From left to right: Sam Howe (Time Warner Cable), Ruth Gaviria (Univision), Michele Edelman (Warner Brothers Digital Distribution), Joseph Rooney (Cox Communications, Inc.), Courteney Monore (Home Box Office, Inc.) and Moderator: Char Beales (CTAM).
In the interest of full disclosure, I must admit I worked for Char Beales for over four years, and remain a huge fan. But personal bias aside, if there was one person I'd want to produce a panel at my convention, there's no doubt; she'd be that person.
Case in point, the Tuesday plenary session she put together with the help of her team at CTAM. Thoroughly Modern Marketing: CMOs on the Start of the Art was not only informative and entertaining, but it played to a packed house. Beales, as is her style, put her panelists through their paces; on one hand lobbing a softball or two to get them warmed up, but eventually drilling down and unearthing some real data nuggets.
Among the highlights:
Ruth Gaviria revealing the fact that they Univision now has a staggering 2 million followers on various social media.
Michele Edelman of Warner Brothers Digital admitting to TWC's
Sam Howe: "Sam, I love my Time Warner Cable app. My Time Warner Cable app makes me very happy." Also, Edelman detailing how her studio was the first to stream full films via Facebook, adding at one point, "Dark Knight already had 4 million fans. We just went out and claimed them." The two MSOs on the panel admitting the volume of time they're currently dedicating to social media marketing is an exponential increase over the past few years:
Joe Rooney of Cox projecting he's now spending half his time on social media issues, with Howe claiming that 40% of his day is so occupied.
Courteney Monroe of HBO answering Beales' question about social media monetization by responding; HBOgo extends the life cycle...and that's real money. While Rooney answered the monetization question with a wink and a deft hand, "Since Cox is private, let's just say it's going very well." Gaviria detailing Univision's web telenovellas, then calling them affectionately "Hispanic Hollywood." Howe's humorous relating of the best tweet TWC received amid the flurry of 520K or so downloads of 80 channels worth of live TV via iPad: "How uncable of you."
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To read more from M.C. Antil, visit his blog at mcantil.com.