PARTNERSHIP PROPOSAL Prepared for: Mr. Gary McCormick, Director of Partnership Development - HGTV. Prepared by: Andrea Gils & Jaclyn Aldredge-Bisgard Date: September 18, 2013. Client: HGTV Proposed Partner: The Sapling Foundation (TED)
Why? Compatibility exists in a multitude of levels between HGTV and The Sapling Foundation--as well creates exceptional opportunities for innovative growth. Each organization shares a similar sense of social responsibility to inspire creativity, invention, and action through the fusion of technology, entertainment, and design. An excerpt from TED.com explains, “The ideas on TED.com are powerful. Our speakers think big -- shaping technology, creating ingenious solutions to global problems, and innovating in business, science, design and the arts. On the TED.com platform, brands have a place to share their biggest ideas, inspiring others and reaching thought leaders in every corner of the world.� The privately owned nonprofit foundation (501(c)3) is known for
supporting initiatives which create globally sustainable change in poverty, health, and biodiversity.
Demographics HGTV - Age: 25-54 - Household Income: 75k+ - Education: College degree or higher -- Wants to expand reach to millennials
The Sapling Foundation (TED) - Age: 20% of the TED.com audiences are C-level, CEO, owner, principle or president within their company - Household Income: 41% earn more than $100K a year with 27% having a new worth of more than $750K - Education: 75% have a college degree or higher - Its target audiences are a combination of Generation Xers and Millennials.
Public Relations Opportunities OVERVIEW The Sapling Foundation hosts two annual conferences: the TED Conference and TEDGlobal. The former conference occurs in Long Beach, Ca. during the springtime (four days) and includes fifty or more speakers with music and comedy performances in between. TEDGlobal expands the concept of the original conference to the global community and has been hosted in places such as Oxford, UK or Arusha, Tanzania and will take place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 2014.
UNIQUE EVENT/EXPERIENCE FOR HGTV CONSUMERS: THE TED CONFERENCE (CALIFORNIA) The Sapling Foundation is incredibly “partnership friendly” and has a website dedicated entirely to it! A unique opportunity exists for HGTV to be the first and only home and lifestyle-programming partner. TED foments successful relationships by welcoming communication and collaborating to meet the needs of individual partners. The ultimate goal is to create a dynamic experience that transcends the partnership and “wows” their attendees. Annual conferences involve opportunities that would allow HGTV to attend or teach “master classes” to attendees. Also, conferences feature a Creativity Lounge, which features international innovation and technology in a cozy and strategic environment. In addition, there are social lounges
and other exhibits, which prove to be an opportunity for HGTV to apply theory to practice and participate in the development. THE BIG IDEA & OUR VISION Master classes
Master classes are University-like environments where TEDsters get hands-on experience in four 30-minute classes. Amidst the instructors, HGTV could have Candice Olson as a speaker talking about designing principles and how to let the inner creative mind go. She would provide the theoretical background that TEDsters would need to know to participate in the Creative Lounge. Suggested topics for these classes are: 1) Speaker: Candice Olson- Designer (Candice Tells All). Topic: Get your creative juices flowing with Candice Olson. This talk would cover techniques to foster creativity and tackle “creative block” as well as covering basic design principles, which TEDsters will be able to apply in the Creative Lounge. 2) Speaker: Glenn Layton – Building and Design (HGTV Smart Home 2013 team). Topic: Automating your home: Smart homes 101. This session would cover the basics of Smart Homes (what a smart home is) and the benefits of automating one’s home. An area to stress could be automated security system, as well as the tools to DIY and tips from Glenn Layton (content related to her videos posted on HGTV’s website).
3) Speaker: Michael Stauffer- Architect (HGTVRemodels and HGTV Smart Home 2013 team). Topic: Transforming your house into a Smart Home. This session would cover tools and tips from a professional for DIYers to make their house a smart house. Content can be easily related to HGTV Smart Home 2013/2014 videos posted on HGTV’s website and videos posted on HGTVRemodels. 4) Speaker: Carley Knobloch – Digital Stylist (HGTVRemodels and HGTV Smart Home 2013 team). Topic: Making a smart exterior. This session would cover affordable ways to stylize your smart home’s exterior. Carley can also talk about best use of materials for specific rooms and exteriors for a smart home. She would also give a tutorial on how to use HGTV’s software so that TEDsters leave the last session with the basic knowledge to run the program and use it in the Creativity Lounge.
