Making The Brand: MTV’s VP of Marketing Damon Burrell

How do you make sure that your marketing strategy is creative and works in alignment with what the audience wants?

MTV is a creatively led organization. At its roots, MTV was founded on creativity. There is always a focus on being fresh and innovative across the board, delivering something different from what everyone else offers. From a marketing standpoint, every single campaign that we do, we are testing something new and innovative. Personally, I always want to try a new initiative that no one else has done before because I like to be able to say that we did that first. In my opinion, whether it’s successful or it fails, it’s always worth it. If it is a success, we know what works. Contrarily, if it fails, we have learned something and we learned how not to do that again and make better moves onward.

What is a recent example of your most innovative strategy that was successful?

Earlier this year, one of the things that we set out to [discover] is how to integrate social media with traditional media. We developed a massive interactive out-of-home billboard in New York for one of our shows “The Buried Life”. On the billboard’s interactive screen there was a question: ‘What do you want to do before you die?’ As people walked by they had the ability to type their answer to that question and have it show up as a real-time feed among the collection of responses across the world. Using Facebook Connect, the users could also upload their comments to their Facebook wall. We actually just found out that we received the 2010 Buzz Awards for the “Best Out Of Home Advertisement” for this. Even though this next thing hasn’t launched yet, I think it will be big. Everyone knows that Social Gaming is huge. By the end of next week we will launch a new Social Dating Game application called ‘I Woo You,” which will allow you to date cast members from MTV shows. I have high hopes for that one.

What would your response be to critics that believe MTV has contributed to the dumbing down of a generation?

Personally, one of the things that I have noticed about MTV since I’ve been here is that it’s constantly re-imagining itself. It’s constantly rebuilding itself based on what it feels is right at the time, and what it’s told by the audience. What you may have been hearing over the past year or so about the dumbing down of things is a reflection of programming and of content that is older than the generation we are focusing on now. For many years, MTV has provided the audience with what they wanted. Everyone loved the type of reality programming that we have put out there in the past. Now, we’re starting to shift, based on the changes our audience wants [to see].. We’re going to be offering up different types of programming based on different audience needs. We have two new programs coming up next year that we are really excited about, a scripted series “SKINS” and a production sure to amaze, “Teen Wolf”. These are the types of programming people wouldn’t expect from MTV but want to see. So, the answer to critics is MTV just obeys its audience.

Why has MTV stopped focusing on music?

From a music perspective, I would say that MTV has never stopped focusing on music videos. If anything, we have changed our focus on how we play music based on the consumption patterns of our audience. Those patterns reveal they’re consuming music videos online and that’s where we’ve placed the majority of our focus. We have built the largest database of music videos online that we possibly could to ensure a quality music experience. We get tons of visits to our online video library and streaming concerts. In addition to that, where it makes sense, we’re constantly placing emerging music into our shows and into our content to help the audience experience music. We’ve been thanked by our audience time and time again for the music we place into shows.

Does the hit show “Jersey Shore” and the exposure of that demographic that the cast members represent dim the light on African-Americans being exploited on reality television?

I have never looked at it from the perspective of taking the negative context of one group and placing it on another. The way that I see it, “Jersey Shore” is real life within a subset of a particular group. This is a group of kids who are real and they’re fun. It is not trying to position a certain group in a particular way. This is an instance were we saw a lifestyle that was a growing trend within a certain group of people and we put a spotlight on it. That’s what we have done in the past regardless of the ethnicity of the group.

What is the most difficult aspect of your job?

Things are constantly evolving, so the most difficult aspect would be staying on top of the latest and greatest. Our audience has various options to choose from when it comes to consuming media. Ten years ago you had TV, Radio and Print. It was very easy. Now, all audiences are fragmented and new technologies are created every week. Being able to figure out the most effective and efficient way to reach your audience, engage with them and create meaningful experiences is extremely challenging.

Who has influenced you as a leader?

Overall, there is a collection of influences from multiple people that has affected me. On a personal level, my parents have influenced me, by teaching me the importance of education and spirituality, being a man, financial responsibility, integrity and the importance of family. Those influences outside of my personal life are people like Muhammad Ali. I think everyone can relate to Muhammad Ali in some way. Another person is President Obama. I don’t think anyone can look at our President and not be able to take something away from what he has done and how are country made the decision to put him in this position.

Is there a particular philosophy that you have used to guide your success?

Yes, treat everything like it’s your first and last chance to shine, which means that you are giving 120%. Always remember that there is someone else who wants your job.