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MTV:BUILDING BRAND RESONANCE

Introduction

Over the course of 25 years, MTV has built a powerful youth-orientedbrand that has spanned the globe. When the all-music channeldebuted in 1981, few dreamed that it would attain such a prominentplace in popular culture. Few also imagined that MTV would attract asmany international viewers as it did—over 421 million households in167 countries by 2005. Domestically and abroad, MTV developed itsprogramming and content that consistently resonated with viewersover the years. MTV attracted loyal followers starting in America in theearly 1980s and in each of its international broadcast regions in the1990s and early 2000s. The channel built more than just its own brandequity. Throughout the years, MTV served as a star-making vehicle forpop-artists and on-air talent. Experts credited the channel withchanging the course of music and television and in some cases evenhaving an impact upon socio-political events, including the collapse of the Eastern Bloc communist regime, participation in the 2004Presidential election, and the aftermath of September 11

andHurricane Katrina.MTV’s rise to cultural prominence was not achieved withoutdifficulty. MTV endured a lengthy stretch of flat U.S. ratings in the mid-1990s as music tastes shifted and the channel lost touch with its coreaudience. However, MTV managed successfully to reinvent itself andestablish a following from a new core audience by embracing “long-form” programming. MTV reduced the number of music videos shownby 36.5 percent from 1995-2001 while ratings increased 50 percent. By2005, music videos made up only 25 percent of MTV’s programming. The 2000s brought on a new era of growth for MTV. In 1999,Viacom formed MTV Networks to offer its advertisers a full spectrum of demographic groups. MTV Networks included sister channels such asVH1, Nickelodeon, Nick at Nite, Comedy Central, and Spike TV. MTValso expanded globally—launching its 100

channel, MTV Base Africa,in 2004—and becoming the largest global media brand in the world.Additionally, MTV saw record household penetration even as it replacedseveral hit long-form programs, including

The Osbournes, The AshleeSimpson Show,

and

Newlyweds: Nick & Jessica

with newer, unprovenshows

Through its strong core brand values, MTV continued to stayfocused on its central challenge: remain current within the fickle worldof popular culture.

MTV’S HISTORY

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The Channel’s Origins

MTV originated as an unlikely offshoot of a cable broadcasting jointventure between Warner Communications and American Express calledWarner Amex Satellite Entertainment Company (WASEC). A number of future MTV executives worked at WASEC and germinated the idea for amusic video cable channel. Jack Schneider, president of WASEC,recognized the opportunity inherent in a music channel. He reasoned,“If you have a disc jockey with a microphone, a transmitter, and 40records, you’ve got yourself a radio station. So why don’t we put a disc jockey on TV?”

Steve Casey, original director of music programming,came up with the name for the channel:

We were under pressure to do something, so we were writing outdifferent possibilities. Finally, I came up with “MTV.” I didn’t like theway it sounded so much as the way it looked. It really seemed cool. Noone said “Great,” but no one had a better idea, and that ended themeeting.

An independent designer named Patti Rogoff came up with the MTVlogo, a blocky three-dimensional “M” with a graffiti-scrawled “TV” ontop. The channel’s creative team came up with the idea of using apicture from the first moon landing—of Neil Armstrong in his spacesuitholding the American flag—as its television signature. Tom Freston,current CEO and chairman of MTV Networks and one of the channel’sfirst employees, explained the development of the design:

We knew we needed a real signature piece that would look differentfrom everything else on TV. We also knew that we had no money. Sowe went to NASA and got the man-on-the-moon footage, which ispublic domain. We put our logo on the flag and some music under it.We thought it was sort of a rock ’n’ roll attitude: “Let’s take man’sgreatest moment technologically, and rip it off.”

Instead of disc jockeys (DJs), MTV employed video jockeys, called VJs.MTV producers explained that VJs would be joining the audiencethroughout its MTV viewing experience instead of just hosting theprogram.

The original VJs were a diverse group including Alan Hunter,an actor; Mark Goodman, a DJ; and Martha Quinn, a radio stationintern. The VJ segments were filmed in a studio that resembled a crossbetween “a SoHo loft . . . and a rec room”

and was designed to seemwelcoming, interesting, and avant-garde to the viewers. The VJpersonalities added value to the channel beyond the videos and theviewership conferred celebrity status on them alongside the pop starswhose videos they introduced and those they interviewed. MTV’sapproach to showing videos included packaging them with VJintroductions and station promos, which helped MTV establish a uniquebrand identity. Co-founder and original programming chief Bob Pittmanhad an eye on brand building from an early stage:

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The concept I had was to have a clear image, to build an attitude. Inother words, to build a brand, a channel that happened to use videoclips as a building block, as opposed to being a delivery system forvideos. The star wouldn’t be the videos, the star would be thechannel.

Music Videos Hit the Air

MTV’s business plan mirrored that of a radio station. The channel gotits content—in this case videos or “clips” instead of audio tracks—fromrecord companies for free and earned revenues by selling advertising.Warner Amex approved the plan and gave the channel $25 million infinancial backing. Record companies were reluctant at first to giveaway videos, which they had to pay to produce in addition to theoriginal recording. When MTV first launched, its video library containeda scant 250 videos.MTV’s success was contingent on receiving free videos, and therecord companies eventually relented. The record companies primarilygave MTV clips from their second- and third-tier artists, however. MTV’sfirst-ever aired video was a minor record titled, appropriately enough,“Video Killed the Radio Star” by an English band called The Buggles. The video aired at midnight August 2, 1981, when MTV hit the airwavesfor the first time. The opening broadcast was simple, with a voice-overintoning “Ladies and gentlemen, rock ’n’ roll” over footage of a spacelaunch, followed by the Buggles video. The success of the channel,which was practically overnight, was evidenced by the fact that thechannel created stars from the lower-tier acts. Artists such as AdamAnt and Billy Idol, who received little radio play, emerged as genuinetalents after their videos aired on MTV. Billy Idol recounted how MTV’sinfluence as a burgeoning cultural phenomenon helped propel him tostardom:

Radio guys would take one look at my picture with the spiky hair andsay, “Punk-rocker. Not playing him.” Then MTV airs my videos, and kidsstart calling up radio stations saying, “I want to hear Billy Idol!” It reallybroke the thing wide open. We’d never touched the charts, and thenext minute we had a Top 10 album. It was amazing. Nobody’d evernoticed me before. Now I’m walking down the streets, and people areyelling: “Billy!”

In addition to creating fame, MTV broadcasts also created recordsales. The executive vice president of Warner Bros. Records, StanCornyn, said at the time, “It was reported back to us that records wereselling in certain cities without radio airplay. We asked, ‘Why?’ and itturned out that there were music videos playing on MTV. An act likeDevo is dancing around in their funny masks and stuff like that—andthey take off in a market where nothing else is happening.”

John

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