Outside the Box Award

It’s no secret that the world of television has changed dramatically in just the last few years. In fact, it’s not even the world of television anymore. In this new multiplatform reality, sales professionals must evolve their pitches, methods and thinking to adapt to customers. We can think of no better recipient of this year’s Outside the Box award than Scripps Networks Interactive, which has consistently molded its sales apparatus to the changing whims of its clients. Need a better way to get to consumers? Scripps adapts by offering advertisers a way to create segments with its talent to integrate brands into short cooking or home improvement demos. Need more brand integration? Weave them smartly into Scripps’ bevy of shows—while keeping brands firmly and organically melded to the content. But it goes beyond these sort of front-facing efforts. For example, when established Scripps advertiser Scotts Miracle-Gro Company needed to expand its home gardening category, Scripps ad and branding gurus thought beyond the typical multiplatform campaign and created a multi-network marketing bonanza extended across HGTV, DIY Network, Food Network and Travel Channel; on Food Network Magazine and HGTV Magazine; and on each net’s Website. Additional campaign elements will include a host of custom talent-driven vignettes featuring DIY Network’s Chris Grundy and Matt Blashaw, HGTV’s Chris Lambdon, and Food Network’s Justin Warner. Scripps also incorporated online video extensions and several new integrations for Scotts in advance of the growing season. Another example would be Travel Channel’s integration with Land Rover, which included 4 60-sec “episodes” that appeared on air and on Travel’s Website—all designed to immerse consumers in the SUV’s brand imagery. The vignettes cover everything from off-road excursions to a shadow factory in the U.K. where Land Rover once built engines for tanks and planes in secret during WWII. This constant innovation and “outside the box” thinking is a big part of why Scripps ad sales chief Steve Gigliotti enters our Sales Hall of Fame this year. But as Gigliotti would agree, it’s also a reflection of an incredibly talented and dedicated staff. Our hats off to these outside the boxers!