PinkSneakers_FinalDraft_Nelson

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Strategic Business Proposalfor

For: Pink Sneakers Productionshttp://www.pinksneakers.net Prepared On: April 2, 2015 Prepared By: Danielle Cannova, Madison Dickey, Shannon McCann, Emma Nelson, HJ Kim, and Carlos Rivas Instructor Name: Victoria Hernandez

CONTENTS

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Introduction...................................................................................................................... 3

Executive Summary......................................................................................................... 3

1. Organizational Challenges & Proposed Solution............................................... 3-4Organizational Challenges............................................................................................... 3Proposed Solution........................................................................................................ 3-4

2. Environmental Scanning....................................................................................... 4-8Internal Analysis........................................................................................................... 4-6External Analysis.......................................................................................................... 6-8

3. Strategy Formulation.......................................................................................... 8-10Operations.................................................................................................................... 8Sales, Marketing, & Distribution................................................................................... 8-9Legal & Ethical............................................................................................................8-10

4. Proposal Budget & Projections....................................................................... 11-12Sales Projections........................................................................................................... 11Cost Analysis................................................................................................................. 12Project Budget............................................................................................................... 12

5. Strategy Implementation................................................................................... 12-13Timeline and Proposed Milestones.......................................................................... 12-13

6. Strategy Evaluation........................................................................................... 13-14Evaluation Strategy & Benchmarks.......................................................................... 11-12

7. Appendices and References............................................................................ 14-19References............................................................................................................... 12-14Appendices............................................................................................................... 17-19 Appendix 1:Competitive Analysis........................................................................ 17 Appendix 2:Organizational Chart.........................................................................17 Appendix 3: Sample Marketing Material ............................................................ 18

Appendix 4: Operation Cost Breakdown…………………………………………….19

Introduction

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Executive Summary

There’s always a new reality TV show capturing audiences around the world with it’s antics and drama, showcasing real people just like us in their daily lives. The people at Pink Sneakers Productions bring this kind of raw entertainment to you, and are aiming to air on televisions all over the world with the new show The Audience. This show will surround the life of fandom, and what it is really like to live a life focused on someone else- that someone being a celebrity. This proposal will go in depth into how The Audience will expand Pink Sneakers’ roster and expand their current audience. Through the use of social media and non-traditional advertising, the company will reach their demographic and motivate viewers to tune in weekly.

In the following proposal, the company will show you the different challenges and solutions that this organization will bring to this project, as well as an analysis of the market they are coming in to. This proposal will highlight the plan for our placement and promotion, as well as the financial aspect of the production as a whole. With so many shows highlighting the lives and accomplishments of celebrities themselves, it is compelling to get a look inside the life of an aficionado fan, and see how positive, or even destructive, it can be. The Audience offers a chance to glimpse into the lives of normal people, whose lives have been changed forever because of one person.

Danielle Cannova Madison Dickey Heejoong Kim

Emma Nelson Carlos Rivas Shannon McCann

1: Challenges & Solutions

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Organizational ChallengesCurrently, the reality TV show sector of the entertainment industry is extremely over saturated and production companies like Pink Sneakers Productions are suffering from it. Reality shows that used to dominate the TV world are seeing fewer viewers flocking to them in the past couple years (Dupont, 2015). There has been a huge decline in reality TV viewers, specifically in the last 10 years (Dupont, 2015). One of the biggest reality TV shows, “Survivor,” went from 50 million viewers, in its prime, to 9.7 million viewers for it’s most recent season (Dupont, 2015). Another huge reality TV show, “American Idol,” is also seeing a huge decline in their viewers in the last few years. At it’s peak in 2003, American Idol had 38 million viewers. The season one premiere drew in 6.76 million viewers. (Uffalussy, 2014). From these numbers alone you can see that huge reality shows are starting to lose traction in the market.  Even though this is true about reality TV, these shows are still being made. The reason that production companies are still producing reality TV, and networks are still buying them, is because they are made at a much lower cost than scripted TV shows  (Jerpi, n.d.). Because these shows aren’t going anywhere anytime soon, Pink Sneakers is looking to break the pattern of overdone reality TV shows and bring something fresh and new to the screen, that will bring reality TV back to life.

