Cartoon Network New Media sounds like a fun place to work. Take Ross Cox’s word for it. The network’s senior director of entertainment products said it often feels like he’s working at a toy store. That analogy came through when RCR Wireless News had the opportunity to interview him a few weeks back. From describing the mobile space as a “sandbox” to being on the “leading edge of disruption,” it’s clear Cox and his colleagues are enjoying their work on many levels.We caught up with Cox just before he headed out the door for a holiday break.
It seems Cartoon Network has a unique opportunity for play on cellphones. What’s your overall strategy for breaking further into this market?
I represent both facets of the Cartoon Network in regards to the kids’ properties in cartoons and the adults in Adult Swim. In both places, we want to be where our viewers are so that’s kind of the motivation for us to extend ourselves in as many areas as possible. Not only in the core competency of the network in video, but as well in the interactive capacities of gaming.
We want to be where our viewers are, and and we want to be relevant contextually. So strategically when we look at the phone, we look at the Internet, we look at other advanced platforms like IPTV; we want to reach those spaces in terms of what works for those spaces.
In mobile, we’ve focused in short-form content as a specialty. We’re actually creating episodes that are three minutes in length, short-form, wholly contained episodes instead of clips that you’ll find on a lot of mobile services. We’re actually going to our show creators and they’re creating shorter form episodes that we’re running on mobile.
Is there a lot of overlap or cross-connection between those platforms?
We want to create the differentiated experience. We’re not blasting the same clip out in the same places. We’re doing something different for each platform. We’re basically focusing around a celebration or a tent-pole event for the network through our programming group. The same people that are looking at on-air are also looking at the multiplatform space, which is extremely exciting.
Cartoon Network is going after kids and their cellphones, but I understand the company is pursuing teens and young adults as well. Can you talk about this?
Everybody here not only works for the network, we love the network and we want to see the content and the programming go to as many places as it can. In mobile, audiences are skewing older so we’re actually seeing our Cartoon Network audience reach a new demographic that doesn’t necessarily exist online. That’s pretty cool for us.
On the Adult Swim side, it’s the perfect demographic for mobile users, which is the 18-to-24 audience. Those are your iPhone buyers and early adopters in the male demographic. We’ve got gold on the side of Adult Swim in that regard for that demographic.
But we’ve also got a lot of things on the cartoon side happening. Obviously kids’ content is always going to do well wherever you have a kid that is a fan. So we want to make it obvious to the parent that the content is out there. There’s a phenomenon that we’re seeing happen, it’s called pass-back content. The parents are in the car, they’re driving, they’re going somewhere, and they take their phone, they tune it to one of the Cartoon Network channels and they pass it over their heads to the back seat and say ”Hey, watch this.’ We’re also seeing some nostalgia happening with some of our properties on the parent side.
How can a brand as big as Cartoon Network still offer its fans that experience without having to put all the investment into building an MVNO?
One thing we have willingly decided is that we’re really not going down that MVNO route. We’ve got great relationships with the carriers. We really see ourselves being on the content side of the business, we don’t want to be that phone company. The phone companies can be the phone companies. We want the carriers to be the carriers and support their networks and create a differentiated product offering. And we want to be in each one of those places on their deck. So with Verizon, for instance, we’re on Vcast, we’re on there with Cartoon Network, we’re on there with Adult Swim and we’re on there with Smashing Ideas through our new Flash games channel. We’re excited to talk to the people in charge of the entertainment groups at the carriers because we can tell them: ‘Hey, guess what? Not only are we in your video services now, we’re working with a partner of yours to bring more differentiated programs to you in many different ways.’ It’s always exciting for them to hear that we’re speaking to people or they want us to talk to somebody that’s doing project X or something like that. It’s really cool to just be able to join forces and expand the family, if you will.
Is it difficult to find the reach you’re after when you have to deal with so many operators and aggregators?
No, at least it hasn’t been for us. We’ve got some great partnerships out there that are very interested in the two different worlds that we bring to the table with Cartoon Network and Adult Swim.
We’ve been tremendously fortunate to have these relationships that have really helped propel our video channels in mobile. But in terms of gaming too, what’s been a very interesting factor over [the last] year is just seeing how the mobile industry itself as a disruptor is being disrupted.
In our world, mobile was somewhat considered at one point in time as a disruptor to traditional, linear video. The Internet, when it came out, was considered as a potential disruptor to linear video networks and then mobile was similarly classified as that. As networks are becoming more savvy and folding
it into their portfolio of screens, they think about that when they program.
Then you’ve got the iPhone that comes out of the blue and is a disruptor to mobile. From a consumer perspective, it’s a lot of fun to watch. Honestly it builds better product for all of us out there who enjoy mobile devices as part of our life. But, from a business perspective, it’s an extremely exciting time too because you see a whole new genesis that’s happening in terms of phone developers. And looking at the form factors that Apple has brought to the table here and looking at touch screens, you’re seeing them on the front page of brochures for Verizon. It’s pretty exciting.
To us, the story of 2007 has been the disruption of 2008. . Just when we think we’re starting to get a little bit comfortable with the environment, another disruptor enters the phase and changes the game again. We’re going to be wherever that disruption edge is – the leading edge of disruption. I hate to say that, but it’s kind of a fun place to be. We’re planning on playing in that sandbox.
Can you give a sense of how much growth Cartoon Network has experienced on mobile? Where do you see things really beginning to take off?
In years past, the smartphone that ran a higher operating system and allowed you to do a lot more computer and PC-centric things. You’re seeing that technology now filtering down to the middle of the phone spectrum, the mid range and the mid technology at the mid cost. I think that’s going to help kind of spur the rush to the phone in terms of video and gaming services. The technology’s getting better and better and more affordable.
What are some of the things we can expect to see from Cartoon Network coming down the road?
You’ll see some innovative stuff. You’re certainly going to be able to tell that we’re having fun. We want to play in the most fun places out there to play so that’s where you should look for us.
What excites you most about your role in this space?
I love the technology that I work with. So being able to actually influence what’s built and put into these devices, it’s like I work in a toy store. I’m a fan of the content, and I’m a fan of technology so I can’t imagine a better place to be, to be honest with you.
