I was the Vice-President of Creative Services and On-Air Promotions at the Hub Network, a joint venture between Hasbro and Discovery Networks*. The Hub launched in 2010 in 80 million households with a target demographic of kids 2-11and their parents.
As a member of the original launch team at the Hub, I played a key role in developing the network brand identity. Building the entire in-house creative services department from the ground up, I hired a team of producers, writers, editors and designers. We were responsible for promos, image campaigns, and series launch campaigns. In addition, we produced off-channel, out-of-home, and trade advertising as well as affiliate and sales presentations. I also worked with the Discovery broadcast center to ensure that on-air graphics ran smoothly.
As a member of the executive team, I contributed to setting on-air promo priorities as well as crafting marketing strategy and messaging. It was my pleasure to work closely with our CEO, the legendary Margaret Loesch. I also learned much from two amazing CMOs, Amber Tarshis and Dena Kaplan.
The examples below showcase some of the outstanding work by the creative services team I was proud to lead. A special shout out to Director of Design Stan Lim for leading the graphics department in its incredible Emmy Award-winning work.
Hub Launch
Produced with Troika, this was part of the Hub’s launch campaign targeted to kids 2-11 and their parents. We leaned heavily on our best-known IP, presenting the network as a fun place to be. Produced with a mix of original animation and repurposed show elements, this spot won a PROMAX award in 2011.
Agency: Troika
Hub Summer Image Campaign
This spot mixed our mostly animated programming with live action kids who reflected our audience at home. We continued to build on the idea that the Hub was a place where everything came together and anything could happen. We worked with an outside production company for the two day shoot and did the finish post and compositing work with our in-house team. This look and shoot generated a complete package of promos, bumpers, IDs and menus for the summer.
Producer: Eric Page
Director of Design: Stan Lim
Designer/ Animator: Sabrina Soriano
Making Family Fun
As the Hub evolved, we found that there was more opportunity as a network with broader appeal to the entire family. We worked with the agency, Oishi Creative to rebrand the network under the tagline, "Making Family Fun". Spots were produced in-house with a tool kit developed with Oishi. Below are two spots showing how our tone changed during different dayparts, targeting kids during the day and their parents in the evening. (If you look closely, the shape of the Hub logo is hidden in the shoot footage throughout the spots)
Agency: Oishi Creative
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
One of our premiere shows at the Hub was the Hasbro property, “My Little Pony”, aimed at girls 6-11. However, very quickly we saw that the series had a burgeoning fan base made up of adults who came to be known as “bronies” who made fan-made mash ups videos on YouTube using MLP footage to create their own work. We asked ourselves how can we serve this community to spread awareness? Over the course of the next few years we created several promos that used our characters as a kind of repertory group, without stepping out of character, to parody and comment on pop culture. Our internal guidelines were that we had to use things that our target demo would know and wouldn’t be substantively transgressive or subversive.
Produced in-house, for this parody of the classic Apple iPhone ads, we "ponified" the phone to promote the series. The tone was true to the original spots, with droll jokes buried within the fictitious apps to appeal to fans who liked to freeze frames and find easter eggs (and they sure did). This was our first in-house PROMAX award, and one of my favorite spots.
Writer/ Producer: Deb Jarnes
Designer/ Animator: Justin Kowalec
Another of our many fan-service promos, this time a parody of the popular Dos Equis “Most Interesting Man in the World” campaign. One of the things we could offer fans that they could not do themselves was the use of the character voices, showcased nicely in this spot.
Writer/ Producer: Jeff Schwartz
Editor: Andy Hendren
Barham and Cahuenga, Studio City. This was a single-placement billboard the Hub kept for our first year specifically chosen to raise our awareness in the television industry among media buyers and to get in the face of our competition who would drive by it on their way to work. We changed it out monthly to align with network priories. This billboard rippled out to digital banner ads and trade show executions as well.
Agency: Troika
Designer: Stan Lim
Transformers Prime
For the 2013 season of Transformers Prime, the beloved character Bumblebee was given a makeover. To promote his new look I had the idea to create a car commercial parody that listed show and character specifics in place of his "features". This spot was created entirely in-house.
Writer/ Producer: Jeff Schwartz
Editor: Andy Hendren
Director of Design: Stan Lim
Animators: Manny Mazaria, Flavio Mandriola
Transformers Prime: Megatron
For different Transformers stunts we worked with the great Frank Welker, voice of Transformers uber-villain, Megatron. We created hosted elements for marathons and bumpers where the audience could ask him questions. Our department used clips, created graphics and wrote answers. Many of these spots also served a longer life beyond the stunt recut as social content. (I should point out that these were created three years before Donald Trump ran for president, so take that as you will).
Writer/ Producer: Jeff Schwartz
Editor: Neil Carnahan
Designer: Justin Kowalec
Halloween Bash
The Hub Halloween Bash was the first national costume contest, hosted by SNL’s Kenan Thompson. Director Steve Patrick and I wrote a simple concept that not only took advantage of Mr. Thompson’s comedic abilities it also sold the show concept in a visual way.
Director: Steve Patrick
Line Producer: Adam Mellema
Editor: Matt Berry
Batman The Animated Series
We were intrigued by fan-made mash up videos reimagining popular movies using the trailer’s soundtrack recut with shots from their favorite animated series. “The Dark Knight Rises” was ripe for this treatment. Our team culled through every episode of the series to produce a shot-for-shot re-creation of the movie's trailer, and hired the original voice actors (something no fan could do). This spot picked up a social boost when Kevin Smith retweeted, and we later picked up a Promax Award.
Producer: Jeff Schwartz
Editor: John Migdal
Designer: Sabrina Soriano, Justin Kowalec
For reference, you can watch the original DKR trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8evyE9TuYk
*Subsequent to a realignment between the two parent companies in 2014, The Hub Network was absorbed into the Discovery east coast operations and is now known as Discovery Family Channel, .