Tivo

Then-startup brand TiVo offered M/P the opportunity to introduce their game-changing technology, allowing consumers to watch what they want when they wanted. Past failures of “on-demand TV” loomed, and the concept of “time shifting,” or watching primetime shows out of primetime, was unheard of and frightening to networks, advertisers and content partners. And the brand had no demonstrable product ready for 12 months, leaving M/P with only a PowerPoint presentation to sway these audiences. Through very strategic communications with each group of stakeholders, and some creative analyst relations, M/P helped TiVo to become a first mover in the industry, and a verb in popular culture.

Once upon a time, the VCR was the top dog of home consumer electronics for on-demand video. Everybody knew there had to be a better solution, and along came a startup named TiVo. In introducing the future of television, M/P needed to make the television networks comfortable with change, establish the concept of the Digital Video Recorder with consumers and manufacturers and make TiVo a household name – all without a demonstrable product.

M/P felt strongly that the TV ecosystem would have to first get on board before communications could be extended to the consumer. The agency developed a strategic, cascading communications approach to tell and retell the TiVo storyline to first calm and then excite different audiences and media categories. This was powered by “programs within a program” – each geared toward educating stakeholders on the benefits of DVR to their bottom line.

M/P also created one of the first industry evangelists – a handpicked, emerging analyst who could speak to the forthcoming convergence.

M/P helped TiVo become a verb in popular culture, establishing first-mover status in the market and resulting in a victorious mindshare battle with competitor Replay TV. M/P’s work demonstrated positive bottom-live business impact for the technology with networks, consumer-electronics partners and other necessary stakeholders, generated nearly two years of positive major ongoing mass media coverage and brought in a variety of business partnerships for the company.