Creativity lounge The lounge, designed by Candice Olson, is a space where TEDsters access the corporations’ newest ideas and products. This environment serves as a respite for TEDsters and includes uniquely designed creative areas to let the mind go and create. An existing partner of TED, Intel, could be offered an opportunity to display their new Ultrabook™ in the lounges with the HGTV Home Design Software pre-installed. After the masters classes, users are empowered to experiment with the HGTV software and rebuild the lounge they are in to make it a smart home. Users recreate the atmosphere by manipulating objects, with the liberty to change their color palette provided by Sherwin-Williams. The software would give them a real-life perspective of what the room would look like with the automation. After they finish their redesigns, TEDsters will enter a contest by sharing their creations on social media. Once they submit their designs, they advance to a second room, which is fully automated (they get to experience the benefits of a smart home firsthand). The live contest is both on-site and on social media. Each contestant’s design will appear in a big screen in the Automated Smart Home, showing live voting results. The winner, who is announced at the end of the conference, gets to redesign his/her house with Carley Knobloch and Mark Stauffer.
In order to connect with millennial and viewers unable to attend the conference, a sample version of HGTV Design Software can be available on both TED.com and HGTV.com for a limited period of time. Viewers will be able to utilize the software to recreate the conference from home and will submit their designs through social media. A Twitter campaign with the hashtag #smartathome can be created to make home viewers eligible to compete for the prize of a redesigned home.
Other Public Relations Opportunities TEDActive--a global community--invites the collaboration of attendees, based on topics of interest. Two facets of TEDActive are “Creative Play” and ‘Pay it forward.” The former acts as an “incubator for innovation” that allows one to “dive into the world of color and illusion, explore different materials, and experiment with creative resources.” The latter is a fund for scholarships, which “provides an opportunity for game-changing innovators” to attend the conference. More opportunities exist within the conference such as hosting a lunch as a platform for your mission, participating in discussion, research, and development.
Social spaces (Simulcast lounges) Simulcast lounges are more intimate environments than the creative lounge where attendees watch the conference in comfort. The simulcast lounge could be designed by Candice Olson or John Gidding to allow members to experience the conference and a smart home at the same time. Lunch salon HGTV has the option to sponsor a lunch. Food Network’s talented Chef Robert Irvine could cater lunch and Taniya Nayak could assist with the design of a smart salon. Besides serving as a chef, Robert can serve as a source to TEDsters who are interested in redesigning restaurants. Robert could meet and greet TEDsters between the main course and dessert. Creative play HGTV can have a colorful room where creativity is fostered, providing different materials to TEDsters to create their own “souvenir” of the conference- does not necessarily mean a physical creation, but can be a video, design, photo, house plan, etc.
Communication/Engagement Channels The reach of TED expands our continental borders and delves into global communities. More than 59% of traffic comes from outside of the United States. Viewership in South America and Asia has increased to be five times what it was in 2009. Five to 10 times viewership growth has occurred in India, China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Brazil. Internationally, The Sapling Foundation is probably best recognized as TEDTalks but extensively expands beyond eighteen-minute lectures hosted by academic and industry leaders. TEDTalks have gone viral on Youtube, StumbleUpon, Reddit, Facebook and Twitter, contributing to 875 million views. Their Creative Commons license (Attribution-NonCommercial-NonDerivative) lets users share the videos on multiple social media channels. TED Talks could be given by important leaders in HGTV, Scripps Network, or even on air talent such as John Gidding and Candice Olson.
Suggested topics include: - Speaker: ADT senior executive (NOTE: ADT is an advertiser for HGTV.com) Topic: Innovating security for the future. - Speaker: John Gidding (Curb Appeal) Topic: Keeping yourself inspired. - Speaker: Vern Yip (Design Star and Deserving Design) Topic: Translating culture through design. - Speaker: Carter Oosterhouse (Carter Can) Topic: You Can DIY. (Taking that first step to making your house green. Focus on selfempowerment). Moreover, who doesn’t love selfies? We know Millennials do. To further promote TEDTalks hosted by HGTV talent, HGTV and TED could launch a Twitter campaign to increase viewership in a specific day, such as TED Conference day. HGTV and TED will encourage Millennials to virtually unite by paying homage to their home and “duck face” by posting a selfie while watching HGTV’s TEDTalks episodes in their favorite house room. This creates the opportunity to build a global collage of TEDsters’ homes around the world #TEDLoveshome.
Traditional media channels Radio: National Public Radio. TED Radio hour features TED Talks on NPR. This reaches the older demographic who still uses traditional media. Television: CNN, which features TED Tuesdays. This gives HGTV another channel where they could feature the TED talks.
