During my internship at the German TV Channel Kabel Eins I had the possibility to get an insider view of the struggles of the television industry today.
The main reason for their struggles is the rise of streaming platforms such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Hulu which are giving consumers the option to watch content wherever and whenever they desire. Limited time is the problem of TV channels such as Kabel Eins where consumers can only watch television linearly. The amplification of including the German Streaming Platform “Joyn” hopes to turn around the current fall of Kabel Eins and its sister channels. The goal is to achieve high view rates for the television content via Joyn to compensate for the loss of viewers on linear TV.
Working in the Marketing department of the channel I could follow Kabel Eins along its way of integrating Joyn in Marketing clips, print as well as social media. The struggle hereby was to prominently promote Joyn without overshadowing the aspect of linear television and promoting our own channel. Therefore, it was essential to keep the focus on the time and day people can watch a show linearly while promoting that the content can also be streamed at a later or sometimes even earlier date. Statements such as “Now already exclusively on Joyn” were prompted to be made by the partner Joyn which was not a welcomed wording for my Marketing colleagues. They were scared that such statements would guide people entirely away from television and make them only watch the shows and movies on the streaming platform.
In the end, solutions were found whereby both logos of the TV channel and the streaming platform Joyn were positioned next to each other in print as well as on-air promotion campaigns which was a welcomed solution for both parties. Collaborative work makes working on one project harder than it already is which caused a lot of tension between my colleagues and the Joyn Marketing team, but in the end, all of us were happy with the end product.
So when looking at a Marketing campaign next time…keep in mind how many conflicts and disagreements were probably made until it ended up looking like this and appreciate the hidden efforts!
Besides, go watch some TV you will never know what you can find over the classical old-school entertainment options. Also, keep an eye open for all the advertisements in between…there is a Marketing Manager somewhere working hard to please you.