TEAMWORK IN SEVEN EASY STEPS

The launch strategy of this summer’s hottest show.… Hitting stores and doctors’ offices to urge women to put their own needs before others’ (for a change).… Keeping kids safe through fingerprinting and helmet-safety awareness campaigns. These are a few of the winning entries that will be presented at the first Cable Telecommunications Association for Marketing collaborative marketing seminar, being held this week in New York as part of Diversity Week. The daylong event brings together cable industry luminaries with folks on the front lines of marketing. They’ll discuss the return on investment when teamwork triumphs over turf wars, and when people pool resources and ideas to bring a concept to life. Thinking beyond preconceived notions and shaking up traditional ways of doing business is the key to creating promotional opportunities for cable affiliates and networks alike, turning ideas into brand-building and goodwill that also boost the bottom line. The fruits of collaboration are demonstrated in the seven winning case studies that follow. These marketing campaigns embody the spirit of CTAM’s seminar, and — we hope — will spark as much creativity for others as they did for the teams that made them a success. Use Your Head, Wear a Helmet BY ANDREA FIGLER Advertisers know that putting children in TV commercials is a surefire way to attract viewers. Kids just have that sweet glow that makes television watchers get all warm and fuzzy inside. So it’s no wonder that Cox Communications’ “Use Your Head, Wear a Helmet” campaign — which features ads with kids sporting bicycle helmets to protect themselves from injury — won the award in the operator/distributor category of CTAM’s Collaborative Marketing Case Study competition. It all started when Leslie Talansky, regional marketing director for Cox’s advertising arm in San Diego, wanted to expand her relationship with the Safe Kids Coalition of San Diego County. From her past experience, she knew that the coalition constantly pursues ways to prevent unintentional injury, the leading cause of death for those who are 18 and younger. Last year, Talansky discovered the coalition was particularly concerned with bicycle helmets. Safe Kids wanted to prepare for a new law in California, effective January 2003, that requires all children to wear helmets when riding any wheeled contraption. Luckily for Talansky, Cox’s sister organization, the Cox Kids Foundation, had a “pot of money” just waiting to invest in a program that focused on children and their families, says Shelita Weinfield, government and community affairs manager for Cox in San Diego and manager of the foundation. What a match. The foundation donated $7,500 to purchase helmets. The coalition, in return, donated workers to help custom-fit the helmets. And Cox donated its time and effort to create commercials to make the San Diego community aware of the risk of injuries faced by children who don’t wear helmets and inform viewers of the new law. With these parties working together, they were almost ready to go. They just needed a sponsor that could publicly hold the events to give away the helmets as well as invest in Cox Media — which would in return give the sponsor exposure in Cox’s local ads promoting the events. Enter the San Diego California Credit Union. Last year, the union agreed to sponsor the campaign, which included hosting three events and running a minimum of 600 commercials, 200 per event. With the union’s name tagged onto the spots, it not only gave the company great visibility but also brought in potential new customers on the day of the helmet giveaways. Cox’s advertising arm also benefited. The credit union invested in Cox Media to help pay for the 600 spots airing throughout the cable operator’s zones. (Cox asked to keep the amount of the investment confidential.) This nontraditional revenue, however, helped increase the company’s local ad sales incrementally, which was unanticipated. And unanticipated revenue is always great, especially when it turns into a revenue stream that can be expected. In fact, last year’s campaign worked so well that this year a new sponsor — Wendy’s — increased the investment in Cox Media to help bring helmets to the area’s more needy children. Investing in a campaign to promote child safety fit nicely within Wendy’s community involvement plans, says Louis Elguera, VP of operations for Wendy’s Coastline Food Service. The investment gives Wendy’s a good name in the community as well as TV exposure it wouldn’t otherwise have. The franchise group in San Diego dedicated no money in its ad budget to local cable advertising. “It’s cost prohibitive,” Elguera says. But that may change. Via the helmet campaign, Wendy’s has had a taste of targeted advertising through Cox Media’s local ad sales. Cox focused the commercials in the applicable zones depending on which of the four participating Wendy’s franchises was giving away the helmets. This targeting could help bring an advertiser’s costs down and their foot traffic up, Elguera says. So much so that the franchises’ media buyer is considering shifting some budgeted local ad dollars into cable. In the end, everybody’s a winner. Cox Kids Foundation