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Reaching 400 million households in 166 countries via 42 different channels, MTV is quite simply the only global music television brand. Of course, there were plenty of people who did not think it would work.

MTV was established by a small group of enthusiasts at an organisation called Warner Amex Satellite Entertainment Company, a joint cable TV venture between Warner Communications and American Express. One of the inspirations for the channel was Mike Nesmith, a former member of the 1960s band The Monkees, who had been making pioneering pop videos for his solo recordings and for other artists. Wasec’s vice-president and CEO, John Lack, approached Nesmith and asked him to make a test version of MTV, which was shown on children’s channel Nickelodeon.

Although viewers were receptive to the idea, Nesmith eventually decided that he did not want to be involved in “a channel full of commercials for records”.

But Lack was convinced that music television had a future. He managed to persuade Wasec’s conservative owners that, as record companies usually provided promotional videos free, the channel would be cheap to run.

Then he surrounded himself with likeminded people, including Tom Freston, now chairman of MTV Networks, who was hired as the channel’s regional marketing director.

“I’d been involved in marketing before, but I’’d sort of dropped out,” Freston recalls. “I’d been working at an advertising agency, and when they assigned me to a toilet paper account, I knew it wasn’t for me. I travelled around the world and fell in love with Asia.

“For a while I had a clothing business in Afghanistan, but I realised that I didn’t want to stay there all my life. A wise decision.”

Back in the US, Freston was scanning the music industry trade journal Billboard when he read about “this unnamed music channel” that was looking for enthusiastic people. He applied right away.

“I’d always been a music aficionado of the highest order, and the idea of a music channel just knocked me out,” says Freston. “I thought it was a total winner. Videos were just starting to get screened in downtown clubs in New York – although they really began in Europe, because it was the way bands would promote themselves over there.”

One of the biggest obstacles was selling the idea to cable operators. “Nobody saw the need for music television,” says Freston. “It didn’t help that none of the people we were talking to were in our target demographic. The cable operators were mostly engineers who were into sports and were terrified of the idea of rock music TV. Only a few agreed to carry us.”

Even the record companies hesitated at first, being naturally wary of providing free content. “Of course, Warner owned the company and some of the others played along to get us going,” says Freston. “And then when we launched, all the artists would be watching and ringing their record companies and asking why they weren’t on it.”

Freston knew from the start that MTV would succeed if it became a brand.

“Television had never really had brands before – people watched programmes rather than channels. But our format was borrowed from radio, with videos playing the role of records. We had to create a sense of cohesion so that the audience would identify with the channel and stay with it.”

Edgy and raw

A key part of this brand identity was the MTV logo, which was designed to look edgy and raw, like graffiti sprayed on a wall. “We paid about $1,000 to a small company called Manhattan Design,” says Freston. “The logo they came up with was primitive, which was exactly what we wanted, because our idea was to make the channel cartoon-like, not slick or corporate. Then we showed it to our advertising agency, Ogilvy & Mather, and they absolutely hated it. But we kept it, and they lost the account. I still see the guy occasionally, and he just grins at me ruefully.”

The logo was established in the opening moments of the channel, which featured doctored footage of the moon landing, with Neil Armstrong planting an MTV flag. The first video shown was Video Killed The Radio Star by Buggles. It was 1 August 1981.

MTV Europe went on air six years later – marking the start of the brand’s long evolution from a purely US product into the 42 tailored channels that are available across the world today. Brent Hansen, president and chief executive of MTV Networks Europe, admits that catering to the diverse tastes of a pan-European audience wasn’t easy.

“The channel was aimed at young people with mobility, rather than any specific nation, so it had to have an international flavour,” he says. “The only problem with that was that occasionally you ended up with a Scandinavian blonde talking about Italian music in English to a German audience.”

Even then, MTV was aware that it would have to regionalise. Hansen explains: “The cost of launching channel after channel in different countries in analogue was clearly prohibitive, so we had to get the brand out there first. The aim of MTV Europe was to grow European distribution, which would provide revenue for further regionalisation. It also helped us to build an advertising base.”

