Lubna Alli

The day I signed up to take this class I had no idea what I was getting myself into. All I knew was that it was the only Breath Requirement that fit with my schedule and I needed it to graduate on time. As a 10-year choir kid who also played violin and guitar, I figured a Visual & Performing Arts course would be nothing too far out my comfort zone. I expected a music theory class similar to the ones I was required to take in my long gone choral and symphony days. Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge; FACE; Intervals; Dominant Sevenths; Major and Minor Chords, the works.

What I didn’t expect was a class that looked at the arts from a social marketing lens. Philanthropy,  non-governmental organizations, charities, and the perfect marriage of branding. I was pleasantly surprised. I felt like this course material was both applicable and relevant. As a City Planning and Public Policy student who has also worked corporate and dabbled in a Rotman course, this course was the perfect blend of the two. In city planning, you deal with the demographic and geographic focus all of the time, just like with the arts. Positioning and value proposition are incredibly important when it comes to selling a particular idea to an organization, especially when it involves hundreds of thousands of people. In many ways, a lot of the same things are at stake: the organization’s reputation, the reputation of the people representing the company, and the consumers on the receiving end.

As such, the lecture that stood out to me the most was the most recent, which I felt was all-encompassing. I found myself reflecting on the information about how art organizations are funded in Canada, and how to approach writing grant, donation and sponsorship letters. The psychology of philanthropy, as it was called, was something I felt I could take home with me and apply to my own non-profit involvements.

When the thought of Canadian arts/ media organization comes to mind, MTV is at the forefront of my mind. It was the epitome of my pre-pubescent to early teenage years. Degrassi, 5 Girls 1 Gay, Jersey Shore, and Teen Mom were the shows I binge-watched on Friday nights as my mom complained they were too raunchy. Looking back now, they are quite the opposite, almost fitting the bill of “scripted, trashy, reality TV.”

Branding wise, MTV is doing both good and not-so-good things. They have developed a loyal audience over the years because of their numerous seasons and re-runs of popular TV shows, including Degrassi, which has many viewers tuning in to watch a young Drake in action. They have also successfully built their brand by capitalizing off their American counterparts who run the MTV Video Music Awards annually, which always draws in prime time for sponsors and celebrities alike. Thousands of fans tune in both online and in person, which increases ratings and incentivizes them to return annually to see their favourite celebrities. In addition to this, MTV uploads their episodes online in addition to airing them live on TV, which allows them to stay in the competition with the new age of Netflix and YouTube. People can now watch episodes on the go, rather than just at home on a TV screen. This is an excellent marketing strategy to appeal to this generation of teenagers who do not have the same TV watching habits as their parents.

On the other hand, what I think this is what MTV could do differently is their audience appeal. Their value proposition is that they are the only Canadian TV network that caters to a teenage audience. Much Music’s value proposition, on the other hand, is that they were one of the country’s first specialty music channels. This is in some ways is limiting for MTV as it still has the early 2000s vibe to it that has now died off in 2019. In order to improve its brand, MTV needs to include TV shows that divert from the typical “reality/ challenge/ scripted drama” genre. Having shows that have 14 seasons and counting is not adding to the “how do we stay relevant?” aspect of marketing. This is not to say that they should be doing a complete 180 to acting teen dramas such as Pretty Little Liars, as that would not appeal to the audience they have developed over the years. The key is to find a happy balance with retaining the current audience and retaining the lifespan of that same audience past their peak teenage years.