audience strategy

MSNBC CHANGEMAKERS

I was fortunate to have moved over to NBC News from NBC Cable Entertainment in 2007, and was immediately thrust into one of the most interesting times of my career - The 2008 Presidential Election. In order to help differentiate MSNBC from its competition, we took a gamble and asked a simple question - does the MSNBC audience equate to Barack Obama’s millions of fans/voters?

We commissioned an audience segmentation study and determined that our hunch was the right one - fans of MSNBC were also big supporters of an Obama presidency. But they needed a name. A title. Something MSNBC could “own.” We initially developed the moniker “Movers. Shakers. Changemakers” but then shortened it to just “Changemakers” and it was a hit! Our positioning is exemplified in the print campaign shown here, with the study brought to life during the upfront selling season. Changemakers not only helped drive revenue, but also helped to inform the network’s upcoming rebranding campaign of “Lean Forward.”

Additionally, and based on the promise of the Changemaker campaign positioning, I developed a pitch to both the President of sales of NBC News and The President of MSNBC. In an effort to activate the network’s fans - Changemakers - into a social movement, I wrote and directed the video pitch below, which proposed celebrating the Changemakers whom were making positive changes in their community. Ultimately, though very well received, it was deemed too cost prohibitive to explore. But imagine if they did?

The Print Campaign (above).