During the summer of 2009, I was awarded the opportunity to create, present,and implement various parts of a brand development exercise aimed towards attracting 4-7 and 14-17 audiences within the metropolitan area. In addition, the exercise provided ideas towards creating greater cohesion in programming and addressing visual disparities

1. CTVBrand Development Report Chad Smith 5-27-09

2. Introduction CTV is currently undergoing a complete transformation of its facilities. Installing the latest technology, programs, equipment, and features, our station is progressively moving towards becoming one of the best television stations, within the Washington Metropolitan area. Theses installment have taken nearly a year to produce. However, this gap has provided CTV ample time to decide how these new technologies will be best utilized. As CTV move towards a more modern work space, it is imperative that our company’s mission statement follows suit. We must collective move towards creating a station whose presentation, delivery, and approach is cohesive, while defining exactly what audience we are attempting to appeal towards. The following presentation has been designed to generate thus blueprint. The new CTV will be followed with new graphics, entertainment, reworked advertisement, and demonstrate relevant commercial placement. These improvements have been designed to brand CTV as a family first station, appealing to households of one or more children ranging from ages 3 to 6, while simultaneously filtering CTV as a pillar to the youth community (12-16), aiming to partner with local radio personalities, go-go bands, and favorite community figures to host shows and/or promote shows that reflect those demographics. This will be executed through proper time slot management of shows, creating shows in house, working Public Broadcasting Stations, and building relationship with local facilities and Prince Georges County Public Schools.

3. Graphics CTV current graphics are outdated. They reflect an 80’s attitude, matched with colors scheme equally lacking a contemporary focus. CTV must refocus their energy towards structuring graphics that strategically represent our station, as well as personalities. Thus, the following changes are recommended to implemented:

4. LOGO The current CTV Logo is should be replaced with new and more modern logos. The logos should represent CTV in a much more youthful, communal, and commercial direction, as each symbolizes youth working together as one. Created from sources of previous child brands, station, and campaigns, my proposed logos have innate qualities that will assist in making CTV a more memorable and distinguishable brand.

5. COLOR SCHEMES The company’s new colors will be orange and tangerine. Studies have shown the color orange portrays feelings of creativeness, humor, warmth, approachableness, energy, flexibility, and change. Such infusion of the color orange has been very beneficial for news television show such as the “Today” show “Good Morning America”, and “The View”. Their fusions of radiant and charismatic personalities, coupled with orange interiors of three dimensional graphics, have made their productions revered within the field.

6. ENTERTAINMENT CTV serves as a news channel for Prince George County Government Affairs, as well as an avenue for non-CTV public access members to submit shows. By creating this connection with the station and its consumers, CTV has aggressively worked towards becoming a station for the consumer, as well as by the consumer. This philosophy has driven CTV existence for the past 20 years. Nonetheless, it is this approach that has limited CTV from being a competitive force within the metropolitan broadcast arena. In many instances, CTV’s ability to inform has over taken its desire to entertainment. As a result, CTV fans base has been severely limited.

7. ENTERTAINMENT The updated CTV is working towards this changing approach with a new agenda. The following shows and changes have been designed to brand CTV with a more cohesive family-first approach. The items are as following:

8. SHOWS The updated CTV latest branding effort will exhibit features of Public Broadcasting Station (PBS) branding effort of 1993. The endeavor was designed to brand PBS’s child programming department, marketing programs towards kids between the ages of 3-6. Since its conception, PBS has branded two more similar departments, creating PBS You and the highly successful PBS Kid Sprout. Through showing educationally entertaining shows, the PBS Kid Sprout 24-hour preschool oriented program has acquired distributors including Time Warner Comcast, DirecTV, Cox, RCN, Insight, AT&T and Verizon Using their branding effort as a starting point, the updated CTV will design its morning and afternoon blocks of entertainment to the households of children within the ages of 3-7.

9. SHOWS The updated CTV will follow this branding exercising into its news broadcasting department. To achieve this exchange, CTV anchors will dress business casual, rather than business professional, while on screen. This altered appearance will convey a more relaxed and personal setting, moving away from the generic, rigid, and impersonal presentation of the past. Accompanied by this change, orange graphics will be infused into various parts of the programs presentation.

10. SHOWS The next time block of the CTV stationing, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m, will be designated to community/youth programming; emphasizing on the age brackets 12 through 16. These programs will be focused towards highlight youth activities and/or creating programming that infuses local county figures as its host. The programs can categorized in the following:

11. SHOWS (SPORTS) Prince Georges County has a long history of athletic accolades. Particularly in the field of basketball, the county is a scouting produce for collegiate division 1 and professional talent. Within the past five years, the county has produced at least two NBA players per draft. CTV must take advantage of this opportunity to create programs that will give our viewers inside stories and coverage of our local talents, at the middle school and high school level.

