So WarnerMedia has so many properties,
it's such a big company, and it has
such a big responsibility.
How much do you care or work with
what the diversity in the content
and what you're showing on your programs?
Yeah, it was a huge priority for us at WarnerMedia
and we talked a lot about how diversity
really fuels our storytelling.
I mean, at the end of the day,
that's what we do we tell the world's stories.
And if we're not reflecting the audiences that are out there
in our casts and in our writers room,
and we're not telling the right stories
then we're not going to attract the right audiences.
So it's a huge priority, both inside and outside
the organization and we've made a commitment
to the production and to the creative community
that we're going to hold ourselves accountable.
We came out with the first commitment and really feel
like we're leading the industry in this area.
And we're going to have an annual report to track
how we're doing both in front of, and behind the camera,
and then we actually just announced last week
that we hired for the first time ever,
a chief diversity and inclusion officer for WarnerMedia,
so that we truly hold ourselves accountable
and we think about how are we building
a diverse workplace within our organization
because, frankly, our audiences demand it
and we need to we need to do better
and hold ourselves accountable.
And how important is brand purpose
to how the consumer looks at a brand
and why else is it important to WarnerMedia?
Yeah, you know,
I think we hear a lot about it,
it's one of the themes that you've heard this week
throughout the festival, because people,
and I think brands, really understand
that the next generation, the younger generation
are looking for brands that are making a statement
that stand for something more than just the products
or services that they deliver.
And so we truly are looking at what is our noble purpose
and we believe that in this age of divisiveness
and more and more people are lonely, living alone,
feeling disconnected.
You know, we're all so connected by our social media,
but we're not connecting one-on-one emotionally.
And we believe that our brands and our stories
can bring them together, whether it's our sports properties,
the movies that bring people to the theaters to watch
together, the shows that the communities that we create
or experiences that we create off screen.
And so for us that idea of enabling connection
through fandom and creating those communities,
I think it's really important for us
and it's important for our employees as well,
to feel like they're part of something bigger.
And how did a traditional powerhouse media company
address that people are on their phones now
and that in this new digital era, how do you
take that marketing message and reach everyone
where they are?
We really think about —
it's no longer a one-way relationship with our viewers.
And we've kind of changed the way that we market,
because we know people are viewing our content differently
across multiple screens and we want to
take advantage of that.
I mean, we believe that the future of TV is really mobile,
and it's multi-platform and so we want to make sure
that our content is everywhere where our viewers want it,
need it, when they want it.
And so we've taken just a completely different approach.
We're much more agile in our marketing,
we used to do big launch campaigns.
We would say we'd launch them and leave the show.
And everything was about the premiere number,
live, same day.
No longer is that how people are viewing.
So we have spent — we've really moved our marketing dollars
into a lot more sustaining,
and we think about building audiences
from one episode to the next, and really carrying
them from week to week and then season to season.
Can you give me an example to help me understand
what that looks like?
One of the things we're really proud of
on some of our cable networks like TBS or TNT
is that we've been successful at actually growing audiences
from week to week.
So pulling them, and bringing them in,
we know that people now a lot of times
wait until episode four to say,
you know, do I even want to try this?
And so it's really important for us to create buzz,
you know, do I even want to try this?
And so it's really important for us to create buzz,
to create some momentum and build social chatter
around the shows, as well as kind of really get out
into the community.
So we've changed and we think about
our marketing campaigns now as more kind of omni-channel.
And so for shows like a Tracy Morgan,
we get Tracy out into the community.
We invest in the community, we create experiences
that we went back and we recreated a basketball court
in a playground, in an area in Brooklyn, where he grew up.
And it kind of talking about that.
It really brings in new audiences for us.
We've shifted towards more privacy
but also data has become so powerful.
How does that change what you've done?
but also data has become so powerful.
How does that change what you've done?
Yeah, you know, we use data to really inform everything
that we do now, and it's us thinking about
how are we using that to create more
targeted marketing campaigns, more personalized message,
and hopefully, make the consumer experience better.
You know, we think about data
as we're now building out our ad products
and thinking about how can we create
audience-based selling solutions,
versus just the old demo solutions.
Because that's not going to work for everyone anymore.
And we also, in our marketing, and in our advertising
are really trying to move towards this idea of attribution.
So how do I know that the dollars that I spend
actually converted to viewers or converted
to whatever our advertising partners want?
And so the more that we can use data
to drive those insights and actually show
that our marketing actually converted,
and people took and action from it,
I think the more success we'll have.
And how do you do that?
How do you know what data to trust
when everything is everywhere?
Do you use in-house data
or do you use external data?
You know, we use a combination of both.
And we believe in trusted premium content
and really making sure that we're being
extremely transparent with our partners,
as well as with our viewers.
And so we have a combination of data that we've collected
throughout our Turner Properties
as well as, you know, leveraging AT&T data
to really make sure that we're being smart and targeted
and respecting the viewers' privacy as well.
Now it seems like there are a lot of brands
that are getting involved
in political and social conversations and you have
so many different brands.
When and how is it appropriate to get involved
in some of these more hot topics?
In today's age
I think as I said, a lot of times,
consumers in the younger generation,
expect brands to get in and have a say
consumers in the younger generation,
expect brands to get in and have a say
and have a point of view.
We're very lucky within our portfolio of brands we have CNN.
And CNN's mission is to lead with the facts
and have fact-based conversations, so part of their mission
is truly to hold those in power accountable.
And so that really is one of our lead ways
into that conversation is to leverage our journalism
and our journalists, to really kind of as we always say,
kind of have that first conversation.
And looking forward, how do you think
that marketing is going to change?
At the end of the day, I think we need to make sure we don't
err on the extreme of trying to get too data driven
and too kind of leading with science and not art.
You still want to have that creativity,
the story, and the emotional connection.
And I think if you lose that,
and you move too much towards that science,
I think that we've got to find that right balance.
And in your history of your career, is there a moment,
a mistake that you made that you really learned a lot from?
There's so many.
You know, it's been such a journey.
I've been so lucky to be at Turner and now WarnerMedia
for the past 19 years.
And it's been fascinating to kind of see
these brands change and shift over time.
And I think we'll continue to see that.
So we have to learn to be agile and change with it.
Years ago when we were going
very heavily into very genre specific brands,
and we had TBS, was all about funny
and TNT was about drama.
Now, you know as we move
and the consumers are consuming content so differently,
we know it's just really about the shows
and we're inter-mixing because
we have to change the business models,
and we have to figure out how do we
continue to keep our core business, strong,
but really move into a new streaming service
and create that one-to-one relationship with the customer.
So it's really finding those balances
and hopefully we won't stumble too much along the way
but it's always hard to kind of protect the core
while growing something new.
And looking back on other campaigns
that other people have done, is there a campaign
that you have seen that you just wish
that you had thought up, that it was so smart?
I mean it's in the family,
but the Game of Thrones campaigns over the years
and just the stories that they tell,
the partners that they bring, and how they kind of
surprise and delight their audience.
It's something that I'm proud of, part of the family.
I wasn't part of the campaign, but wish I was.