Airtime Infotainment

Creative Direction, Copywriting, Studio Build

The Brief
Fulfill more creative requests by shortening production turnaround and increasing production volume.

Develop a branded content format that can be produced quickly at low cost for a variety of communication objectives including customer experience, product and event promotion, and partnership messaging.

Background

• Cedar Fair’s Media Networks department received a multitude of requests for creative support covering numerous products, events, and initiatives, sometimes with short notice.

• The team was stretched to develop and produce unique concepts for each request.

• Because the team tended to ‘pulled out all the stops’ for the first requests, later productions were only given a ‘rush job’ treatment regardless of their strategic priority.

• New products and events often lacked visual assets when first announced, making commercial style productions difficult.

• Hosted segments had previously been discouraged due to the expense of set-building and professional talent.

Task
As the head of Media Networks, I was in frequent discussion with my supervisor, the VP of Strategic Alliances, on how to address the glut of creative requests, short turnarounds, and uneven quality output. Drawing inspiration from infotainment shows like “Access Hollywood,” we began weighing the viability of producing a ‘magazine-stye’ show that could address our wide variety of communication objectives. Our hypotheses:

• A consistent format would allow the production team to continuously improve its writing, shooting, and editing processes.

• An on-camera host would engage the viewer better than the “voiceover-with-graphics” format that had become dominant.

• The format could accommodate products with extensive or sparse creative assets.

• Whereas high-concept ads carried more risk as to whether the client would ‘get it’ or the creative team could pull it off on-time and on-budget, a journalistic format was an easy sell for stakeholders who were very comfortable with earned media and PR style tactics.

The Set
Building a physical set would be a five-figure investment, would need to be updated regularly, and probably wouldn’t be exactly right on our first attempt. By shooting the host on greenscreen and comping them into a virtual set, we could save money and update the set quickly without hard costs. We could even customize the set to each of the 12+ brands in Cedar Fair’s portfolio.

Some raised concerns that a greenscreen approach would look ‘cheap.’ I was confident that carefully matching the on-set lighting and camera properties to the virtual set would give us a high-quality result – not photo-realistic per se, but brand-appropriate. I pulled reference images from the web and tasked the graphics team with building a virtual set in Cinema 4D to serve as a background for our host.

I leveraged my experience as a technician to design a physical studio that would fit the show’s needs. We stripped the editing bays out of one room, blacked out the windows, then installed lights, truss, and a basic greenscreen.

Close collaboration between the videographers and the graphics team ensured the best end-result, while meticulously documenting settings and positions for camera and lights ensured consistency.

Casting
Other network operators had advised our VP against professional talent due to negative experiences surrounding cost and diva-like attitudes. I offered an alternative perspective informed by industry experience and Lean methodology:

• From other productions, I knew that professional talent did not have to be expensive.

• We also did not need to completely commit to any particular talent. If a certain host became a bad fit, replacing them would not sink the show. We’re not Jeopardy.

We put out a casting call through a talent agency and chose three performers of various abilities and demographics for our pilot run. While all of their segments were usable, the general consensus was we should keep looking. We cast Kathryn for our next batch of segments, and she became the face of our show for multiple seasons. She was amazing to work with and well-liked by both viewers and internal stakeholders.

The Brand
I ran a brainstorming workshop to generate names for the shows. After considering dozens of options, Airtime was voted the winner, with dual-meanings for TV shows and roller coasters.

My post-production supervisor generated an assets wishlist for intros, outros, wipes, lower thirds, and fullscreen templates, which the graphics team tackled with enthusiasm.

Results
Over the course of two seasons, the team produced well over 100 Airtime segments, covering over a dozen key products and events as well as guest entertainment topics and sponsor messaging.

• Segments were branded to each Cedar Fair location.

• Local stakeholders were given revision and approval capability.

• Our casting of Kathryn received praise from stakeholders across the company.

• Our production costs were a fraction compared to similar content produced by the company’s external agency.

• A corporate giving segment generated thousands in donations for children with life-threatening illnesses, including a $5,000 donation from a single, anonymous FunTV viewer.