12. SHOWS (LOCAL) The metropolitan area has a deep relationship with its local personality figures. Particularly in respects to those in the entertainment business, local radio host and respected musicians work diligently towards building relationships that assist in the embitterment of the county. CTV must take full advantage of this opportunity by creating programs that will involve these local personality figures in the creational process of youth oriented programming, rather through hosting or involving other local members of their similar influence

13. SHOWS (INFORMATIVE) Prince Georges County has the second highest high school dropout rate in the state of Maryland, and a considerable high rate on the national level. Having received my formal education from the Prince Georges County public school system, a common thread within this problem has always been to be a lack of focus and direction for many of the students. These youth are lead into lives of crime and wrongdoing, as these avenues often appears like the most viable and reachable options. Amending this misperception can only be driven by showing youth not just that there is another option, but providing them a map and tour guide to get to this destination. Thus, the updated CTV will create shows that build this bridge of achievement, working with local colleges and Greek fraternities and sororities in creating shows that emphasize the power of education. In marketing the show, I propose we work with a local go-go band in creating the show theme song and/or being a part of the tapping process in some magnitude. An effective song may be able to reach the local radios, creating free advertisement for the show.

14. SHOWS (MISCELLANOUS) CTV broadcasts meetings of the Prince George’s County Government, as well as other government-related new. With the new updates, these programs will be devolved into the CTV website, for internet streaming.

15. SHOWS (Spiritual) This followed option has been designated for Sunday’s Prince Georges County is the home of the one of the largest mega churches within the nation, Ebenezer A.M.E. Church. The church boost hundreds of local and out of state followers, attracting everyone from gospel recording artist “Mary Mary” to hip hop star “Kanye West”. Similar to Howard University’s radio station recording Howard University Sunday services, the updated CTV aspires to record and broadcast Ebenezer A.M.E. Church ministries to be shown for the following week. Our broadcast would be displayed during the 8 a.m to 2 p.m time frame, equipped with equally spiritual driven shows after the church broadcast.

16. Advertisement CTV advertises various event, organization, and county information during off air hours. To increase the efficiency of these advertisements, the updated CTV will display them in a new format.

17. Advertisement (On-Air) A new trend within the advertising industry is on air advertisement. Displayed in one section of shows screen, the momentarily phased in advertisement has been used to push information to consumers, without the expense of paying for commercials time. Particularly on the on-line level, video streamed content is often tagged with on air advertisements. The updated CTV will use this form of advertising to increase its advertisement efficiency. Advertisement will run throughout the bottom panel of the screen, displayed during appropriate times and settings.

18. Marketing To promote the updated brand, CTV will explore two levels of grass root marketing towards reaching the demographics of ages 3-6 and 12-16. The initiatives are stated as following:

19. Marketing (Ages 3-6) We want to execute this marketing through reaching out to child caregivers and child care giving facilities for support. Places within the local area, such as “Children’s World”, “Busy Bee”, “Edutainment”, and other child care facilities, will be petitioned to watch our programming. As an appreciation of their involvement, CTV will grant them a one month voucher of free advertisement. The one month voucher of free advertisement will be positioned without the morning and afternoon program, as well as various commercial segments of the CTV news casting. To ensure that these patrons do not abuse this option, we would provide a weekly survey to be filled out and handed in, reporting the quality of the programming. Also, we would ask to receive a schedule of the facilities operations, relaying when children would be watching our programming.

20. Marketing (Ages 12-16) Most Prince Georges County public middle and high schools are equipped with media production rooms. The equipment is used towards producing morning and afternoon news shows, designed to give students a grass root experience of television and video production, while keeping students informed about school activities.

21. Marketing (Ages 12-16 The updated CTV will build relationships with local middle and high schools, building programs that put the camera in the hands of the student. For example, the updated CTV could design a program that dedicates a week to covering the news products, events, and social activities of a particular school. Even the theme song could be produced by the school covered of that particularly week, as many PGC publics schools have budding bands, musicians, and artist waiting to be discovered. This would create an excellent bridge between CTV and our 12-16 audience, as they would now have a portal to seeing themselves on televisions, creating an incentive for friends, family, and themselves to watch. This would also increase our revenues in purchased video productions, as these individuals would want these items for personal keep sakes