found a good cause to invest in. Safe Kids achieved its goal of preventing injuries. Cox Media got a nice chunk of change it didn’t expect — twice. And the companies sponsoring the campaign got advertising exposure, foot traffic and a good community image to boot. Says Talansky, “We absolutely see this as the perfect success model for future efforts.” Festival for Kids BY K.C. NEEL The first thing you need to know about the Festival for Kids event sponsored last April in Sacramento by Comcast is that it’s amazing the system was able to pull it off at all, much less win an award for it. The cable operation was in the grips of changing over from AT&T Broadband to Comcast when the festival was scheduled, a switch-over that included quite a bit of staff turnover as well. Still, the event was a hit, and Comcast is expanding the festival next year, according to Barbara Etrick, Comcast’s new business development manager in Sacramento. CTAM thought it a winner as well. The event tied for second place in the operator/ distributor category. “It was clearly an evolutionary process,” Etrick admits. “The ad sales department usually did collaborative efforts with networks. This was the first event of its kind that we had ever done from scratch. And the timing was tricky.” Indeed, changing identity to Comcast from AT&T Broadband took up almost all of the marketing department’s time. Still, Etrick knew the festival could be a big boon for the system. Although the project was initially an ad sales-only event, she felt it was important to bring in the operating side of the house. “I quickly saw that this could be a signature event for Comcast,” Etrick says. “So we pulled in marketing, promotions and communications to expand the project.” The event was actually the brainchild of a local promoter who came to AT&T Broadband wanting to put on a kids’ festival. The system would provide the entertainment — a live appearance of Nickelodeon’s SpongeBob SquarePants — and sign up local advertisers to serve as sponsors. The promoter would secure the venue and oversee the event’s physical buildout. Advertisers sponsored booths, many of which were created by cable networks. For instance, the Monterey Bay Aquarium sponsored a booth created by the Weather Channel. The booth was a mock weather studio where kids could do weather reports as if they were TV weathercasters. Other advertisers had their own booths. Other event sponsors included Carl’s Jr, Saturn and the city’s Department of Utilities. SpongeBob was clearly the big draw, Etrick says. People lined up for over an hour just to meet the offbeat cartoon character. But there was more entertainment on hand: Exotic and domestic animals were on display; a ventriloquist performed; interactive science exhibits allowed kids to experiment; and magicians and musicians strolled the floor. To promote the event, Comcast teamed up with Radio Disney, which ran ads. A local kids’ tabloid also ran ads and stories about the festival. The system also ran a slew of cross-channel ads hyping the event. Internally, the communications department educated the customer service staff and other employees about the festival so they’d be able to field questions. That was important, Etrick says, “because when people wanted to know more about the festival, they wouldn’t call the ad sales office, they’d call the system.” More than 4,500 people attended the two-day event. In fact, it was so successful that Comcast plans to do it again next year. Still, there will be changes. The festival will be held in conjunction with CalExpo’s annual Fourth of July fireworks display in 2004. That event already draws about 35,000 people. “We immediately saw the opportunity that working with CalExpo will give us,” Etrick says. “The venue is great and there is plenty of room to grow. It will become a signature event for both of us.” Comcast is already beginning to sell sponsorships. If there were anything Etrick would do differently, it would be to start the sell-in of the sponsorships sooner. By the time AT&T/Comcast had begun pitching the idea to advertisers, it was too late for many to participate. Sales for next year’s festival are brisk. It should also be easier for the system to adequately promote the event now that the transition is completed and the marketing department has expanded. “This was a great first event,” Etrick says. “And it’s just going to get better every year.” Soul Food premiere BY ANTHONY CRUPI I don’t get Friends. With each episode, I’m always left with the same feeling of puzzlement that I get whenever I meet someone who owns a cat. Just as I can’t quite fathom why anyone would care for a pet that fundamentally does not give a damn about anything other than itself, neither can I understand why people intentionally inflict David Schwimmer on themselves. I’m not alone. Others share a similar disdain for the show. When I put my social theorist hat on, I notice that the reasons people give for not watching tend to fall along some basic demographic lines. The women I know who tune out share an intense antipathy for Courteney Cox, which is interesting, if only because these same women have nothing but good things to say about Jennifer Aniston. (I sense some sort