CNN strengthens brand equity amid recession

“The global recession has undeniably been tough for CNN as it has for everybody. However, one of the positives for CNN in an economic downturn is that our brand equity continues to be very strong. Our audience has been shown to have a strong emotional connection with our brand,” Raad says.

“Also, the current state of the economy has presented real opportunities for the brands that can still find advertising dollars to increase their market share (as opposed to their revenue), while the environment is quieter and others are feeling the pinch.”

While London-based Raad admits that marketing budgets are the first to be cut when money is tight, he points out however that CNN has done well by working hard to find viable and creative business solutions, not only for its existing clients, but also for new commercial partners.

“We will continue to innovate across our many properties - including TV, online and mobile. We haven't had to carry out on any major cost-cutting exercises but we do look very carefully at head-count. We're still investing in our product.”

New trends stimulate creativity

Raad, who will have a busy schedule in SA, arrives in Johannesburg on Friday and flies to Durban afterwards ahead of the 2009 CNN-MultiChoice African Journalist of Year Awards.

Furthermore, he says that he has noticed some new trends going on across the advertising industry which makes media owners take a lead in creativity amid the crisis, and change the way they work with agencies.

He explains: “Undoubtedly the tourism sector has been pretty resilient and we're actually seeing an up-lift there. Our tourism consultancy service, the TASK (Tourism Advertising Solutions & Knowledge) Group, has never been more relevant as tourist boards around the world continue to advertise through the tough times to retain market share.”

Little content overlap

Asked to paint a picture of CNN's operations in Africa, Europe and Middle East, compared to the US, in terms of marketing and advertising forces, Raad has this say: “CNN advertising marketplace in Europe, Middle East and Africa versus CNN's US marketplace is completely different because we have quite a different audience.

“Our audience in Europe, the Middle East and Africa are affluent opinion leaders. They are geographically and platform agnostic and our international product and operations mirror this. You won't see our US advertising clients on our international feed because there is so little overlap in our content (our international feed shows just 5% US programming). The clients who advertise on our international channel are exporting their business internationally, rather than domestically.”

CNN's longstanding involvement with South Africa include tourism and travel Indaba, and Raad says one of the most creative campaigns the network has produced over the past 12 months by its in-house creative production team Turner Commercial Productions (TCP) is the "My South Africa" campaign for South African Tourism.

CNN International is a global 24-hour news network that broadcasts in more than 240 million television households (Europe: 135m, Middle East: 25m and 13 million in Africa), in more than 200 countries and territories through a network of 38 satellites.

CNN International bureaux include Abu Dhabi, Baghdad, Beirut, Berlin, Cairo, Dubai, Istanbul, Islamabad, Jerusalem, Johannesburg, Kabul, Lagos, London, Madrid, Moscow, Paris and Rome.