In School Marketing Branding in the Classroom: Cable Networks Strike Balance

Selling to Kids, April 14, 1999

Getting into schools could be an easier proposition if you partner with competitors through and umbrella organization that does not broadcast your marketing motive but also benefits from the effort.

Cable networks have discovered this with Cable in the Classroom. Forty-two cable networks, through 8,500 cable companies have come together, to provide programming for Cable in the Classroom, an Alexandria, Va.-based, non-profit service of the cable television industry that formed in 1989.

Each month, Cable in the Classroom members air more than 540 hours of commercial-free programs for grades preK-12. As of March 1999, the effort had connected more than 80,000 schools to cable. It reaches nearly 43 million students across the country. In addition to the broadcasts, these networks provide teacher training and curriculum-based support materials, with extended copyright clearances that enable teachers to build free video libraries.

In addition, Cable in the Classroom guarantees free basic cable service to public and state approved private schools. The local cable companies donate a free cable hook-up, free basic cable service and a free subscription to the TV guide of educational programming, Cable in the Classroom Magazine.

"It's one of the best marketing investments I make," says Mark Stevens, VP of marketing at Turner Learning in Atlanta, which includes CNN, TNT, TBS, Turner Classic Movies and the Cartoon Network, all under the Time Warner umbrella.

"They help us reach the educator on a daily basis, which we would never be able to do alone. The best tool that they have is Cable in the Classroom Magazine, in which most of the members run their own ads. It's nice to have an organization look out for us." Turner Learning buys ads in the magazine to support its cable efforts.

"CNN Newsroom" offers a daily lesson plan that teachers can download the morning of a national or world event. It comes with a free daily curriculum guide and materials. A teacher's study guide includes vocabulary, a lesson plan, suggested activities and Web sites. It targets middle schools, junior highs and high schools. CNN Newsroom, which is in its 10th year, has 33,000 registered schools and an audience 6.2 million kids.

Since most teachers will not dedicate 30 minutes of classroom time, CNN Newsroom is broken down into four segments so that teachers can pull out what they want according to the day's lesson plan. "It's clearly segmented, with running times, so a teacher can get right to the segment they want," says Stevens.

"What makes Newsroom different than a typical CNN broadcast is that the pace of the program is slower, big words are pulled out as vocabulary words and are put on the screen. It's produced exclusively by a CNN Newsroom team, a special production that is designed in pieces," says Stevens.

CNN Newsroom costs a few million dollars a year to produce, but Turner Learning receives a return of about 5-6 times that investment. "It's because of everything they do for us. We can't be in as many places as they can. [Cable in the Classroom] provides us with the great opportunity to get our brands out there. It's an organization that has educators who help us with our programs, so we know what to make, how to position it and where to put it: The biggest help is to reach out into the community."

Arts & Entertainment Television Networks, New York, purveyors of the Arts & Entertainment Network and The History Channel, also provides curriculum-based material and programming through Cable in the Classroom. A manual of study guides that accompanies A&E's programming called The Idea Book for Educators is mailed twice a year. The Idea Book for Educators has a circulation of 85,000.

Like Stevens, Lourdes Gamez, community marketing coordinator for A&E, views Cable in the Classroom as a way to further branding. "They are letting us get our foot through the door. The schools do a lot of Cable in the Classroom training, which is another way to market what we produce. The more materials we provide, the higher the viewership," she says.

Direct Mail, Comeptitive Insight

Cable in the Classroom also gives A&E the names of contacts (teachers) at the schools, which it uses to contact teachers about upcoming shows and promotions.

Such mailings come from programming such as a History Channel national campaign called "Save Our History," which features documentaries about history, education and historic preservation. A recent Save Our History program focused on the Star-Spangled Banner. The company produced a 40-page manual that complements the show and helps teachers with the subject matter for kids K-8. The manual was mailed to 70,000 teachers in November and again in February.

The effort was coordinated with A&E's Web site development so that kids could do more research about the topic online, with study guides and lesson plans. "Online has been a huge asset for teachers and really enables us to extend our reach," says Libby O'Connell, VP of educational initiatives for A&E Television Networks. "When we put up new Web pages for The Star-Spangled Banner, [viewership] went from zero to a tremendous number of teachers right away - 50,000 teachers in the first 10 days. It's as if there is a pent-up demand for this kind of stuff. The teachers love it."