of Brad Pitt-related motivation here.) The men generally don’t watch because they dislike one or all of the male leads. Far and away the soundest reason I’ve heard for ignoring the Friends juggernaut comes from an attorney I know, who happens to be a) male and b) African-American. “That show’s science fiction,” he explained. “Any show that’s set in New York and never shows a black person, not even an extra, is science fiction. And I don’t like science fiction.” This year’s addition of actress Aisha Tyler to the cast didn’t sway him. (“Too little, too late.”) People generally want TV to mirror their own lives, and for many minorities this is more or less impossible, given the racial makeup of most American shows. Not for nothing is Friends a top-five rated show in white households, while it languishes in the low 30s among black viewers. According to Nielsen Media Research, although blacks make up 13% of the population, they watch 40% more TV than whites. That might make a compelling argument for tailoring programming specifically to the needs of black audiences, but the networks have remained largely unmoved. In a 1997 speech at a Minnesota college, director Spike Lee blasted the efforts of film and TV producers who kept churning out minstrel shows disguised as niche content. “I would rather see Amos ‘n’ Andy,” Lee said. “At least they were just straight up Uncle Tommin’. We’ve gone backwards.” Thanks to Showtime, there are signs that things may be moving forward. While most “black” programming is of the sitcom variety, Showtime has made a rare exception by offering an original drama skewed toward African-Americans. Soul Food, a spin-off of the 1997 George Tillman Jr. movie, is an examination of the lives of three Chicago sisters and their “guardian angel,” the recently deceased matriarch Big Mama. While the show’s adherents are unswerving in their devotion to the Joseph sisters, Cox Communications Omaha decided the show could use a bit of a boost, which in turn would give the division the opportunity to promote diversity within the community. Cox’s Jessica Boulay (residential marketing manager), Jennifer Rutar (local ad sales) and Gordon Krentz (public affairs) crafted a promotion that would garner a robust response from the African-American community. Along with local radio station Hot 107.7, the Cox team urged listeners to nominate the “Big Mama” in their own family to win a trip to Chicago. The winning entry, penned by Melody Jackson of Omaha, described how her mother served as a nurse, a confidant and a foster parent, all while raising six children of her own. Mrs. Jackson was also named VIP at the Soul Food premier, which was screened a local dance club. “At this point I’m all about driving RGUs [revenue generating units],” says Boulay. “We had 27 walk-ups at this event alone.” The event brought in over 550 people, added $8,000 in Hot 107.7 promotion money and created a strong buzz for the show’s last season. “It was interesting to see how many sectors of the community are driven to these networks to watch the original programming,” Krentz says. A smart, heartfelt show that gives viewers a candid look into the lives of successful African-American characters is the kind of program anyone can get behind, he adds. “We are very fortunate that Showtime has developed this show. Our only responsibility is to recognize quality when we see it and then make these initiatives available to our subscribers and the community.” Showtime EVP of programming Gary Levine isn’t surprised that Cox Omaha had so much success with its Soul Food promotion; after all, it is one of the network’s most popular shows. Still, he hesitates to label Soul Food a niche offering. “We don’t set out to do niche programming. We do interesting programming,” Levine says. “We never know what show will appeal to whom. All you can do is offer good, smart programming and hope most people get inside the tent.” DIY — Do It Yourself Network and Habitat for Humanity International Create National Public Affairs Partnership BY MAVIS SCANLON About five years ago, Habitat for Humanity kicked off a program that sought to better utilize the fairer sex. While as many as half of Habitat’s volunteer army were female, they typically handled the less labor-intensive chores on construction sites, such as cleaning up. In 1998 Habitat formalized the Women Build program, which has been picking up steam — and local press coverage — ever since. So when Cindy McConkey, VP corporate communications at Scripps Networks, heard in late 2001 about a women-only Habitat build in Knoxville, Tenn., she jumped at the chance to marshal a group of Scripps women to participate. The experience of working for a good cause was overwhelmingly positive for the Scripps volunteers, but for McConkey, there was more. “We recognized it as an opportunity,” she said. What ended up winning first-place slot in this year’s programmer/supplier category was at that point the barest inkling of a plan. Within months, however, the seed had germinated into the idea to get Scripps’s DIY network involved with Habitat, perhaps by providing training tapes for volunteers. By January 2002, McConkey had contacted Nevil Eastwood, director of construction