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A Hi-Tech Image Update
ABC Using Internet to Distribute New Graphics to Affiliates
By Daisy Whitney
When ABC unveils the graphics and colors
of its new on-air look this summer, its
225 affiliates will be able to incorporate
the changes into their markets with the
click of a button.
The network’s new look, the details of
which are still under wraps, will include“
evolutionary” changes to all the graphics
elements, said John Nuzzi, VP, affi liate
marketing and promotion. In the past,
such changes might have taken six
months or longer to spread to ABC’s
affiliates around the country.
However, ABC now uses a Web-based
service at myABC.tv to provide branded
marketing material to its affiliates
within minutes. That system will be put
to the efficiency test this summer as the
stations incorporate the network’s new
look into their local marketing materials.
The use of myABC.tv is noteworthy The use of myABC.tv is noteworthy
because it illustrates how such
convergence tools can exponentially convergence tools can exponentially
streamline a formerly laborious process streamline a formerly laborious
process and save money. Mr. Nuzzi said
myABC.tv has saved ABC substantial
amounts of production expenses since
it began using the service a little more
than a year ago.
The myABC.tv Web site is the “brand
management” system for ABC that serves
as an online resource for pre-approved,
print-ready marketing materials for the
network’s affiliates. The Web site is
powered by a Web-based technology
from a company called Brandopoly.
Mr. Nuzzi said the site’s use has radically Mr. Nuzzi said the site’s
use has radically
changed the process of sharing and
sending material to affi liates. Material sending material to affiliates. Material
that once would have taken a week or
two to shepherd through the necessary two to shepherd through the necessary
approval process now takes only a few approval process now takes only a few
minutes, since it’s stored on the Web
service as templates for quick access. service as templates for quick access.
Previously, ABC created about 100
different pieces of marketing material
for its affiliates each season. for its affi liates each season.
“It really streamlines the business of
affiliate marketing,” Mr. Nuzzi said.
The system
contains, in
a Web bank,
material for
ads in newspapers
and
magazines
as well as outdoor ads, Web banners,
sales sheets, sales presentations, ratings
and market information. Affiliates
can use those network templates to create
customized marketing and sales pieces,
tagged with local headlines. They maintain
ABC’s brand but are tailored with specific
local market and ratings information.
The online system also allows the network
to better control its brand, since some of
the affiliate marketing material hasn’t
been up to network standards, Mr. Nuzzi
said. “[This] makes it easy to preserve
the integrity of our brand,” he said.
That’s important to affiliates too. At
Morgan Murphy-owned KXLY-TV in
Spokane, WA, Catherine Bruntlett,
broadcast sales research director at the
station, said the templates give a more
consistent look.“
When we are selling, a client sees the
same background between what they see
on air, and I don’t have to worry about
how I am going to create that look,”she said.
After the
network’s
new look
is unveiled,
ABC stations
won’t have
to call the
affi liate
marketing
department
every time
they need a
print ad or an outdoor billboard.
“If you are a station and wanted to do a
print ad or outdoor billboard, you would
have to come to us and we would produce
it, and that takes time and money and
back and forth through the approval
process,” Mr. Nuzzi said. “A lot of time
was spent on the phone and mailing back
and forth, and now we have [it] online.”
A local station can simply
insert a picture
of its local news team to customize the
billboard template found at myABC.tv.
That minor difference saves the week or
more that such a task previously would
have taken, Mr. Nuzzi said.
In addition, stations in smaller markets
often can’t afford to change or create new often can’t
afford to change or create new
marketing material on their own. Pollack/
Belz Communications-owned KLAX-TV,
the ABC affi liate in 176th market
Alexandria, LA, rebranded last year with
a new logo and subsequently needed new
signage and billboards. With the new
system, that process was less expensive
than the old-fashioned and time-consuming than the old-fashioned
and time-consuming method of sending drafts back and forth,
Mr. Nuzzi said.
Each station has the appropriate access
to the reservoir of “brand assets,” so
that when ABC-owned KABC-TV in
Los Angeles, for instance, logs on to the
system it would see its logo appear on
the ABC-sanctioned material, said
Tom Trapp, Brandopoly CEO.
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