• by Wayne Friedman , March 14, 2006

The marketing launch of CW and MyNetworkTV this fall is expected to be one of the most complex--and perhaps confusing--for stations in years.

Marketing executives say the concern is with individual station promotion--especially as WB and UPN affiliates will be ending their associations with either the WB and UPN, and starting up new ones with the CW or MyNetworkTV.

"If, say, a UPN affiliate won't be becoming the CW, how then can CW market itself to viewers?," asks one marketing veteran who is close to the companies. "There is really only one choice: The CW will need to pay for advertising on that UPN affiliate station to tout itself."

Marketing experts equate what will happen this fall with the CW and MyNetworkTV with what happens when stations in a market switch syndicated programming or change network affiliations. Both occur occasionally.

But what has probably never occurred is when an entire slate of network shows moves to another station, while at the same time creating a new network brand.

"There is no question this is unique," says Bill Carroll, vice president and director of programming for Katz Television Group, a national sales rep company. "There is no question you are branding two new entities. Will there be some confusion? Yeah, there'll probably be some confusion."

The last time two new broadcast networks launched was with UPN and The WB in 1995. But those networks didn't take away shows from, say, Fox--or ABC, or CBS. Initially, much was unknown about UPN or The WB. "You knew that The WB was the Michigan J. Frog network, and you knew that UPN was running a new version of 'Star Trek,'" said Carroll.

This isn't the situation for CW, since it has shows that viewers already know--combining the best programming assets from The WB and UPN. MyNetworkTV, however, will have totally new, unproven programming.

To help the CW, marketing executives say the network is already employing the services of a couple of branding agencies to work on the launch branding campaign for the new network. A CW spokesman couldn't comment. Rumors also still abound that the CW might change its name or alter its name, perhaps with a special marketing tagline. A few weeks ago, CW hired former Lifetime marketing executive Rick Haskins as the network's new executive vp of marketing.

It won't be until June and July that the CW and MyNetwork TV stations' marketing campaigns will be in full swing, say TV executives. Katz' Carroll says much of those efforts will have stations using their own airtime in promoting the changes. Secondarily, he expects radio, local cable, and outdoor media to get out the message.

Good news for both CW and MyNetworkTV stations is that both will have overlying national marketing campaigns from their respective networks. All this means that this fall, marketing experts may look for many kinds of marketing messages--two brand campaigns, each for the CW and MyNetworkTV, as well as stations separately touting UPN and WB shows have moved--which executives say will be most important.

"Viewers don't watch networks--they watch programs," said Carroll. "They find shows. They'll figure it out."