and environmental resources at Habitat’s international headquarters in Amicus, Ga. He was intrigued. Habitat’s No. 1 priority is to build energy-efficient houses, said New Zealand native Eastwood, and although the corporate office provides training videos to affiliates, they are out of date. Habitat’s current tapes “have got to be at least eight or nine years old,” Eastwood said. After several months of due diligence, a meeting was held in August 2002 to hash out details of the collaborative initiative, McConkey explained. The basic aspects of the plan — a five-part DIY workshop that provides an in-depth look at building a Habitat house and DIY-produced training videos on home construction — was set. But it was at that meeting where Eastwood explained the specifics of what he’d be looking for in a training video, and where Bill Sykes, DIY’s VP of programming, laid out what he thought would be needed for a successful show. Robyn Ulrich, VP marketing at DIY, was instrumental, as was DIY’s media relations specialist Heather Peters, Scripps Networks public affairs coordinator Stephanie Porter and Habitat’s media relations manager Karen Lienau. “It not only has to work at Habitat but has to work in all of the various spokes of the wheel at DIY,” McConkey said. “What they wanted to see in a five-part workshop had to be good programming for us.” From Habitat’s perspective, one concern for director of marketing Jack Yager was that the right message be conveyed. He also wanted to ensure that Habitat’s local affiliates would benefit from the relationship. Over the next five months, the group hammered out further details. For example, DIY initially thought it would produce the videos from footage in its 15,000-hour library. They quickly determined they would have to do something original, however, which upped the price substantially. Including production, website development and costs associated with marketing and public relations, DIY spent about $4 million on the initiative. Once the build site in Charlotte was chosen, it was easy to get DIY affiliates to participate, said Doug Hurst, head of DIY’s affiliate sales and marketing group. Time Warner Cable of Charlotte, for example, sent a crew to help with the build, which was filmed beginning in April. “Like any partnership, they were sold based on the benefit they would see from it,” Hurst said. DIY and Habitat continue to work together. Earlier this month, DIY participated in a Habitat four-home build in Detroit; the build coincided with DIY’s launch on the local Comcast system there. The partnership will continue in five or six more cities over the next year, again coinciding with affiliate launches for the network. But the project had its challenges. One challenge for Habitat was simple: Although it works with many sponsors and has a partnership with Ladies’ Home Journal, it had never participated in a partnership on such a scale before. “It was uncharted territory for them, and for us,” said Cindy Massey, senior account manager for corporate and foundation giving at Habitat International. “We had to make sure we weren’t getting in over our heads, making a commitment we couldn’t fulfill.” “Whatever we did in this national outreach we wanted it to be sustainable and to become affiliated with our brand for many many years,” says McConkey. “We hope this is a relationship that continues.” Safety Challenge and Digital Fingerprinting for Kids BY SHIRLEY BRADY Through its award-winning Safety Challenge specials, Court TV has offered viewers potentially life-saving tips for everything from child-proofing the home to Internet security. After the Sept. 11 attacks, the network’s affiliate marketing department introduced a local market component, dubbed Digital Fingerprinting for Kids, to give parents more tips and tools geared toward keeping their kids safe. Partnering with the KlaasKids Foundation, Court TV’s in-community child safety program has offered free digital fingerprinting for kids, with more than 40,000 children fingerprinted in more than 56 events since winter 2001. Parents receive the digital fingerprint, their child’s photo and safety tips to take home, while kids come away with lollipops and light-up pens. The events have helped generate incremental revenue of about $1.5 million in local ad sales revenue, ranging from $5,000 to $220,000 per event. The promotion has also helped operators bring in new advertisers such as Sarasota Square Mall for Comcast in Sarasota, Fla., and the Universal Mall, which held its event on Sept. 11, 2002, with Comcast Detroit. Events have been held in markets across the country with every major MSO, starting with Cox — which this month is holding two back-to-back events, at Vista Chevrolet and Fazoli’s Restaurant Sept. 26 to 27 in Las Vegas. Support has come from all levels of government, as mayors, state senators, school superintendents, police chiefs and firefighters attend the events. Safety Challenge specials have also been made available to run on systems’ local origination channels, while the local affiliate promotions have helped boost the performance of specials. The August 2002 Safety Challenge: Back to School special saw an increase of more than 31% in both ratings and