Is your Job Title holding you back?

It’s time to upgrade that television producer title

In the universe of distribution channels, there’s a concept called “Product Category Value” (PCV) which basically is a number you want to pay attention to, in case you are distributing a product, like let’s say underwear.

You don’t want to waste your time and resources aiming to distribute in every single store. When focusing on PCV, you are making sure that your product is being distributed in the stores were people are spending money on underwear.

This is awesome when it comes to understanding the distribution of tangible items, such as underwear, but what about if your products were ideas… content.

Let’s replace underwear with ideas… and talk about distribution.

It’s an interesting exercise. When you are in the communications business you want to distribute your ideas where the eyes and ears are. Because the money (advertisers or subscribers) are paying attention to the platforms where ratings are.

Notice, I mention eyes and ears, and this is basically because when you are in the content development business, regardless if it’s television or radio, or how they like to call it today, video and audio, you don’t produce concepts or communicate ideas with an electronic device in mind. You do it for your audience. We care about the distribution of ideas. It doesn’t matter where the screen or speaker is located.

Now the platforms are not store shelves, and they all have different formats to accommodate their audience social interaction or consumption habits. If underwear design was like ideas, you would need to design one model for each of the stores where you distribute. You will need to design one model for Facebook, one for Snapchat, one for Podcast, one for TV, one for OTTs, VODs, Radio a la Carte, one for Instagram with the square format, and other for Instagram with the vertical stories format. We can only be thankful underwear is not distributed the same way ideas are.

Develop content that is malleable across different platforms

When you are in the communication and content development business, you have to design concepts that are malleable, meaning that they are adaptable to different, existing and new platforms. You want to make sure that your ideas are distributed where the eyes and ears are.

As a Content Developer, or Producer, we are in the business of distributing, communicating, curating, and adapting ideas to audiences in general, carefully adjusting to all the platforms available.

To no surprise, I have designed and developed adaptable programming and content that was relevant in Television, as well as in Radio, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, YouTube, Podcasts, VOD, Syndicated segments, even Periscope and Meerkat back when they were a thing… And most of the time these versions needed to be created and delivered with the same team of “television” producers.