Social Media TED’s Facebook page has 2.3 million fans. TED’s Twitter account has 1.1 million followers. TED Talks’ YouTube channel has over 1.5 million subscribers. The featured video on YouTube (as of 9/17) has had almost 9 thousand views in less than 12 hours. TED has 7.5 million monthly video views. HGTV would have a YouTube, Facebook and Twitter as main channels of distribution for advertising and promotions. The volume of TED’s followers is similar to HGTV’s, which means this relationship would be mutually beneficial.
Online Streaming Television and movies: Netflix and Hulu are both venues where users can also watch HGTV programming. HGTV could place ads in between TED Talks, referencing the talent that participated in TED and their show. Online radio: TuneIn is an additional avenue where TED Talks are broadcast. There are multiple channels divided by topics of interest and includes CNN’s TED Radio Hour.
iTunes TED Talks are offered in the Apple Store. iTunes users can purchase specific talks they are interested in.
Mobile TED has 1.7 million monthly mobile views, as well as 4 million iOS app and 2.3 million Android app downloads. TED Mobile apps are the best way to reach to the younger demographic of TED and HGTV. The mobile apps, available on iOS and Android, suggest TEDTalks to viewers. There could be a set number of talks by sponsored by HGTV that TED could suggest to users.
Website: Reaching Multilingual Audience TED Translations: TEDTalks have been translated into 89 languages by a devoted community of over 8,000 translators, with over 30,000 published translations. This would allow to also reach the Hispanic community that watches HGTV.
Newsletters HGTV could have a space in the TED Newsletter which reaches 500,000 subscribers.
Additional channels Delta Airlines, Roku, and Boxee (now owned by Samsung).
Online Advertising Ads Worth Spreading A partnership with The Sapling Foundation includes the opportunity to participate in the campaign known as “Ads Worth Spreading,” which according to TED.com “invites brands, agencies and producers to rise to the challenge and honor the value of human attention with engaging online advertising.”
HGTV can participate in TED’s initiative to inspire people through the creation of ads. Ads Worth Spreading recognizes and reward innovation, ingenuity, and intelligence in advertising. The campaign began as a global challenge to produce advertising that is compelling enough to be world renown. The emphasis for excellence is placed in the producer’s ability to inspire, challenge, and reinvent advertising in order to raise the bar for the industry.
There is a YouTube channel especially designed for this.
Online Banners TED has standardized banners for TEDx partners to include in their websites, which cannot be modified. New banners for TED Conference could be designed in conjunction with HGTV.
Future Public Relations/ Event Opportunities The following are potential ideas and avenues through which HGTV and TED’s partnership could grow if the initial one-year partnership proved to be successful.
A) TEDx TED is looking for partners to support the TEDx events. TEDx are TED-like events that organizations can host in communities. The TEDx partnership team would discuss opportunities with each partner separately, since TEDx evens are very unique and each one is different. HGTV can include TEDx partnership in the contract (provided TED is not just looking for monetary donors), in exchange for having two free TEDx events. HGTV would host one TEDx for employees of HGTV and the second one would be a TEDx at a university level. For example: TEDx Inspiring mill(ennials) to appeal to the younger demographic. These events could also be made available online by applying to another license.
B) “HGTV IN THE CLOUD” COMPETITION TED holds a competition every year called TED Prize. The prize is $ 1million to those winning ideas/individuals that present an inspiring, ambitious, and high-impact wish. The winner of TED Prize 2013 was an educational researcher Dr. Sugata Mitra . His idea was to recruit technology, architecture, creative, and educational partners to help design and build the School in the Cloud, a physical building in India, designed to try out a range of cloud-
based, scalable approaches to self-directed learning.
By partnering with TED, HGTV has the opportunity to contribute to the creation of the project, which would have an impact worldwide. HGTV can help build a school in the cloud by finding the right talent to meet Sugata’s. Currently, Sugata is looking for help in several areas including technology, marketing, architecture, and automated remote systems. HGTV could hold a contest to find five different talented individuals from different fields to work together, under the counsel of John Gidding, to get Sugata different partners that would provide the hardware Sugata needs and find the right professional/ technical talent to make that happen.
C) TED.COM TED Conversations It is a platform to ask questions, share ideas, even debate. Partners can have sponsored conversations, ask a question, and tap into the expertise of the TED community. TED Blogs
The TED blog with featured topics is another online avenue to reach those TEDsters who are hungry for learning and boosting their creativity.