Proposed SolutionThe proposed solution is going to be a reality docuseries focused on intense, aficionado fans of artists and celebrities. For every episode the show will be focusing on three different fans of a celebrity. Pink Sneakers will be documenting the life of these three different fans and how their addiction to these artists and celebrities runs their life and how it affects them. The viewers see what it’s like to be truly obsessed with a life that is not their own. The show will feature these crazy, aficionado fans and how immersed they are in these celebrity’s lives. The season finale will be allowing one of these crazy fans to meet the artist or celebrity of their dreams.

A reality show that immerses you into the life of a super fan is a creative and fresh idea that will draw in tons of viewers. This is the right move for Pink Sneakers Productions because it will attract a new target market and would be a great fit on more than one of the networks that they work with, such as MTV. The company also believes this is the right move because the Pink Sneakers production team embraces and has developed a unique style of storytelling that allows characters to tell their story from their point of view and in their own voice, which goes along great with The Auidence’s theme (Pink Sneakers, 2015). This will solve the problems mentioned above for Pink Sneakers. Viewership of reality TV is down because of repetitiveness and unoriginality (Dupont, 2015). This new, creative, and unique idea will be giving the audience what they are hungry for (Dupont, 2015). It’s hard to come up with new ideas because of the saturated market that they are in, but this is one that will be able to capture the attention of many. Tom Nunan, from the UCLA's school of Theatre Film and Television, says that these shows are not doing well because they are “too derivative” and “not innovating” (Dupont, 2015). With that, Pink Sneakers knows that this proposed reality TV show will have great potential to be a huge hit (Dupont, 2015).

2: Environmental ScanningInternal AnalysisThese next sections will cover everything that happens within the company. It will go in depth about why and how the companies act and function. It will also tell you a little bit about the company, their financial standings, strengths and weaknesses. These sections will give you a better look into Pink Sneakers Productions.

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Company Overview

Pink Sneakers Productions is based out of Orlando and Los Angeles and was founded in 2001 by Kimberly Belcher Ehrhard. Kimberly, one of the Presidents and Executive Producers, is very passionate about what her and her co-President and Executive Producer, John Ehrhard, do. Pink Sneakers “has a vision of creating entertaining, informative and thought provoking programming. The Pink Sneakers production team embraces that vision and has developed a unique style of storytelling that allows characters to tell their story from their point of view and in their voice” (Pink Sneakers, 2015).  Pink Sneakers takes the time to make quality productions and to be able to convey the story and the characters in the correct way. They want to give the world a new and exciting addition to reality television.

Financial Standings

Pink Sneakers is a privately held company, so the only financials available was their annual revenue. From the research, Pink Sneakers has annual revenue of $17,500,000 (Lexis Nexis, 2015). When comparing their numbers to other similar companies in the market, they were seeing success (T Group Production Us, n.d., Bunim/Murray Productions, 2015). T Group Production, one of their competitors, had an annual revenue of $910,000 (T Group Production). That is almost twenty times more. Because Pink Sneakers is not publicly traded, so the public does not have access to their stock information. Pink Sneaker’s is doing well inside the market and is not facing any financial issues based on their competition’s financials (Lexis Nexis, 2015). Pink Sneakers believes that this new show, The Audience, will boost revenues for the company and help gain even more financial success.

Organizational Strengths

Pink Sneakers has had many different successful shows including MTV’s True Life, VH1’s Hogan Knows Best and Oxygen’s Fix My Choir (Pink Sneakers, 2015). Their success in the entertainment world has allowed for Pink Sneakers to grow as a company and compile a list of great connections in the industry. Pink Sneakers has built a reputation of producing quality content that speaks to audiences, and captures the characters and stories. This is a huge advantage that Pink Sneakers has. They have a great reputation inside the industry, which will help in the future when pitching The Audience to MTV and any other networks the company sees fit.  Pink Sneakers also has a lot of experience with reality TV. Because The Audience is a reality TV show and reality TV is what Pink Sneakers does best, know that there won’t be any issues with production because they have a lot of experience with these kinds of shows (Pink Sneakers, 2015). Having a strong background with reality TV is a great strength to have when producing The Audience.

