With networks getting all the more niche-y in a world stuffed full of content, networks need to know their brands inside and out and stick close to them from the beginning of the development process until the show hits the air, said a panel of programmers at New York TV Week on Wednesday. That’s true whether they are developing an original comedy, serialized drama, unscripted half-hour or branded content.

“It’s imperative in a world where people are being bombarded with constant messages to have something that stands out,” said Alan Eyres, senior vice president of programming and development for National Geographic Channel.

“The content really remains key to what your brand is,” said Kevin Bennett, general manager for Investigation Discovery, whether that’s acquired, original or even the talent that appears on your air. All of it needs to work together to tell a singular brand story.

For example, Bennett said, “We air Dateline, 48 Hours, 20/20, all of which I consider entry level shows for us. People know those shows and that brings them to the network. And then they go on to see our original and produced content.

“That’s similar with our talent too. We have Paula Zahn and Tamera Paul and Chris Hanson. These are all journalists people know who represent investigative journalism. We also use celebrities to expand our brand, such as Roseanne Barr and Susan Lucci, these all come in to define our brand. One of the reasons we have the ability to do this at ID is because our content is very narrow. I like to joke that we are basically the same show all the time.”

Whatever Investigation Discovery’s formula is, it’s working because ID has been one of cable’s fastest-growing networks for the past several years.

“There’s an intensity to what we do so we tend to use our marketing to lighten us up a little bit,” said Bennett. “The other thing ID is known for is having over-the- top titles, such as Who the Bleep Did I Marry, Wives With Knives and so forth. We take our content seriously but we have fun with the audience, who we know sits there and watches show after show. The wink we are doing is to our audience. We know you’re obsessed with this, we’re obsessed with it too so that’s ok.”

CNN spin-off, Courageous, was built to created branded content that would both service brand needs but also tell stories suitable to air on CNN and other networks.

“When [CNN Worldwide President] Jeff Zucker came in, he realized we had to ‘dimensionalize’ our understanding of what journalists present. We had to dimensionalize our brand while staying true to it, but we also knew we had to start offering more and more custom content,” said Otto Bell, vice president and group creative director for New York-based Courageous. “Do we then undermine our brand by giving those clients access to the editorial side of the house? No, we don’t. Our job is to protect the brand while simultaneously dimensionalizing it for the audience.”

One of Courageous’ projects has been to create promotion for season two of Cinemax’s The Knick. The agency did it by contrasting medical stories from the show’s early 1900 setting, such as a breakout of bubonic plague in San Francisco, with similar stories from today, such as last year’s disastrous Ebola epidemic in Africa.

“We are using this distribution and this staff of award-winning journalists we’ve hired to encourage brands to do greater work,” says Bell.

For a network such as IFC, keeping the brand away from the content is not imperative. In fact, says Blake Callaway, IFC’s executive VP of marketing and digital media, sometimes “we just crash a car into it.”

For example, Callaway showed a branded content spot from IFC in which some of its network talent eat, enjoy and promote Cheez-It Grooves. The network has a long history of working with the snack brand, including this spot below featuring Comedy Bang Bang’s Casey Wilson

“I always think that if branded content comes from the spirit of the show, that’s really what the brand would want to get across,” says Callaway. “We really keep the spirit of the brand in everything we do and it’s important for it to be structured that way.”

Branded content is an area that’s ripe for innovation, says Courageous’ Bell.

“I’m intent on breaking out from the established branded entertainment formats and going into new areas,” says Bell. “With the CNN brand in place, on the one hand we can do what is right for CNN but also figure out how that naturally marries up with the specific brand or the vertical or industry brand. Within that, I’m very interested in creating branded entertainment events and experiments, and going anywhere where there is an underserved audience or unexplored territory. There are a lot of layers there.”

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