You Are the Brand

TODAY: It’s about Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow

I’m a bit biased when I talk about NBC News’s TODAY show.That’s partly because I’ve been on the program many times over the past several years as a media and communication expert and have greatly enjoyed every appearance on what many consider to be the number-one network morning show on the air.The TODAY show is turned on first thing in the morning in my own house as well as in the homes of many other relatives and longtime friends and professional colleagues.You become a bit partial when you have such emotional, direct connection to such an enduring institution. The TODAY brand is highly successful in a world where media success is so fleeting. We live in an age dominated by short-lived “reality show” gimmicks that create incredibly popular brands one day, but whose names we can’t remember the next. This fact makes it especially impressive on many levels that the TODAY show brand has become such a strong part of our American culture for fifty-eight years. The show is an institution. It is an icon. And that doesn’t happen by accident. Regardless of your profession, there are many lessons to be learned from how the TODAY brand has been built and more importantly how it has sustained itself through so many decades and trends. Something for Everyone TODAY is a powerful television brand that millions of Americans relate to on a very deep and personal level. Viewers feel like they know Matt, Meredith, Ann Curry, and of course Al Roker. These people are so familiar to us that we feel like we know them, even though we haven’t actually met them in person. 142 TODAY It’s about Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow Adubato_(Brand)_final 4/11/11 11:29 AM Page 142 TODAY’s appeal to a wildly varied demographic is illustrated in my own family. I’ve already told you that I’m a fan. But it’s unusual that any TV show that I love grabs the loyalty of my wife and eighteen-year-old son also. My wife watches the TODAY show every morning and works out while watching the show on a regular basis. My son Stephen also loves the program. He has been to the TODAY plaza on numerous occasions at ridiculous hours of the morning to see acts such as Beyoncé,Alicia Keys, and Jay-Z. In fact, while not many members of my family pay much attention to my own TV work, they are attentive, impressed, and even accompany me to the studio on occasions when I do a TODAY show. The diverse appeal of TODAY is not unique to my family. Every time I’ve done a TODAY show, I get e-mails, text messages, and phone calls from people across the country that I haven’t talked to in years. This shows me in a very concrete way that the TODAY show’s audience is very diverse and far-reaching, and more important , very loyal.This audience doesn’t flip around to other morning programs—a factor in sustaining a brand that is incredibly rare in the 24/7 multimedia platform world that we live in today. Why is that?The answer to this question is what we all need to know about building a brand if we hope to appeal to a wide and loyal consumer base. Begin with Trust I have a good relationship with TODAY executive producer Jim Bell, who has been at the helm of the show since April 2005. When I asked Jim how he would describe the TODAY brand, he responded: “First and foremost, the key word is trust.We are on television at a time of day when most people wouldn’t want to talk to or spend time with friends or family. Mornings are challenging, especially for parents as they prepare breakfast, find socks, and pack lunches and homework. We take it very seriously that this is a vulnerable time for people to let us into their home. “There is a relationship, a connective tissue, which exists in morning television that is unique. This is not to say that the same people don’t have the same feeling in the evening, but if you walk TODAY 143 Adubato_(Brand)_final 4/11/11 11:29 AM Page 143 around with Matt, Meredith, orAl, you can feel the...