Organizational Weaknesses

Although Pink Sneakers has had some very successful shows, they have also had some setbacks. Even though Pink Sneakers does have a variety of different shows, they have a handful of redneck themed shows (Pink Sneakers, 2015).  This can be a setback to potential customers because the television networks will come in with a closed mind. Pink Sneakers does do many different types of shows, but the success might not be as great as their others, and that can scare off the television networks. Adding more diversity with a show like The Audience would help them to be more appealing to potential deals in the future. Pink Sneakers has never done a show like The Audience so they will have to figure out how to market to a whole different group of people while making sure to not alienate the target market that they have now. Because Pink Sneakers is not solely focused on the target market that The Audience will have, this could be considered as a weakness of the company

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CustomersThe target market for this show is lower middle-class to upper middle-class females ages 13-26 living in the United States. They have cable and enjoy watching reality shows like True Life, Keeping Up with the Kardashians, Obsessed, or My Strange Addiction (MTV Demographics, 2013). They also like listening to music, going to concerts, hanging out with friends, and spending time on social media. They will watch the show because the “fandom” lifestyle is something they can relate to, or watch just purely for entertainment. The best advertising will be in commercials on MTV during similar reality shows, on YouTube, and on social media. Because the average age of people who watch TV is increasing, it’s best to target younger audiences online because that’s where they spend time (Kang, 2014).

The amount of people who watch reality TV has been decreasing, but shows with the same target audience, like Keeping Up with the Kardashians and Dance Moms, have somewhere between 1 million and 3.8 million viewers (Reality TV, 2015). That means the viewers for our show have the potential to have that many viewers as well. They will watch the show once a week and as mentioned before, they’re huge fans so they want to know that there are other people like them. Other people will watch just because they want to see how “crazy” fans are or because they want to see that there are people who are big fans who are respectful and “normal” (Hills, 2005).

Collaborators

Pink Sneakers will be collaborating with GoPro for the show. Each participant on The Audience will get a free GoPro and they will use it to film some of the shots on the show from their perspective. This will benefit Pink Sneakers by cutting down on camera costs. It will not only benefit Pink Sneakers but it will also benefit GoPro. Fans of the show will see the quality of video and they’ll also want to use the same cameras as the people on the show. Financial details of this deal are included in the Sales Projections section of this proposal.

External Analysis The next sections will analyze the external environment of the reality TV industry including competitors, business climate, opportunities, and threats. As explained in depth below, the team was unable to identify any shows on TV today that focus on fans in any demographic. Production costs promise to be lower due to the company location outside of the Greater LA area, and with the increasing importance of interactivity across all media, now is the perfect time for Pink Sneakers to pioneer fan based programming.

Competitors

Direct competitors of Pink Sneakers are Sharp Entertainment, T Group Productions, and Bunim/Murray Productions. Sharp Entertainment has produced dozens of reality shows with the same target audience as The Audience including My Crazy Obsession, Extreme Cheapskates, and The Fabulous Life (Our Shows, 2015). T Group has produced reality shows including House of Food: Los Angeles, My Big Fat Geek Wedding, and Popped (Projects, 2015). Bunim/Murray has produced hugely successful reality shows including Keeping Up with the Kardashians, Project Runway, and Real World: Skeletons (Bunim-Murray.com, 2015). These are direct competitors because they produce reality shows with the same or similar target audiences as Pink Sneakers. Some shows that are direct competitors are My Strange Addiction, Obsessed, and Hoarders. ”These are all documentary-style reality shows about people with unique lifestyles. Each episode is about someone new with a different obsession, addiction, or problem (My Strange Addiction, 2010, Robertson, 2009, Schwartz, 2009).