households over the previous special. Operators are also able to tap into an online element, the Safety Challenge Quiz, to help promote broadband and cable modems. And they get a chance to demonstrate and market their products and services at each Digital Fingerprinting Day. The CTAM award recognizes the folks at Court TV who helped make it happen: Ellen Schned, SVP of national accounts and affiliate marketing for Court TV; Tom Wolfe, VP of affiliate sales and strategic marketing; Alex Hills, affiliate marketing manager for the affiliate relations team; SVP of marketing Evan Shapiro and his team; VP of marketing Linda Finney and marketing coordinator Lauren Schalin; Gina Robertson, Christina Galligan and Lauren Englert in the network’s creative department; and an assist from Barry Rosenblum and Carole Shander in the network’s communications department. Together they have created one of the best local ad sales success stories for Court TV, plus other key benchmarks. The value of the cross-channel spots, which each operator runs in return for receiving a Fingerprinting event, has generated about $2 million in value in cross channels. National sponsors including Johnson & Johnson, Ambien, Travelodge and Fruit of the Loom have helped Court TV generate revenue of approximately $1.1 million for the initiative. Besides being on-brand for the network, supporting key programming messages about investigation and empowerment, Schned adds, “The goal for us was to really create value by joining forces with our local ad sales group, marketing and public affairs to really create value for the cable system.” “We started with Cox Communications and the next thing we knew we had 30 systems on board,” adds Hills. “We started doing local ad sales training…and the next thing we know the whole country knows about it. All in all, it’s just been a win, win, win.” Queer Eye for the Straight Guy launch promotion BY ALICIA MUNDY They call it the Reservoir Dogs shot at NBC and Bravo. You can’t miss it: the Fab Five of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy in a testosterone-laden photograph, caught mid-stride, armed with their sunglasses. That the guy in the middle is wearing an ascot and jewelry doesn’t throw you off. The cutline: “Five gay men, out to make over the world — one straight guy at a time.” “We wanted one image, not multiple images,” says Vivi Zigler, SVP of advertising services for NBC Agency. This was the launch photo sent out for Queer Eye promos and used endlessly in on-air ads. And the macho aura blew away most advertisers’, viewers’ and media execs’ reservations about how to market the Queer Eye image, which could easily have disintegrated into parody. Zigler is responsible for more than the image, however. She and her team may actually represent the only true synergy in the broadcast/cable world these days. You remember synergy. That’s what Time Warner was going to give its stockholders by merging with America Online. It’s what Disney/ABC was going to do with its Family Channel. Well, NBC and Bravo should charge for giving their competitors lessons in how to do it right. Right now Queer Eye is getting kudos for creativity, but the crossover promotional binge may represent a new level of creativity in marketing, which is why the Bravo/NBC team led by Zigler nabbed the CTAM award. Her group included Erica Conaty (VP for affiliate marketing, Bravo), Erin Breen (marketing director, Bravo), Mark Hotz (SVP for affiliate marketing, NBC) and Brian Hunt (VP for affiliate advertising and sales, NBC). The numbers don’t lie. When Queer Eye aired on July 15, it had Bravo’s highest single show rating ever — 1.16 million households. By the time it popped up on NBC in August, it was on people’s lips — and the covers of Entertainment Weekly and TV Guide. Early September had it pulling 3.4 million households on Bravo alone. It has hit its target of women and men 18 to 49, as well as gay men. “This is the first entertainment cable channel that NBC has owned,” says Zigler. So one of the main goals was to get the Bravo brand in front of network audience eyeballs “and into people’s consciousness.” Zigler came from the NBC side and has one foot in both camps. “I’ve been in the belly of the beast,” she adds. Bravo/NBC approached this launch as though it were the network’s flagship series — tie-ins, product placements, appearances on The Today Show. There were parties at Emerald City and Oz restaurants in Atlanta. And a hot-tip hotline (1-866-LUV FAB5). Then, having seen the success on Bravo, they moved it for a special appearance on NBC itself, on Aug. 14, followed by a visit from the Fab Five to The Tonight Show later that night. Naturally, viewers had to tune in Aug. 15 just to see how the guys would make over Jay Leno and his nondescript set. It helps that the show is funny, seemingly unscripted, that the guys are garrulous, gregarious and gorgeous — the product is definitely marketable. But the vaults of the networks and cable channels (take note ABC and Fox) are stacked with great shows that went nowhere for lack of smart, sassy, well-financed promos. “We got money from NBC,” says Zigler. “But my team did a great job in spending a bunch of money wisely.” NBC agreed to