NBCU @ CES: How We Got There
By Frank Radice and Mark Lukasiewicz, NBC Universal
So you might be tempted to ask: "What's a content company like you doing at a technology show like this?"
The answer is as plain as the screen in front of you. "Consumers. Content. Connection." It's what NBC Universal has always been about, and it's our theme for our first-ever booth at the International Consumer Electronic Show. The fact is, the content that plays on all those cool screens and cutting edge devices at CES has become just as important to CES as the devices themselves.
How NBCU got to CES is, in itself, a remarkable story. It began at last year's show. While Jay Linden and Beth Comstock were walking the floor, they stopped at the Intel booth, where Intel's VP of Business Development said something like, "... you know, this show's no longer about us, it's about you." Later that day, Jay joined Mark Lukasiewicz, Darren Feher, John Eck and other NBCU leaders for dinner and they began talking about how we might get to CES for 2008 – all agreed it was high time for NBCU to be at the show.
Last Spring, the effort began in earnest when NBCU's Jay and Mark (two of the people at that "founding dinner") approached CEA to talk about their idea for a special exhibitor/broadcast role for NBCU. Before long, and with the enthusiastic approval of NBCU's Jeff Zucker, Beth Comstock and Lynn Calpeter, and the leadership of CEA, NBCU's place at CES was secured. Frank Radice and Lisa Kraynak joined the NBCU project leadership team and the booth project was fully underway with some "firsts" already under our belts.
We will be the first pure content company to present at CES, and we're the first "official broadcast partner." It's also the first time anyone has ever gathered the nearly 300 brands of our company in one place. Our booth at CES will include 290 web sites, 61 presentation tapes, 18 downloadable pieces of content, and 14 interactive sizzle reels on what's called the iWall (you have to see this thing!)
Every division is represented... from TV to Theme Parks, from Film to International, from Sports to Home Video... It's all here!
And we wrapped it up in a unique booth design, topped off with a 100 foot peacock feather mobile suspended 50 feet in the air, created by the Jack Morton company, who designed and created our booth, an exciting look that allows us to present in the high tech playground that is CES (we lovingly call it Nerdstock) on our own terms.
Even better, our booth design includes 2 separate fully functioning studios for 4 days of live broadcasting by NBC Nightly News, the Today Show, CNBC, MSNBC, Access Hollywood, Telemundo, NBC News Channel, and more. (No small task given the New Hampshire Primary happens at the same time as CES... and that means a second huge broadcast commitment running simultaneously.)
Our CES message is clear... NBC Universal... Consumers. Content. Connection... It All Happens Here.
And It takes a small army to pull it all off.
First we broke up into teams. Mark Lukasiewicz was in charge of the project overall, and worked with his team from NBC News to take charge of the TV production in the booth. NBC Agency EVP Frank Radice, took charge of all the non-broadcast booth content and marketing. Lisa Kraynak worked on the messaging, and Jay Linden worked with CEA on our role, and also secured a sponsoring partner in American Express OPEN.
Mark brought in Heather Allan to oversee the massive broadcast operation with Phil Parlante from Stacy Brady's team at Long Island City, with Dave Naggiar, the Today Show's production manager and Tracie Winbigler handling the finances, to round out the group. MSNBC's Scott Leon is hard at work as info central (he's the go to guy for content on the broadcasts.)
Mark Norris joined us to coordinate digital content (a huge task given the short time period and the vast number of company web sites) and Peter Schneider came in to run the booth itself (everything from scheduling the meeting rooms, to dealing with credentials, all the headaches of one of these events.)
NBC Agency SVP, Bill Hartnett and Digital Marketing Manager, Jon Accarino are working with our coordinators, Melissa Kondak and Lynne Wisnefski, to pull together all the brand presentations, with Skip Stuart and Jonathan Small producing many of the tapes.
David Vogler and Ivan Baker along with Bill and Jon are creating our booth website, http://NBCUatCES.com, and will set up the Live Blogging Station on site (This is sure to be one of the most news breaking places on the floor.)
Jay worked with John Kelly's News Sales organization to bring in AMEX as a client and Strategic Partnership Group VP Gary Freilich worked with strategic partners (and booth neighbors) like Samsung to help get our content on high end HD displays.
Cory Shields team includes Kathy Kelly-Brown, Amy Zelvin, Alison Kubaska, Brian Steel and Allison Gollust (so expect some great press to come out of this effort).
Mark Lukasiewicz brought in Gretchen Eisele from Peacock Productions to facilitate our role as the first official broadcast partner of CES. And Stacy Melle worked with SanDisk, (our new business partner), to donate 15,000 two gig memory sticks as giveaways to attendees for downloading our content (These are sure to go fast).
We asked a new and emerging digital delivery company, Mediaport, to come up with the download solution so people could come to our booth, interact with our content, and walk away with a sample (Using the SanDisk sticks or one of your own).
The end product included hardware, kiosks and software with a custom DRM.
So come by Central 12533 and watch some live TV, visit our live blogging station, download some cool content, check out our websites, screen our sizzle tapes, be the first to learn about some exciting new company announcements, and maybe even see some stars (virtually or in person) like Brian Williams, Al Roker, Maria Bartiromo, Nancy O'Dell, and Donny Deutsch.
If you're in town for CES, come watch Peter Frampton perform at our party on site at the Gibson Guitar tent and see the new cover of the January issue of Vegas Magazine featuring Maria Bartiromo.
Remember folks, It all happens here!
Cya soon at CES.
