Playin' in the Brand

Brandweek, Oct 16, 2000 by Karen Benezra

TV doesn't stop. For 52 weeks each year, ABC's top marketing duo works to give the network's stars some extra wattage and its ratings a boost. Just don't try calling them yellow.

In the weeks leading up to the fall 2000 TV season, executives at ABC were brimming with confidence. The network that blew from a distant third to first place in a single year couldn't help but feel that momentum was on its side. Already it had dodged a summer bullet called Survivor from CBS, and it was now counter-programming NBC'S Olympic Games coverage with reruns of who Wants to Be a Millionaire--and still doing big numbers.

So who could blame ABC'S promotions department for dreaming up a Monday Night Football spot that poked fun at NBC? After all, the peacock network was suffering disappointing Olympic ratings because of a time zone delay from Australia that made the bulk of its coverage seem like old news.

Enter Millionaire host and network savior Regis Philbin in his trademark monochromatic ensemble, with a giggly call to viewers: "Watch Monday Night Football," he gushed. "It's really live and the U.S. team always wins!"

In the spring of 1999, no one would have predicted that ABC would be in a position to gloat. But short of cutting off the feeds of its network rivals, it delivered a triumphant performance during the following TV season in a story that is two parts strategy one part timing, with an added touch of fairy dust thrown in.

Led by the runaway success of Millionaire, ABC's ratings soared 20%, finishing first among viewers age 18 to 49, and luring back coveted demos. ABC leveraged Millionaire's lead-in audience to promote its prime time schedule with a night-to-night platform it hadn't seen in years. Most impressive, perhaps, it proved, along with CBS' ratings-buster Survivor, that the broadcast networks were alive and kicking and could still draw a broad swath of the population with a single TV event.

"We would have turned the network around, but not nearly as quickly and deeply as with Millionaire," said Alex Wallau, president of ABC Television Network.

But first America had to discover it. By the time programming executives gave Millionaire the green light for a two-week summer stint, there was relatively little lead time to raise awareness. ABC Entertainment's marketing team, led by Alan Cohen, evp-marketing and advertising, and his sidekick, svp-advertising and promotions Michael Benson, kicked into high gear to reach a big TV audience, but had to avoid skewing to the same older demos that populate Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune territory Millionaire's best selling point: It could change regular people's lives and turn them into a star.

Cohen, 44, and Benson, 38, who have put the network's logo on bar glasses and candy wrappers and engraved "ABC" in the sand of Southern California beaches, didn't have time for much fancy stuff. But they enlisted Disney's longstanding partner, McDonald's, to tout the show's Aug. 16 debut with Philbin's image and Millionaire's toll-free number splashed across millions of cups, food bags and trayliners, an unusual bonanza for an unproven TV property.

In another break with typical show sponsorship, the team also tapped AT&T, a second Disney partner, to provide the vital "lifeline" link between contestants and their phone-a-friend trivia advisors. During the pitch session, Millionaire executive producer Michael Davies passionately described how the U.K.-based show was tearing up Europe. The resulting deal gave AT&T's logo in-show banners on every broadcast. Under a barter exchange, AT&T took out national print ads to create some buzz.

To draw on AT&T at the moment of peak excitement "felt like such an amazingly perfect match," recalled Dan Longest, ABC's svp-integrated marketing and promotions. "It was a great example of how to integrate a partner's message and branding into a show that felt organic."

No one knew whether Millionaire would become a hit. "You don't often see real people in conditions of drama, and that's the idea behind this," Davies, the co-creator of Win Ben Stein's Money for Comedy Central said the night of its debut.

It was also unpredictable, because the audience never knew when a player would choose to quit and cash out early forfeiting a shot at the $1 million. ABC researchers conservatively predicted that Millionaire would earn a 10 share. It launched with an 18, and grew steadily each night. To drive interest, topical promos teased viewers with "Here's what you missed," spots showing how far contestants had gone and leading them back to find out what happened next.

"We always struggled with the fact that we appeal to everybody so no one group was that loyal to us," said Cohen. "Millionaire connected all the dots."

As viewers circulated through the network, they were continually reminded to watch the likes of Dharma & Greg and The Practice. "It gave us an incredible platform to build our signature shows, special movies and miniseries," said Benson.

Peter Chrisanthopoulos, president of national broadcast and programming at MindShare North America, said Millionaire's winning formula is fairly simple: "It all works. It was launched in the summer when networks were repeating shows. Regis is very likable, the set is attractive and the concept of a one-to-one [game] with a prize that viewers can play along with is very appealing."