The Future of History. An Interview with A+E Network’s Brian Joyce

Brian Joyce, SVP, National Ad Sales, A&E and History worked his way up to sales management from an assistant at CNN in the 1990s. His career path took him to A+E Networks in the early years of History, to SONY syndication and then back to A+E at a time when History was gaining in distribution and audience. Now his responsibilities include managing the sales teams of both A+E and History networks in a media ecosystem that contains linear, digital, cross platform, programmatic and addressable elements. 

Charlene Weisler: What does the History brand represent today?

Brian Joyce: History is a premium brand and advertisers love to attach to our high profile series and specials across all platforms.  We also know that brands still matter in today’s environment, maybe more than ever.   This year once again History ranked as the #1 entertainment brand measured by Yougov.

We believe that History is not just about looking back but understanding where we are today and where we might be headed. We aim to humanize the past, reflect on the present and illuminate the future. We deliver a premium content environment that not only entertains but leaves the viewer feeling smarter and more educated about a person or a subject. We have a couple of events coming up in 2017 - The Human Journey and The Valley that are two that will back up this brand position. The Human Journey looks at migration over the past 200 to 300 years. Why did people migrate? Well, it was primarily because of war and floods and finding riches. This topic is very relevant today just look at the past year and the refuges flooding into Europe.  The Valley explores the build out of the internet over the past 30 years, but also debates and predicts what the next 30 years will bring.  History not only entertains but leaves the viewer feeling smarter and more educated about a person or a subject

Charlene Weisler: Can you tell me about your branded and native content efforts?

Brian Joyce: People have struggled with a definition for programmatic and now we are struggling to best define branded and native content. In my mind at the end of the day, no matter what which term you use, its custom content created in partnership with our advertisers. We created an Enthusiast Block called “WILD HISTORY” that runs on the weekend from 11a-1p. We collaborated with YETI on a truly authentic, branded-content experience while giving our rabid, enthusiast fan-base the reduced commercial loads that they demand.  Instead of running standard commercials, the enthusiast block will offer limited ad interruption and weave in content from marketers. Some of the marketers' native content will be created by us, but much of it will be content that brands have already created to run on their own sites or on YouTube. This will give marketers another home for ancillary content and open it up to more eyeballs.

Charlene Weisler: What are your thoughts about data initiatives, programmatic, addressable advertising and targeting our audiences?

Brian Joyce: The industry is yearning for better data in two separate but connected phases. The first is better measurement – who is watching what, when and on which platform.  Both Nielsen and Rentrak/ComScore are promising better analytics in this area, but there’s still more work to be done. The second is, better targeting. Once we can capture the basics of all video viewing, the push will be to break down the audience characteristics and purchasing habits of these viewers. We launched our programmatic video offering back in 2012 on the digital side using a series of marketplaces and SSPs.   We recently built out a DMP and use data when selling direct and though our programmatic unit.  On the Linear side we rolled out our Ad Optimizer tool last year and are testing audience-based buying.    We optimize a schedule across all our networks, not just History, to reach a client’s strategic target.  All of these advanced audience targeting capabilities fall under our A+E Precision platform which delivers unparalleled audience solutions to our partners.

Charlene Weisler: Where do you see History in the future?

Brian Joyce: History is synonymous with Premium and I don’t see that changing. Moving forward I see us working with advertisers on more brand focused and themed packages such as Innovation and Leadership.  I’m excited to see how these packages will build out across all our platforms.  Scripted series like Vikings, Six and Knight Fall as well as our Premium Docs are proven platforms that deliver an upscale viewer.  There are areas where we have a stake in the ground – areas we own and will not give up such as telling the stories of our brave men and woman of the armed forces.  This December will be the 75^th anniversary of Pearl Harbor and September is 15 years since the 9/11 attacks and we will deliver new stories about those historic events. I also see us expanding deeper into the Auto category with a themed Car Week in July 2017 to continue to tap into that enthusiast-type programming I spoke about earlier. More and more we are breaking the clock and delivering content in all sorts of lengths – some stories require 8 hours to tell and others a minute. We devote as much time as is needed to tell a compelling and engaging story that lives across all our platforms. Moving forward I see us working with advertisers on more brand focused and themed packages such as Innovation and Leadership.  I’m excited to see how these packages will build out across all our platforms.  History is not just about the facts. It is about the people and their stories.

This article first appeared in www.MediaBizBloggers.com

The Art of Being Courageous. An Interview with Otto Bell

Otto Bell began his media career in the WPP fellowship program which spanned three years in three different jobs in three different countries, giving him a borderless view of the media landscape. 

Now as VP and Group Creative Director, Courageous, his responsibility is to create and manage a brand building studio that is the pipeline for native content for all of Turner’s properties across all possible platforms. This enormous effort, with currently forty projects completed since its official launch in June 2015, is, according to Bell, “growing at a fierce pace.” 

Located in Union Square in lower Manhattan, the Courageous enterprise currently boasts twenty full time employees from all media sectors and disciplines in a 12,000 square foot studio “We have 4k cameras, drones and cranes to create beautiful branded content,” explains Bell, “and employees with editorial backgrounds, Emmy and Morrow winning journalists from companies like Mashable, VICE and CNN, video producers, documentarians, storytellers, web designers and developers, etc, all in-house. We are fully self-sufficient and never outsource.” Courageous has hit an inflection point, Bell reports, to air fourteen programs currently in production from around the world. “And,” he adds, “We are currently shooting aerial VR in Pennsylvania.” Their productions are designed to be format agnostic with the ability to reside comfortably across any platform and media type. The question becomes, Bell says, “what is the right channel for the content we create? We find the unexplored angle for an advertiser’s traditional media buy.”