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Indirect competitors include Netflix, 3 Arts Entertainment, and Alloy Entertainment. Netflix has been producing and distributing their own TV shows including sitcoms and dramas like Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Orange is the New Black, and House of Cards. (Armstrong, 2014). 3 Arts Entertainment produces comedy shows including The Mindy Project, Parks and Recreation, and Brooklyn Nine-Nine (3 Arts Entertainment, 2015). Alloy Entertainment is another production company with credits on Pretty Little Liars, and The Vampire Diaries (Alloy Entertainment, 2015). These shows all have similar target markets to ours, however they aren’t reality shows and they aren’t about bands or music, so Pink Sneakers have a competitive edge.

Business Climate

The current business climate is viable using the PEST analysis. There are no political barriers that can prevent Pink Sneakers from realizing any kind of production. Because Pink Sneakers is filming all across the country, the company will need to stay up to date with the local laws depending on the state that the company is filming. Fortunately, the economic situation is on Pink Sneakers side. The Pink Sneakers Productions headquarters offices are located in Apopka, Florida. According to Los Angeles Daily News, film and TV production companies are leaving Los Angeles primarily due to production tax incentives offered in 41 other states and numerous foreign territories (Strauss, 2014); so there is a great opportunity to work in Florida or somewhere else outside Los Angeles.

Pink Sneakers is facing a social barrier as well. Sixty eight percent of young consumers between the ages of 16 and 24 are getting tired of reality TV shows (PR Newswire, 2014). On the other hand, “37% of young consumers are saying that they watch more of these types of shows this year over last, and 50% are saying that they expect to watch more next year over this year” (PR Newswire, 2014). The continuous declining of viewers is due to the redundancy and lack of innovation of reality shows (Uffalussy, 2014), that is why Pink Sneakers is going to combat this situation by bringing a new, fresh and unique show to television. Also, according to Victor Luckerson of Time.com, “people are watching more online video on their computers, smart TVs and multimedia devices” (Luckerson, 2014) than watching TV. Pink Sneakers is going to combat this situation by adapting new technologies like streaming platforms like Netflix and Hulu.

As far as new technology, the company will not be developing or creating anything new for the production of the show. Instead, we will be using Pink Sneakers’ resources to make our show. Like previously mentioned, Pink Sneakers is taking advantage of streaming platforms like Netflix and Hulu to stream The Audience and attract more viewers to watch The Audience.

Business OpportunitiesAfter doing the PEST analysis and realizing there are only two barriers holding the company back,  there are great business opportunities with this company. Pink Sneakers can capitalize on the fact that business is moving away from LA and becoming a lot more affordable (Strauss, 2014). Having more money because of lower production costs can really be beneficial for Pink Sneakers. The company will be taking advantage of the lower cost and putting the money back into the show to make it better. Lower cost gives the company a chance to do more with the show for less money.

Based on the statistics that are shown in the “Why TV, film production is running away from Hollywood”, Pink Sneakers can save money and capitalize from the fact that other states like Georgia and New York have increasingly been carrying work from the once-dominant region since the turn of the new century (Strauss, 2014).      

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The social barriers that Pink Sneakers is facing can be used to the company’s advantage. Teens are bored of reality TV because of the saturation of the market and the redundancy of the show (PR Newswire, 2014). Pink Sneakers can capitalize on that by creating something new and exciting for them to want to watch. If Pink Sneakers do something that no one has ever done before, and break the pattern of redundancy, there’s a great chance the show will be able to pull these teens that are getting bored of reality TV back in. Furthermore, the company can have opportunities with fandom communities. According to the article “Guide to Music Fandom”, “These super fans, whose monikers range from song title references to puns, take their fandom extremely seriously” (Carlin, Reuter, Sterling, Mapes, Levine, n.d.). According to a study made by Viacom, “once a viewer becomes a fan, they first want to know when the show airs on TV (61%), whether it is live (52%) and whether it is in-season or not (48%). When they've decided to continue watching, 53% watch on live TV” (Viacom, 2014). Because these fans get too attached to these celebrities, the company can attract them to watch The Audience and create a new complete fandom based on the show.

Last, but not least, the fact that Pink Sneakers doesn’t have any political and/or economic boundaries can help exploit this situation to the company’s advantage. Also, it can strengthen Pink Sneakers by focusing on other problems and their solutions rather than the political and economical situations where the company is not facing any barriers.

