HRTS eNews - 06/30/2010 (Plain Text Version)
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In this issue: |
Joe EarleyHRTS Member - President of Marketing and Communications at Fox
Q: Can you tell us about your background and what made you want to work in entertainment? How did you first get involved with HRTS? During high school, we moved to Santa Monica which put the industry within reach. I still had no connections, but I attended UCLA (where I switched my major from Mathematics to Communications) and started temping for entertainment companies. Through a friend of a friend of a friend (finally, a "connection") I landed a production job on a video ride for a theme park in Korea. From there, I took other freelance production jobs and then got my big break when I was hired by Gale Anne Hurd's development/ production company, which allowed me to witness the entire process from beginning to end. I then segued into Publicity at HBO and then FOX, about 16 years ago. It was during my Publicity/Corp. Comm. days at FOX that I learned about HRTS as we covered our executives who participated on panels. Those were the days when the network Presidents all sparred with each other on stage and the ballroom was filled with spectators eagerly anticipating the barbs. It's much more civilized now. Q: What are your thoughts on product integration and branded entertainment in general? Q: How do you build the brand of established shows like IDOL versus newer shows like GLEE? GLEE is a very unique series. I've said many times, not only is the show brilliant, but it is so multi-faceted that any attempt at reducing it to a singular marketing message would leave out so many aspects that different groups of viewers would enjoy. That's why we premiered it the way we did - behind IDOL - and then spent the summer trying to engage the initial fans and turning them into full-fledged GLEEKS who became Ambassadors for the show. We created more content on GLEE than we have in the history of the network because we needed to empower the Gleeks and give them reason to keep talking about the show. Ryan Murphy is also a genius when it comes to marketing and we were inspired by his goal of making GLEE the most-interactive series ever. Add to that an amazing cast who were already tapped into social networks and we had the perfect formula to market the show to a broad audience and to various niches at the same time. It was a challenge, but was exhilarating and everyone here is still motivated out of passion for the show. Q: What are “tweet-peats”? Q: What’s the marketing value of an event like the Super Bowl? Q: How do you see the industry changing over the next few years? |