In the past year, The History Channel has taken larger strides into online marketing and found that interactivity has many benefits.

Susan Nicholson has worked with the A&E family of cable entertainment brands for 16 years in sales and marketing. Her background was in traditional media, but in the past year, she was given the challenge of leading online initiatives for The History Channel.

iMedia Connection: What are the most significant roles online plays in building and expanding your brand?

Nicholson: The most important thing that our online advertising plays is to try to reach viewers who may not necessarily watch The History Channel, to get new viewers, to get them to watch whatever show we’re advertising. So it’s all about targeting specific people, because each of our shows on The History Channel is very distinct. And maybe someone who watches “Russia” may not be interested in watching “Alamo.” So online really gives us the opportunity to target those people who would be interested in that subject matter.

We also have other extensions—the potential of direct interaction with our customers like surveys and sign-ups, polls, quizzes, viral email. So we have opportunities there that we wouldn’t have in other media.

Online also gives us the opportunity to measure [visibility] whereas other media do not. Print, radio and billboards are harder to measure, how many people actually notice them, while online we have that capability.

iMedia Connection: What can’t online do, despite what everyone would like to believe?

Nicholson: There are things we don’t know about online; there’s no way of knowing if online is driving viewership. So if we are interested in the ratings of a program, we really don’t know if people online are going to watch the show. We know they’re going to the site, but we don’t have a way of knowing if they’re actually watching the program. 

iMedia Connection: Is that something that ITV can relieve?

Nicholson: Oh yeah. I’m not very knowledgeable about that end of it, but our Web site people are very hot on new technologies like ITV, and they’re very interested in seeing how we can use it from our Web site perspective.

iMedia Connection: How does online fit in with the rest of your marketing efforts? Does it stand alone or do you take an integrated approach?

Nicholson: We definitely take integrated approach with our online marketing. If we have a marquee program that we are supporting offline, we will take the creative that we’re using with that and apply it to online creative. We would also create a mini site that is so full of content specific to that program, and that vehicle has been wonderful. “JFK” is a perfect example. People got to see the JFK-Nixon debate video, images, timelines—there was so much information. Online always fits in to our marketing efforts. At this point, it may not be the driving force, but it is always a key element as of this year.

iMedia Connection: Will the size of online within your mix change this year?

Nicholson: Yes. As more people become wiser, knowledgeable to the whole online forum, I think that we’ll be seeing more media buys that have online components. It’s very exciting—we’re at that point right now where it’s just about to explode for us.

iMedia Connection: What has been your biggest online success—alone or as part of a larger campaign or promotion?

Nicholson: From the Web site perspective, one of our shows, “Comic Book Superheroes,” probably had one of the best successes. We do find that we had many. “Russia,” “Failure Is Not an Option,” “JFK,” “Remember the Alamo,” were all successful online campaigns in different areas. Each had a unique success story. “Russia” was our highest rated show and I do think that online contributed to that.

iMedia Connection: What’s your biggest online frustration or challenge?

Nicholson: I think it’s making compelling creative without annoying the user. I go online a lot, and there are things that are in your face, and it can be annoying, although it gets your attention. So that and the fact that we really don’t know whether people who see an ad are really going to watch the program.

iMedia Connection: What do you have to spend time convincing management that online can or can’t do?

Nicholson: The more we see success with our campaigns that have included online, the more open-minded they become to using it more often. I think some of the things are the various kinds of options that you have to promote, whether we want to do third-party advertising or the type of creative we use. Those are always going to be a challenge to see how this next campaign is going to be more unique from the one we just did.

We just did a campaign where we had another company create a blog that did not go after our typical History Channel viewer, but went after bloggers, who were very interested in the program “Barbarians.” So I think it took a little bit for us to convince the management of opening up the scope of who we can reach to possibly increase our viewership. To spend this kind of money on that has been a challenge, but it’s becoming less so.

iMedia Connection: Do you expect to do more or less educating internally about online than last year?

Nicholson: Oh, less. I still have a lot to learn myself. It’s only been a year since I started to work in this arena, but everyone understands the value that it brings, and that makes them want to know more. Our content manager is thrilled when people are referring more and more to the Web site and what our online component can do for our company.

iMedia Connection: What one thing would you like agencies to “get” about your needs and your business?

Nicholson: One of the challenges we have being a cable network is that it’s not a packaged good—our shelf life is very short. If we don’t get them to watch that show on that night, then we’ve lost them. There’s a “delicateness” about what the creative can be. It can turn a potential viewer off so easily—or turn them on. That’s one of the hardest things: to let them know how sensitive our timing is. We need to be able to make the best impact to reach the most people in a short amount of time.

Also, where our creative lands on the pages of these sites affects our potential viewership. We can have a wonderful PointRoll piece on one site and get a lot of impressions from that, but then we have a straight banner on another site because it can’t accept the PointRoll. It does OK, but it doesn’t make the impact that the PointRoll made on the other sites.

Another thing that would help the communication is… I have a media buying agency and I have a creative agency. It would be really great if they understood each other. Initially, working with different agencies was like: “You’re supposed to ask them for the information,” and the other says, “You’re supposed to ask them for this information.” We were like, “OK… you guys are the experts!” So that was a little frustration, but it has worked through itself. 

iMedia Connection: What’s the next big thing online and how will you use it?

Nicholson: Broadband. It’s already started, but I think it’s definitely something because our Web site is expanding more—video on demand especially. If we can deliver specific content in whatever format [the Web users] want, they’ll come back for more. And getting the market research derived from new technology like ITV is… wow. That’s wonderful.