kick in ad slots, but Zigler didn’t want this to be a nebulous gift from the network. “We treated it like a major media buy,” she says. “We came in with a buying plan, and we pitched buys and frequency for our demos. And we got a better schedule that way.” One key was getting the affiliates to run ads for the Bravo premiere. Normally, the local stations don’t want to promote a conflicting program on cable, but NBC held firm. It wasn’t enough that they run the ad — NBC wanted the ad to actually tell viewers about the day and time for the show. The affiliates reluctantly agreed but once the initial show had premiered, Zigler says she didn’t ask them to run the ads with the date and time anymore. Will they be looking for the Fab Five once the initial glow has worn off? Hard to say. But one hopes that NBC will remain as interested in Bravo and Queer Eye as the viewers it has hooked. Me Time BY SHIRLEY BRADY WE: Women’s Entertainment stakes its claim on the collective “we” in its name, but the notion of “me” has helped extend the brand with a far-reaching campaign that told women it’s essential they take time out for their own needs. Thus was born the notion of “Me Time,” a collaborative marketing campaign that has turned into its own national time-out day for women and a runaway success for the network. It started with a monthlong promotion in March, with the 28th tagged as National Me Time Day. “Our goal was to make women aware of their needs, whether that means going to a spa or going to the doctor because they hadn’t had the time to keep that appointment for a while or volunteering — to identify whatever makes them feel good and then take time out for that,” says Jennifer Robertson, WE’s director of consumer marketing. Visitors to WE’s website could win a $20,000 gift certificate for a spa vacation. The website also featured tips and contacts to expand on the theme and encourage women to stop putting others’ demands before their own needs. The campaign attracted three retail partners — Tanger Factory Outlets, Bed Bath & Beyond and Easy Spirit — who promoted Me Time in their stores. The network produced and telecast a package of eight PSAs, featuring Susan Sarandon and Vanessa Williams talking about the importance of the Me Time concept. The PSAs also reached moviegoers at the Clearview Cinema movie chain owned by Rainbow Media owner Cablevision, the corporate parent of WE. “It was clearly a great opportunity for our affiliates to get involved in their local markets,” says Cynthia Carpenter, VP of affiliate marketing for AMC Networks. “And they really stepped up to the plate to help us create a really big event.” The campaign built momentum in local markets, not an easy feat considering that it was happening around the start of the war in Iraq. “We were worried that it might seem somewhat trivial when you put it against what was going on in the world,” notes Carpenter. “But we did really get a great response from our affiliates and we layered on a local ad sales piece to create more opportunities.” Although the goal was to achieve 250 affiliates, the campaign attracted 650 participating cable systems. “They ran cross-channel, which totaled a media value of $6.2 million, really exceeding the goal of $1.5 million,” she adds. WE’s affiliate team provided customizable materials including postcards, ad slicks and cross-channel spots. “The real message in the affiliate ads was partnering with WE to sell high-speed Internet,” Carpenter says. “What better way to save time than to get a high-speed Internet connection? We also had over 100,000 unique visitors to our website, a 168% [traffic] increase over the month before and we tallied over 10,000 hours of pledged Me Time.” A public affairs facet of the campaign also got solid support from Lluminari, a network of doctors and health professionals across the U.S. This reflected the roots of the Me Time concept, which first developed during a women’s medical conference in New York attended by WE and Johnson & Johnson, the network’s charter advertiser after it rebranded from Romance Classics in 2000. “These doctors are really leaders in their respective fields, with columns in health magazines and regular spots on national morning shows,” says WE VP of PR Jennifer Geisser. “They promoted Me Time through their appearances, newsletters and everywhere they spoke to help spread the word.” Doctors also used their contacts in government to promote the health benefits of Me Time, which enhanced WE’s own efforts to reach out to officials. As a result, 14 mayors proclaimed Me Time Days, including the mayors of New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, Atlanta, Dallas and Washington, D.C. Helping to shape Me Time’s next outing is the team being honored with CTAM’s award. On the affiliate side: Cynthia Carpenter, VP of affiliate marketing, AMC Networks; Heather Davis, director of local ad sales, AMC; and Maureen Ruggles, local ad sales coordinator for AMC. In marketing: Jennifer Robertson, director of consumer marketing, WE; Susan Smith, director of trade marketing, WE; and Danielle Mintz, marketing manager, AMC. In communications: Jennifer Geisser, VP of public relations, WE; and Annmarie Volz, director of PR, WE.