As part of its branded content effort, Courageous is producing a one day event called Human By Design, on August 3, 2016 at the Paley Center for Media in conjunction with client Square Enix to support the release of their video game Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. “This video game is set thirty years into the future but these are present tense problems,” notes Bell. “There is human augmentation and mankind becomes divided between those who are augmented and improved with technology and others who are in an unadulterated state. Conflict ensues” and, he adds, “These issues are bubbling up today.” 

This event brings together leading minds to explore the current state of human augmentation, trying to answer the questions of how to police this brave new world, how technology is shaping the human condition and what does it mean to be human. The event is divided into three panels. Panel one is a discussion of whether augmentation is a human right. Panel two reviews selective versus therapeutic augmentation – that which corrects a disease like the insertion of a microchip for Parkinson’s disease or condition like being able to walk while paralyzed as compared to a technological augmentation for cosmetic purposes only. Panel three, titled, The Future of the Far Far Next, will delve into the future of human augmentation and how we will get there. One of the results of this conference will be to “publish a code of ethics, independent of the game and of CNN from this brain trust of luminaries” according to Bell.

For Jon Grant, Senior Manager, Product marketing for Square Enix, “Creating Human by Design in conjunction with CNN’s Courageous studio felt like the perfect fit for Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. Video games stretch the imagination, and lead people to think outside the box – a quality shared with those leading the bionics industry. This conference is a big step for everyone involved as we broaden the overall awareness of bionics for the science, sci-fi, and Deus Ex fans alike.”

As opposed to the uncertain, somewhat pessimistic future of humans vs technically augmented bots, the future for Courageous looks bright. “We approach branded content with a compass and not a map,” explains Bell, who adds, “and we will succeed as long as the work we do meets our clients’ objectives with surprising, additive ways with their audiences. We want to do more to add to the public conversation as well as the marketing objectives of the client. Branded content can be great content.”

This article first appeared in www.MediaBizBloggers.com

Native Advertising Now and in the Future. Q&A with Al Chen of Cooperatize

Al Chen, co-founder of Cooperatize is committed to optimizing the reach of Native Advertising through blogs. He has an extensive background in digital, starting at Google, and when he created his company, he decided that he wanted to change the way that advertising is done. The result is Cooperatize.

In this interesting interview, Chen talks about how his firm is able to connect brands to their target audiences via bloggers, how Google+ works, the Google ecosystem including YouTube, the current landscape of branded advertising, global native and how he believes advertising will morph in the future.

There are four videos in this interview:

Subject                                                        Length (in minutes)

Background and Cooperatize                      (5:31)

Preparing for the Future                              (3:56)

Google+                                                       (3:28)

Predictions                                                   (4:44)

Charlene Weisler interviews Cooperatize co-founder Al Chen who talks about his background and company in this 5:31 minute video:

 

CW: Tell me about Cooperatize.

AC: Cooperatize is a marketplace connecting brands with bloggers. The main ad unit we transact is the sponsored blog post or sponsored story. Our technology connects brands at agencies with the bloggers that are in line with their target audience in their target market and we facilitate the process.  We work with over 4000 bloggers in the lifestyle, luxury and travel space.

How does a media company prepare for the future? Al Chen talks to Charlene Weisler about this in this 3:56 minute video:

Al Chen talks to Charlene Weisler about google+, Youtube and privacy issues in this 3:28 minute video:

CW: What is the advantage of Google+?

AC: From a product standpoint, Google+ is just another social network very much like Facebook. The reason why it is important and why people are clamoring for it is that it is like the silver bullet – it ties together your entire online presence. For example, if you are browsing Google and you log into your Google+ profile, Google will learn about your browsing habits and also what your friends on Google+ like to read. Your rankings will change depending on how your browsing habits are with your friends and it might recommend search results that are important for you. In terms of having a website or blog, Google+ is essential because it allows Google to see all the different things you contribute to. So if you are a major contributor to another blog, and it is associated with that Google+ profile, more weight will be placed on other things that you contribute to around the internet because Google knows that you are a well trusted publisher in the space.

Charlene Weisler interviews Al Chen who looks at how the media landscape will change in this 4:44 minute video:

CW: Can you give me some predictions about how the media landscape will look five years from today?

AC: I think that any kind of social platform where users are generating content, there are going to be other platforms that will come up that we will find ways to sponsor them. What I mean by that is, Cooperatize is a sponsored platform for content on blogs. There are also platforms cropping up for sponsored tweets , sponsored Vine videos, sponsored Instagram posts and obviously sponsored posts on Facebook and Twitter. So whenever new platforms come up, I am guaranteeing you that there will be a way to sponsor them. And not just online but also offline. There will be ways to sponsor logos on coffee cups, on urinals, billboards, maybe even on your home thermostat in your living room, the kitchen. It might be seen as a way that brands are invading your home but as technology progresses it will become easier and easier for brands and companies to get into these spaces. 

CW: Al, that sounds like a nightmare scenario to me. At what point do you think consumers will block it out?

AI: I think it will come down to a cultural thing. I don’t think there is a distinct line where people will say that you can’t do this or that it is against their morals. Teens today are more accepting and may see some of the things that we might find annoying as just a part of life living in a world of technology. So I think that as technology changes, the culture is changing as well. My belief is that more and more teens as they grow up are more accepting of these little ways that brands come into their lives.

First published, in abbreviated form, on MediaBizBloggers.com