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PBS Annual Meeting: Millennial Manifesto
- 1. #PBSam
- 2. #PBSam MILLENNIAL MANIFESTO By Andi McDaniel, @tptandi
- 3. #PBSam WE NEED THIS GUY.
- 5. #PBSam PUBLIC TV HAS A PROBLEM.
- 8. #PBSam HUH?
- 9. #PBSam
- 10. #PBSam I TOLD YOU WE NEED THIS GUY.
- 11. #PBSam
- 12. #PBSam “ENRICH LIVES AND STRENGTHEN OUR COMMUNITY THROUGH THE POWER OF MEDIA.”
- 13. #PBSam AN OFFER HE CAN REFUSE.
- 15. #PBSam MISSION
- 16. #PBSam
- 17. #PBSam PRINCIPLE 1: THE CONTINUUM OF SUPPORT
- 18. #PBSam PRINCIPLE 2: THEY ALREADY LIKE US!
- 19. #PBSam PRINCIPLE 3: ORIGINAL WEB CONTENT ARE YOU MN ENOUGH?
- 20. #PBSam PRINCIPLE 4: EVERYONE’S A MAKER
- 21. #PBSam
- 22. #PBSam PRINCIPLE 5: LET’S PLAY
- 23. #PBSam HERE HE IS AGAIN.
Editor's Notes
- Good morning. I’m Andi McDaniel. I’m leading a new initiative at Twin Cities Public Television called Open Air—which you’ll hear more about in a bit. I’m so honored to be here today. I’m mainly excited because I get to use a teleprompter—but I’m also thrilled because I care deeply about public media, and I’m energized by the challenge of bringing it to life for a new generation.
- In the next 7 minutes I’m going to do my best to convince you of two things. One is this– that public television absolutely should work to attract and serve smart, young culturally creative media consumers. And #2 is that it’s not going to be as hard as we think.
- First though, just a little bit about myself. My background is in journalism– I’ve spent time working as a magazine writer, as a public radio reporter in Alaska, in commercial television, as a photographer. Journalism and storytelling have begun to blur together for me—so that platform seems irrelevant. When I began working at TPT 3 years ago, I didn’t own a TV—and I am not unusual. But I am passionate about media and in particular, media in the public interest. The other thing I want to share about myself is that I’m a girl who likes a project.
- And public television right now, has a little bit of a problem. Essentially, we’re realllly good at reaching folks like…
- This.
- And folks like this.
- But not so great at reaching folks like this. Meet Bob.
- As one of the larger stations in the country, TPT has over 80,000 members, many of them sustainers. But only 200 of them are between the ages of 18 and 34. Gulp. Since individual contributions make up nearly 50 percent of our operating revenue-- our stable base--that’s a problem. Older people are...growing older. (Boomers, thankfully, will never die, but nonetheless).
- So why doesn’t Bob support public television? I’m fairly certain I saw on Facebook that he contributed $25 to his buddy’s Kickstarter campaign about speculative fiction. Whatever that is.
- So what makes Bob willing to support a cause like that, but not our cause?
- Certainly it’s not TPT’s mission, which I find to be incredibly inspiring. And I don’t see any reason why Bob shouldn’t feel the same way.
- Oh wait. There is this. He’s probably not all that into MoTown, and he most certainly isn’t in to CDs. And yet, goodies like these are central to our fundraising model– which by the way, continues to work pretty darn well. So how do we earn Bob’s support, without offending…
- This lady.
- At TPT, we’ve decided to attempt it– we’re taking the essence of our mission and giving it a mustache-- through a new initiative we’re calling Open Air.
- I’m going to share with you the 5 principles guiding this initiative-- we think they’re applicable to any station.
- Principle 1: The continuum of support. Bob might not pony up to support public television for a while-- after all, he’s only making minimum wage at that organic cafe where he’s flipping veggie burgers. But if we can get him to like us on Facebook today-- or come to one of our events, then we can enter his consciousness so that once he becomes disillusioned and gets a job as a banker... he might move to the other end of the spectrum. But we’re not going to get there if we don’t build a relationship first.
- Principle 2. This is good news! Contrary to popular belief, Millennials actually already watch and appreciate much of our content-- like everyone else, they’re watching Downton Abbey, as well as cooking shows, Frontline, NOVA specials, and kids shows. So as part of Open Air we’re going to be holding events that bring those shows to life in a new way. To give one example, last week we held Red, White & Brew—an event at a local bar where we combined clips from Constitution USA with Peter Sagal—which TPT produced—with improv comedy and audience interaction.
- Principle 3. Even though they do like some of our existing content, it’s still imperative that we invest in new content that speaks to them. Digital natives have a different aesthetic, a different attention span, different habits. So in addition to engaging them around the content they already like, we’re working on a web series that is made for them and with them from the get go. It’s called Are You MN Enough, it’s about Minnesota and I promise it will explain once and for all the difference between hot dish and casserole.
- Principle 4. We’re not the only storytellers in town anymore. So we’re looking for opportunities to connect with and celebrate local filmmakers, animators, makers of all kinds.
- There are foundations and others who are interested in helping us reach this demographic. We’ve just received a grant from the NEA to allow us to produce a project called TV Takeover. We realized that the Twin Cities are overflowing with creative, connected artists and makers so we’re working with them to put together 2 hour programs featuring their own work and work they love—the TV Takeover programs will preempt our regular programming, and we’ll have concurrent viewing parties in our studios.
- Principle 5. We can be smart and still be playful. Research by Comedy Central determined that while previous generations defined themselves by their music-- Millennials define themselves by humor. So whatever we do, we’ve got to have fun with it. As part of Open Air, we’ve decided to participate in the all night Northern Spark art festival this summer—attended by 20,000 mostly young Minnesotans. We’ve invited an artist to take some serious archival footage of ours—and create a playful, interactive experience in our broadcast studio. Microsoft Kinect technology will put participants inside the old footage.
- Obviously, that’s just a fast overview of what we’re up to. But to close I’d like to try and articulate the question that seems to puzzle all of us when it comes to Millennials. And that is, can we do it all? Is it possible to reach a new, digital native audience without compromising our core audience? I believe the answer is yes. I believe it’s not an either-or proposition. Because what you, and me, and my Mom, all have in common—is an appreciation for smart, good content that is created not for profit, but to help us all know more and be more. And what could be cooler than that?
- Thank you so much for your time—and with that, I’ll hand things back over to Jason.