Business Threats

On the other hand, the company’s business threat is the decreasing audience for reality TV shows. Studies have shown that people are less interested and easily bored by reality TV shows because of their over-saturation and the preference for scripted shows. According to Eli Holzman, president of All3Media America and the executive producer of Undercover Boss, there were 600 shows last year and there could be 1,200 this year (Adalian, 2013). Also, a reality insider explained that there is a saturation factor with cable networks, making it harder for the networks to stand out (Adalian, 2013).

There is another business threat that Pink Sneakers could be possibly facing. From 1998 to 2000, MTV aired a TV show with a similar concept from The Audience named MTV FANatic (tv.com, n.d.) Nevertheless, FANatic had a different concept from The Audience. In FANatic, the audience submitted a tape of themselves talking about their favorite artist and some other personal facts and the winners would eventually meet their favorite artist and interview the artist with questions that they came up before the meeting. (tv.com, n.d.). On the other hand, The Audience consists of following the life of fanatics and their obsession with their favorite celebrities, so in the end they can meet the celebrity without the fan knowing it. With the information gathered about FANatic, Pink Sneakers has come to the conclusion that this situation does not represent a total threat to viewership, but this issue will be discussed in further detail in the Legal & Ethical section below.

3: Strategy FormulationOperationsOur proposed solution will not have a major impact on the overall operation of the company and its business model. However, there will be some minor changes in a few fields of the company involved in the production of the show.  A detailed explanation of the business model will be shown in Appendix 2. Human Resources will help in hiring the production staff for the show, as well as finding the cast through social media. The editing and post-production will all be done in-house which will cut down costs. A more detailed explanation of our cost can be seen in Section

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Four in the Cost Analysis chart. The sales team will be pitching the show to MTV or any other network that Pink Sneakers sees fit for the show, as well as selling any advertisements to promote the show.

Sales, Marketing, & DistributionThe product is a new reality TV show called The Audience, where aficionado fans of certain artists and celebrities are followed and truly see how their lives are captured by fandom. Pink Sneakers Productions will hopefully be selling the show to MTV, for viewers to watch on a weekly basis. MTV is the perfect fit because they are home to many popular reality TV shows such as Are You the One?, True Life, and Jersey Shore (MTV, 2015). MTV also puts a heavy focus on integrating music with television, and The Audience follows heavy influencers in the music industry. Budgets for reality TV shows can range from $100,000 to more than $500,000 per episode (Manville, 2014). The average cost for a reality show pilot is around $250,000, and a per-episode cost between $350,000-$450,000 (Marraccini, 2013). The sales team will make sure they get into the right deal, and that the budget needs are being met.

Pink Sneakers will not be promoting the show. The company has come up with marketing ideas to promote the show in the best way possible to ensure success and suggest that the network that buys The Audience uses them. A few examples are by advertising on MTV, streaming services such as Hulu and cable provider streaming sites (ex: Comcast). Hulu is a great place to advertise because many people are watching television on streaming services rather than live these days, and the show will be distributed to streaming services as well. Another place to target would be magazine ads and Internet banner ads. Two examples of these marketing tactics are shown in Appendix 3. By following these tactics, the company will reach their target audience and attract other potential viewers.

The tagline for the show will be “The show never ends.” This will be used in all advertisements for consistent presence. To gain engagement, before the show airs the company will pose a question on social media, asking “Who are you in the audience for?” so that people can post a picture on Instagram with the hashtag #TheAudience and a picture of who they idolize. Previews of some of the artists and fans that will be featured in the episodes will be spotlighted in the television commercials. Social media will be heavily relied on for advertisement, using #TheAudience as a hashtag, to get the show trending before it airs as well as during airtime. By using this hashtag, viewers will be able to live tweet about the show while it’s going on. This will help engage the target audience by allowing them to interact with the program while it’s happening.

