Comedy Central: Repositioning using our Believers Pyramid

comedy central

How do you build your brand around a true purpose?

DON’T BE FOOLED BY A SMILE… Comedy Central is one of the channels of the MTV group.

Their essence is about, well, comedy of course! But when we discussed with their team, they were hardly laughing.

Comedy Central, they felt, had become a disconnected collection of so-called funny shows. Somehow the channel lacked a spirit. And advertising sales were not good, confirming there was an issue.

They wanted to help to rebuild the Comedy Central brand in a way that made more sense.

COMEDY MATTERS Our work started from a simple idea: laughter may define the brand – but it’s not its purpose. It’s its “product”, but it’s not its reason for being. So why is laugher important?

Laughter, we figured out, is what allows things to be put in perspective. When life feels like a burden, when we need to make it bearable, humor is a weapon. In “The Great Dictator” we use it to ridicule the powerful, when we can’t defeat them. In “Life Is Beautiful”, we use it to come to terms with pain, when we can’t alleviate it. In “Mr. Bean”, we use it to look at our flaws with a little love, when we can’t change them. In the deepest struggles, just as in the everyday frustrations we deal with, a change of perspective is what we need to see life differently. Laughter heals, moves, pushes the boundaries, and brings people together.

Comedy, we found out, matters – even if it should never be taken seriously.

A BELIEVER’S PYRAMID To help the team structures their work, we needed to redefine the essence of Comedy Central around this idea.

But a brand’s essence is more complex than a product description. To redefine Comedy Central, we used a tool we call the “Believer’s Pyramid”, a positioning tool that reflects the richness of what brands can be.

Every brand can be defined that three elements that interact:

1.

A Human Truth – the essential belief that the brand has about the people that it serves. For Comedy Central, it is the idea that « Comedy Matters ».

2.

A Brand Truth – the point of view that a brand upholds, and makes people identify with it. At Comedy Central, we defined this point of view as « We believe in the power of humor ». A point of view that gave sense to what they were doing : Comedy Central could stop being just a pile of funny stuff – it had a role to play in our lives.

3. A Product Truth –

the point of view of the brand, brought to life into a product that people can buy.

The people at Comedy Central redefined their offering as « the comic relief center ».

The programming changed. Live acts were introduced, and much care was given to the development of a grittier grid.

LAUGHTER ACTIVISTS For the team, it also changed reality. They were “cartoon screeners”, they became “laughter activists”, and it impacted the way they did their jobs.

They produced a manifesto film, to bring to life the essence of their brand. A film in which the speaker would say: “Don’t be fooled by a smile, comedy matters, even when we don’t take it seriously”.

At Comedy Central Benelux, where we did this work, the morale surged, and the pride came back. The team came to work every morning with a clear sense of why their job made sense: “We unlock the power of humor”. In a year, advertising sales grew significantly. Working with a purpose, for Comedy Central, made a difference.

INN The B ATE TOOL: elieve rs CATEG Pyramid ORY Media : COUN TRY Hollan : d

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