“Ageless Athletes” & “Fan Favorites”
Some years ago, I worked on a FOX show called “Skating with Celebrities” produced by A. Smith & Co. If you never saw the show, or don’t remember, it was pretty much what you think it was: “Dancing with the Stars” on ice. Only in this case, the stars (Dave Coulier! Kristy Swanson! Debbie Gibson!) were paired with former Olympic ice skating competitors (Nancy Kerrigan! Lloyd Eisler! Kurt Browning!). You know the deal: each week there was a competition that resulted in one team’s elimination. Shows were filmed in front of a live audience in the fall, for air later in the season.
Two of the teams were Jenni Meno paired with Todd Bridges, and Tai Babilonia with Bruce Jenner (this was a few years before she transitioned to Caitlyn). Arthur Smith, the brilliant executive producer, dictated that we always refer to Todd and Jenni as “fan favorites” and Bruce and Tai as “ageless athletes.”
On that show, one of my responsibilities was writing and producing the team packages summing up the previous week’s performances. Occasionally, because I am “creative,” I would try to change the copy just a little to make it less redundant. But Arthur always steered back to “ageless athletes,” and “fan favorites.” (Sometimes in screenings, he would praise me for using a phrase as if it were mine. “Ageless athletes!” he would exclaim, patting me on the shoulder. “Great line!” I never knew if he was joking or not; should I accept the compliment or tell him it was his line? At first, I pointed it out; but eventually, I stayed quiet because a happy executive producer means a happy screening.)
“Ageless athletes” I understood. Bruce Jenner and Tai Babilonia were Olympic medalists. I worried about calling attention to their age. But since “Olympic legends” and “American icons” never passed Arthur, who was I to argue? Also: alliteration. “Fan favorites,” however, always used to annoy me because the show wasn’t even on the air. There were no fans! How could anyone be a “fan favorite” if no one ever saw the show? I would write it, but I would do so while smirking in the glow of my laptop as I clicked away in the darkened edit bay, thinking about how silly it was.
“Ageless athletes” and “fan favorites” they remained. Every time they were mentioned; every package; every piece of host copy for all seven episodes.
The show wrapped and several months passed. When it premiered, I was again working for Arthur on “Hell’s Kitchen.” The reviews came out for ‘Skating,” and sure enough, what did I read? Right there in digital black and white: Todd and Jenni were “fan favorites” and Bruce and Tai were “ageless athletes.”
“Damned if Arthur didn’t tell them what to write,” I thought, “and they wrote it!” Later that day, I found myself next to Arthur and I told him about it all: the review; the way the critic wrote what he told them to think, even how dumb I thought “fan favorites” was. I had to hand it to him. He was right. Arthur laughed. He was delighted.
He went on to explain something to me that I have carried with me ever since and have kept in mind as my career moved into marketing and branding. Earlier in his career, when he was an executive during the launch of Fox Sports Net, they had come up with all kinds of innovations to compete with ESPN: they put mics on the umpires in baseball games, they put a camera over the rim at basketball games, and all kinds of other things. But no one seemed to notice - none of the innovations gained any traction. Then, one weekend during a basketball game someone on air said, “Let’s look at the replay on the over-the-rim cam,” and the following week the phrase “over-the-rim cam” showed up in the press. They made a point of saying that more on the air and it took off. Sports reporters started to write about Fox Sports’ “over-the-rim cam.” They made an animation that said “Over-the-Rim Cam” and used it before each replay and even more people noticed. And once it was named, it was something ad sales could sell: “The Chevrolet Over-the Rim Cam!”
The lesson was that no one knows what you are doing unless you tell them. You can come up with all sorts of innovations and great ideas, but if you don’t tell anyone they don’t know. Brand your elements. Brand your characters. Brand your innovations. Some people call this “naming and claiming,” but whatever you call it, the key is to let the audience know what you are doing. When I have been involved with branding dayparts or stunts, as I was at AXS TV, I always remember this lesson I learned from Arthur on “Skating with Celebrities.” And the name doesn’t need to be too clever either. The audience should know what you mean immediately. Mike Darnell, one of the pioneers of “Alternative Programing” once said: “The best titles are the ones that don’t need a promo to explain what they mean.”
So, how are you letting your audience know what you are doing? What is your “over-the-rim cam” and who are your “Ageless Athletes and Fan Favorites” that your clients and consumers don’t know about yet? How can we we work together to make your message more impactful?