Legal & Ethical. Legal FactorsThere are several legal factors that Pink Sneakers needs to take into consideration. The company will first need to consider that there was a show called FANatic as mentioned above in the Business Threats. This show had a similar theme to The Audience and it could cause some legal issues regarding copyright infringement. However, according to the Copyright Law, there are several different properties that are not protected by copyright (Hernandez, 2014). First of all, copyright law does not protect an idea (Hernandez, 2014). Copyright Law only protects the tangible expression of ideas, which means that if the show is expressed in different forms and strategies; there will be no problem regarding this issue (Hernandez, 2014). In addition, even though Copyright Law does not protect titles, to avoid any potential lawsuit or confusion for the audience, Pink Sneakers will be using a title that is not easily confusable or similar (Hernandez, 2014).

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Pink Sneakers also needs to consider issues regarding privacy and libel. When filming a reality show, it is possible that the video might be shot on privately owned spaces or with private individuals (Whittaker, 2014). To avoid legal lawsuits, related to invasion of privacy, Pink Sneakers will not be using a long telephoto lens or a highly directional microphone when the video is being shot in a public space. It is possible that private individuals might be filmed during shots in public spaces, but if the images were not obtained using the special equipment mentioned above, it is hard to prove an invasion of privacy because an average person could have easily seen the same thing (Whittaker, 2014). Pink Sneakers will also be getting permission when videos are shot at privately owned places or if there happen to be images of private spaces that are needed to be used in the actual show. Pink Sneakers will also need to make sure there is no libel broadcasted through our show (Whittaker, 2014). Legal consequences of libel can cost millions, even billions of dollars (Whittaker, 2014). Because of this, many stations and production companies even have insurance against libel and slander (Whittaker, 2014). To avoid these situations, Pink Sneakers will be proofreading and editing The Audience strictly. Even though it will be strictly proofread and edited to prevent actual malice from being aired, it is possible there can be mistakes and there are always different perspectives of the individual or organization mentioned that Pink Sneakers will have to take into consideration. To prevent damage from a lawsuit, Pink Sneakers will consider having the company insured against libel and slander.

In addition, a background check for all the cast members is necessary to prevent possible risks, illegal actions from being filmed, and criminals on television. In 2009, Ryan Jenkins, former cast member of VH1’s reality TV show Megan Wants a Millionaire, was found dead after convicted as suspect of murdering his ex-wife Jasmine Fiore (Oh, 2009). VH1 removed the show Megan Wants a Millionaire from their website and iTunes right away (Morrissey, 2009). The production company behind this show, known as 51 Minds, said that they would not have casted Ryan Jenkins if they knew that he had a criminal background (Oh, 2009). They said that they ran background checks on all the contestants but could not find any criminal history (Oh, 2009). This could happen to any reality TV show, especially if background checks have not been done properly. To prevent risks of airing criminals or possible criminals on television, Pink Sneakers will be hiring an investigation company called Carco Group Inc. (Carco, n.d.). Carco Group Inc. specializes in all kinds of screening and investigations (Carco, n.d.). They offer Reality TV Contestant Selection package, which includes standard background search (criminal and civil court review at local, state and federal level, driving history, education verification and etc.), telephonic interviews (interviews with family members, friends and coworkers), Internet search, and document review (Carco, n.d.). The price can vary from $400 to $1000 per person but it is necessary to prevent bigger issues like Ryan Jenkins from Megan Wants a Millionaire (Kaufman, 2009).

Ethical ConsiderationsOne of the ethical issues that may arise from airing this show is that people are delighted and entertained by the failings and problems of others (Cline, n.d.). Even though The Audience will not be focused on entertaining audiences based on the failings and problems of the fans that will be in the show, considering that they are typical citizens not celebrities, the show might unintentionally portray cast members in ways that may make them feel unpleasant or offended. Pink Sneakers will be focused on delivering real and true stories of our cast members, but when editing it are inevitable to keep both realism and entertainment aspects alive. In this process, there will be emphasized points where it is entertaining, inspiring, surprising, and so on, to create a well plotted real story. This all depends on the perspective of our target audience and how they think about the cast, but these public opinions about the show and the members that could offend individuals.

