CBS Channeling Its Promotions Into Individual Shows
What if a network’s promotion people got together and decided not to promote the network? That’s the novel approach CBS is taking in its prime-time promotion this fall.
The change begins with those tub-thumping slogans designed to sell the networks, which are aired constantly in an attempt to pound them into viewer consciousness, such as NBC’s “Come Home to the Best” and ABC’s “Something’s Happening on ABC.”
CBS has started the season without a slogan, after rebellious affiliates shot down last season’s “Television You Can Feel” at a wrathful session with network executives last June. Warren Spellman, vice president of advertising and promotion, was fired before the affiliates’ meeting had ended.
“We are literally not spending any time selling the overall theme of CBS,” said Michael Mischler, Spellman’s successor. “We’re spending all our time selling the shows.”
Mischler was recruited from King World, where he was responsible for promoting such syndication successes as “Wheel of Fortune” and “The Oprah Winfrey Show.”
In doing away with the usual network theme, it looks like the network’s own promotion people and affiliates are bailing out of their association with CBS.
“Possibly,” said Ron Bergamo, vice president and general manager of CBS affiliate KWCH-TV in Wichita, Kan. “But I think it’s a matter of putting our priorities where they should be. It would be a mistake to come up with an image now when we have episodes that people are not even sure when they’re on.”
Coming off a third-place finish in the prime-time ratings last season--a first for the network--CBS was further battered this fall by the competition’s promotion advantages.
“NBC has had the these wonderful launching pads to run all their promos: the Olympics, the World Series--shows getting a 40% (audience) share,” Mischler said. “‘And ABC had the baseball playoffs where they were getting a 30% share.”
Add to that the hole blown through regular fall season premieres by the writers strike and election year programming, and continuing network viewer defections to cable and VCR. “We’ve got to be aggressive in a way that we’ve never been aggressive before,” said Cullie Tarleton, senior vice president and general manager of CBS affiliate WBTV in Charlotte, N.C.
“If we’re going to measure up to the competition, just having this sweet little ol’ ‘Catch the Spirit, Television You Can Feel,’ esoteric approach--I’m sorry, but that just doesn’t cut it anymore,” Tarleton said. (“Share the Spirit” is a former CBS slogan.)
In responding to last June’s affiliate uprising, CBS also brought back George Schweitzer, a former publicity executive popular with affiliates, who left the network during drastic staff cutbacks imposed in 1987 by CBS president Laurence Tisch. Schweitzer has been given the new title of senior vice president for communications, overseeing the company’s advertising, publicity and promotion efforts.
Asked if the low profile that CBS is taking this season is a sign the network looks on itself as a promotion albatross, Schweitzer said: “No. We believe in a network identity. But the image of a network is built around its popular shows. What we’re trying to do is promote a core of shows that will define what the network is.”
A combo of six new and returning shows--”Wiseguy,” “Coming of Age,” “Murphy Brown,” “TV 101,” “Beauty and the Beast” and “Almost Grown”--have promos that feature the show creators talking about their products.
Said Mischler: “I’ve always felt there is a vast curiosity in the public as to what goes on behind these shows, who are the people behind them. When you have a show nobody knows about, what better way to get them out there than to have the producers talking about them? They’re the people with the most passion and understanding of the characters.”
Those and other CBS programs this season do have a new tag line: “Are you ready . . . ?” as in “Are you ready for ‘Wiseguy’?” Some of the tag lines have a little music to them, and some of the music has a little background song, “Are you ready for CBS?” but the point is that CBS is strictly in the background.
“It’s a retail philosophy,” said Schweitzer, who spent his absence from CBS working at Young & Rubicam, the advertising agency. “We don’t push the store, we push the product.”
“At Young & Rubicam, we didn’t advertise General Foods, we advertised Jell-O, and we advertised Jell-O separately from Jell-O Pudding Pops and Jell-O Frozen Desserts,” he said.
Apply that philosophy to what’s happening at CBS and you see the redesigned CBS eye logo, a tiny version of its former self, perched at the top right corner of the screen at the end of the show promos, instead of in its previous large center space.
CBS has traditionally played to the older, more rural audience it attracts compared to the other two networks. But in its bid to move out of the cellar, it is attempting to look and sound younger, via such devices as conversations between fictional viewers that take place as the credits roll at the end of the shows. There are baby-sitters, children and dating couples talking about the shows they’ve just seen and their own lives.
To reach a younger audience, Schweitzer admits he would advertise on ABC and NBC, if he could, but none of the networks accept competitor advertising, so CBS will advertise more on ABC and NBC radio and put more money into TV Guide, other print publications and outdoor advertising than it has in the past.
Look for Candice Bergen, star of “Murphy Brown,” which debuts Nov. 14, on billboards and bus shelter space.
Obviously, whether the new campaign is successful depends on the quality of the shows, not just the promos. Still, said KWCH-TV’s Bergamo, “If I were to quantify, perhaps 20% to 30% of the success of a show comes from promotion.”
In the hot seat where Schweitzer and Mischler sit at the moment, there’s another way of looking at promotion, Schweitzer said.
“In the advertising business, there’s a saying that the clients’ motto is: ‘If a product sells, it’s because it’s a great product. If it doesn’t sell, it’s because something was wrong with the advertising.’ ”