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 A Member Profile by Chris Davison, chris@lthmedia.com
Terry City is Entertainment Accounts Director, Film & Television, for Yahoo!. Terry began his career at Anheuser-Busch and has worked in many areas of the business, from online to live events to the trades. I recently had a chance to interview Terry to discuss Twitter, Barry Diller and the Olympics.
Q: Can you tell us about your background and what made you want to work in entertainment? How did you first get involved with the HRTS?
-my career began in marketing at Anheuser-Busch. It was there that I began working with entertainment and sports figures promoting sponsored events. I was part of their national marketing team that executed promotions at high profile events such as the Olympics and the Super Bowl. It wasn’t long after that I got the entertainment bug and moved to LA to get closer to the industry. I transitioned into sales shortly after and was lucky enough to land a position at Variety. While at Variety and (as sales manager at sister publication) Broadcast & Cable I began to get involved with HRTS. I later went on to the Hollywood Reporter to become National Sales Director. After a successful run with the Hollywood business trades I decided to take my skill set and entertainment experience to the online world and joined the Entertainment sales team over at Yahoo!. At Yahoo! I’m able to work with the networks in helping extend their brands and marketing objectives online.
Q: What are some creative ways to make brand integration work?
-at Yahoo! and online in general there seems to be limitless opportunities to make brand integration work. I’m fortunate enough to be at such a huge, trusted brand around the world that networks like to partner with us. You’re seeing more and more advertisers integrate with original content online. Yahoo has the most streamed show on the web, Prime Time in No Time (which is a comedic recap of last night’s TV shows) that is a perfect way to integrate brands. We’ve also have had guest stars from network shows appear in the program to interact with the host. We have more original shows that live in our other properties that execute brand integration very well. On one of our other shows we have the host wear clothes from a particular brand and users can then purchase those items by linking directly to the advertiser’s website. I would also say that customized blogs, themed photo galleries, and user-generated content contests are phenomenal ways to increase viewer/user engagement with your brand. Brand integration works so well online because it allows users to be social and emotional with brands they like and also allows them to share those experiences immediately with friends and family.
Q: Is online syndication a viable business model for content creators?
-absolutely. You’re seeing more and more companies pop up every day that are producing content for exclusively online. Hence, Yahoo!’s recent partnership with Ben Silverman and Barry Diller’s latest venture, Electus. Although TV isn’t going anywhere, more and more consumers are using their computers to consume entertainment so why not be in the business of creating online content right now? This space can be financially rewarding for early innovators so I think it’s viable and relevant but it will be some time before it’s a significant revenue stream.
Q: What are some of the elements of a successful strategic partnership?
-the key elements of a successful strategic partnership are when the online publisher and advertiser are on the same page. It’s that simple. Networks, advertisers in general and their agencies must be clear on what their objectives are with a particular online publisher. There are so many ways to use an online audience that goals and strategy can get lost in the cornucopia of offerings. Successful and strategic partnerships are the ones that are truly collaborative. Strategy and Partnership are too often confused with compromising creativity and lower rates. Some of the most successful partnerships I’ve seen since I’ve been in the online space are the partners that put those elements aside. When they’re working together the result is usually a well executed campaign that reaches the intended goal. In almost every instance both sides win.
Q: What are you doing with Twitter?
-what’s Twitter? Just kidding. It’s a great partnership that we have that allows our users to easily update and view Twitter feeds. We get to take the 600M visitors that visit Yahoo! every month and allow them to link their actions (TV and Movie reviews, Mail etc.) on Yahoo!’s network to their Twitter account. It essentially makes Yahoo! a “Tweeting Perch” without having to leave our site. This makes Yahoo! much more attractive for publishers and developers which in turn will bring in more consumers and of course with more consumers comes more advertisers.
Q: How do you see the industry changing over the next few years?
-I don’t think anyone truly knows. I don’t think five years ago anyone could have predicted the explosion of social media that has changed this industry tremendously. This industry is powered by new technology so we’ll have to wait and see what the next platform will be. I also look for more synergy between the major portals and social media platforms as well as mobile applications.
Q: Anything you would like to add?
-I’m a huge fan of both TV and online as mediums of entertainment consumption. I think they complement each other tremendously. I still don’t think the industry as a whole recognizes that yet… surprisingly.
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