,” she stated, “and the brands we are talking to can come along for the ride. We have custom content capabilities to create programs around fandom for a brand.  We work with Gabe and his group to add an additional layer and use data to show we are reaching these fans in a meaningful, targeted way.”

The idea of Fans First ties together all aspects of sales. Brett, Bischak and Iooss all worked together years ago at Viacom running digital, mobile and linear sales. “We saw a phenomenon back then in sales and we thought, we can buy spots and dots, we can run pre-roll online but what we wanted out of Viacom is the ephemeral, the fan engagement. How can we harness that and make it a part of what we are contracting,” Brett said. Over time, the three executives evolved their roles and disciplines, but they still connect via Fandom. “We use Fans First as a guiding principal,” explained Iooss, “It is a core piece of the mission statement for my team. It is something my team and our partners can get behind.”

Her team is not composed of the usual suspects. “Our business development team is made up of some pretty untraditional picks for business development. It’s not all consultants and MBAs. It’s people who come from social media agencies or brands and digital accounts at an agency and some from other cable companies,” she added.

Data and Analytics Are Critical Components

In the areas of data and analytics, the Fans First concept encourages a new way of looking at the audience. “Fandom is an easy way for me and my team to relate as a mission,” stated Bevilacqua. “Let’s not just think of the people who watch TV as Adults 18-49. Let’s think of them reflective of behaviors and attitudes and passions.”

With Viacom Labs, an incubator for the future of fan experience and engagement, “Fans First” is both a mission and an opportunity.  “We have a responsibility to our fans,” stated Berry, “Fans give a large percentage of their time –time being the most valuable resource - to their brands that they really identify with.  And they see themselves in those brands. As fans move at the speed of pop culture, the speed of new technology, it is our responsibility to meet them at these new evolving platforms and give those fans the opportunity to interact with those brands where they are.”

The way Data and Analytics, Viacom Labs, Business Development and Sales work in tandem is an essential advantage for the company. As Brett concluded, “We work closely with Gabe’s team with social analytics so we know that when we put something out there, we know what we are getting back. We also look at things that Kiel’s team has discovered. We bring incubation from the Lab into the infrastructure so we can ignite it quickly. Everything is happening quickly and Viacom is at the forefront of change.”