• by Richard Whitman , Columnist, April 14, 2016

Perhaps you've heard. CNBC has launched an in-house advertising agency, part of the international re-launch of its sales team and content studio. The new entity is called Catalyst. According to CNBC, Catalyst will be positioned as the "rights-holder to the world's most powerful audience." The goal is to "offer a team who will work with clients to fully exploit CNBC's unrivaled access to the global business and investor community."

The Catalyst concept was devised under the leadership of Max Raven, who joined CNBC as senior vice president in summer 2015. The agency will provide services within a neatly packaged -- what else -- acronym.  The offering will be described as ABCDE, which stands for Audience, Brand Consultancy, Content, Data and Events & Experiences.

Of the new offering, Raven said: "Advertising platforms have multiplied to the extent that you can talk to an audience in a thousand different ways. But engaging that audience -- creating a two-way dialogue that moves the needle -- is a much more specialist art. Catalyst will help clients practice that art, so they spark the desired reaction with our affluent business and investor audience."

Right. That's totally new. 

Expanding on Raven's rather nondescript description, KC Sullivan, President and MD of CNBC International added: "As a business, we've started a journey to strengthen and refine our brand positioning. We have a pipeline of initiatives planned to ensure that CNBC is differentiated in the ever-expanding media landscape. Today's launch is the first manifestation of that process." 

They have a pipeline. And a manifesto. To tackle the ever-expanding media landscape. Did you get all that?

I mean really. It's sort of like a cable TV station hiring a couple of people to create ads for local car dealers. Oh wait.