To spread the news that MTV was now available to European audiences, the broadcaster sponsored local artists and events, and helped international stars bring their tours to Europe. It also created the MTV Europe Music Awards.

“While the channel was supposedly aimed at people who thought of themselves as international, there was a slight danger that it might come to be seen as patronising,” says Hansen, an easy-going New Zealander. “I’ve always been sensitive to that, coming from a small country next to a somewhat larger one. I felt that after time we could end up providing something that, no matter how interesting and exotic it might seem, was largely irrelevant to our viewers’ lifestyles.”

Technology made this possible in 1994, when MTV went digital, enabling it to compress its signal and provide targeted “feeds” to different parts of Europe. Initially this meant local advertising slots, but the plan was to give each country’s music fans their own MTV channels, with presenters who spoke their own language, and local artists alongside the usual array of global superstars. Regular “network moments” like the music awards would sustain the overall MTV brand.

“There were signs that local broadcasterswere beginning to tread on our toes,” says Hansen. “But because we were MTV, we knew we could provide more creative programming, we could have a more dangerous edge and, finally, we had access to international artists that other channels didn’t.”

The company has spread unhindered across the globe – MTV Networks International president Bill Roedy states proudly that eight out of 10 MTV viewers are now outside the US, and that fewer than 1% of its 2,000 employees are American.

“We’re not in the business of exporting US culture,” he says. “Instead, we have an approach that crosses borders and can resonate in different ways in different markets.

In Taiwan it’s very edgy and in your face, in India it’s Bollywood and colourful, in Brazil it’s vibrant and sexy, and in China there is more of an accent on family values. All of our channels are locally run, and they’re free to interpret the brand any way they choose.”

Nobody seems to think this constant tweaking could eventually damage the integrity of the brand. “It’s like the MTV logo,” says Brent Hansen. “The shape always stays the same, but over the years we’ve had a lot of fun with it.”

Youth lifestyle entertainment

MTV has no intention of putting the brakes on its evolution. The company’s latest buzzphrase is “the 360-degree MTV experience” – which involves providing music and “youth lifestyle entertainment” across as many platforms as possible: not just TV, but also online, via broadband and on mobile phones.

At the time of writing, MTV has no fewer than 27 localised websites, enabling users to download music and videos. In May 2003 MTV Networks Europe bought 50% of French videogames channel Game One in partnership with French media company Atari. And the growth in popularity of text messaging has allowed the company to become increasingly interactive, with viewers submitting votes for their favourite artists.

Traditional media remains important too, and MTV regularly releases branded books, CDs and DVDs linked to its content. For some time, it has had a partnership with sister Viacom company Paramount Pictures to develop movies for its target group.

Despite this proliferation of services, there is no indication that MTV intends to distance itself from the music that has been its bread and butter. In Europe alone, recent developments have included a winter live rock event, Winterjam, and a summer dance party called Isle of MTV. Even more heartening is the Night With... strand, featuring artists such as Bruce Springsteen, Mariah Carey and Moby performing live across the network.

In addition, digital technology is enabling the company to target even smaller audience niches. While it continues to regionalise, it has also begun to home in on pop culture’s disparate tribes, launching specialist dance, rock and rap stations.

Bill Roedy says: “In the UK alone we have nine channels, and there’s no reason why we shouldn’t continue to expand. Digital allows you to reach specific demographic groups.”

This is an edited extract from Media Monoliths – how great media brands thrive and survive  published in hardback by Kogan Page, priced £22.50

In brief

Media brand: MTV

Owner: Viacom

Viewers: 400 million households in 166 countries (Source: MTV)

Key marketing strategies:

Localisation, “aggressive, creative, relentless” distribution, on-air self-promotion, exporting brand to new technological platforms, high-profile concerts and events, syndicated content

Brand extensions: CDs, DVDs, movies (in partnership with Paramount Pictures), books, merchandising and licensing of TV properties

Website:

MTV.com (plus country-specific sites)