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To minimize possible problems, Pink Sneakers will be specific when writing contracts between the company and individual cast members (Malone, 2014). Pink Sneakers will take in requests that the members make regarding certain things that they do not want to be revealed publicly and negotiate with them to finalize in the contract with the best agreement that both parties are okay with (Malone, 2014). Pink Sneakers understands that privacy is an important factor here since these members are not celebrities whose job is to entertain the public. By strictly considering these possible ethical problems, Pink Sneakers will show a positive image to the public and to the entertainment industry and prove that the company is not only capable of producing high quality reality TV shows, but also values, morals, and ethics

4: Proposal Budget & ProjectionsSales ProjectionsFor this television show, there will be thirteen episodes per season. The average number of episodes for a television show per series has gone down within the past couple of decades, going from 22-24 episodes, to 13-14. (Hinkley, 2013). For year one, the first 13 episodes will sell for $100,000 each, resulting in a total revenue of $1,300,000 for the season (Erhard, 2015). During year two, season two will be produced. Each of these episodes will be sold for $150,000 (Erhard, 2015). This will total in $1,950,000 for the whole season. During year three, season three will be produced. Each of these episodes will be sold for $200,000 (Erhard, 2015). This will produce a revenue of $2,600,000 for year three. To gain more revenue for Pink Sneakers, product placement will be implemented. The company will be collaborating with GoPro. Pink Sneakers will gain $1,500,000 for year one. With the increased popularity from the show, for year two, GoPro will pay $2,0c00,000. For year three, GoPro will pay $2,500,000 (Nathanson, 2013).

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Cost AnalysisThere are several different costs and expenses that Pink Sneakers has to take into consideration. The first cost to take into consideration is Operations. All together, operations will cost Pink Sneakers $2,561,000 (Pink Sneakers Productions, 2015). See Appendix 4 for more details of Operations costs analysis. No marketing will be done from Pink Sneakers’ side of this project, resulting in no marketing expenses (Pink Sneakers Productions, 2015). The legal cost is 1.5% of the total budget, which came out to be $39,000 in total. 1.5% is the Pink Sneakers standard in legal costs (Pink Sneakers Productions, 2015). No distribution will be done from the company, resulting in no distribution expenses (Pink Sneakers Productions, 2015). The total expense to create one season of the show is $2,600,000 (Pink Sneakers Productions, 2015). The projected net profit for the following three years is year 1: $200,000, year 2: $1,350,000 and year 3: $2,500,000.

Project BudgetThere are several different costs and expenses that Pink Sneakers has to take into consideration. The first cost to take into consideration is Operations. All together, operations will cost Pink Sneakers $2,561,000 (Pink Sneakers Productions, 2015). See Appendix 4 for more details on the Operations costs analysis. No marketing will be done from Pink Sneakers’ side of this project, resulting in no marketing expenses (Pink Sneakers Productions, 2015). The legal cost is 1.5% of the total budget, which came out to be $39,000 in total. 1.5% is the Pink Sneakers standard in legal costs (Pink Sneakers Productions, 2015). No distribution will be done from the company, resulting in no distribution expenses (Pink Sneakers Productions, 2015). The total expense to create one season of the show is $2,600,000 (Pink Sneakers

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Productions, 2015). The projected net profit for the following three years is year 1: $200,000, year 2: $1,350,000 and year 3: $2,500,000.  

5: Strategy ImplementationTimeline & Proposed MilestonesPink Sneakers will need to hire new crew members before filming the show and the company is allowing three months to find them. Pink Sneakers will then search social media for participants for the pilot episode and finalize their participation. The pilot episode will be filmed over the course of a month, which is longer than the amount of time allotted for filming each of the other episodes because it’s the first episode and the process shouldn’t be rushed. It will also allow for travel time to the different cities of the participants. The reason filming will take place in October is because there are going to be a lot of artists on tour during that month so Pink Sneakers will have a lot of options when choosing which fan community to highlight that week (“Tour & Events”, 2015). Editing a reality show can take anywhere from five days to five weeks so this episode will be edited in 2 weeks (Hall, 2007).

Once a network picks up the show, the company will need to start finding new participants for the rest of the season. That process will be started two months before filming begins and continue throughout the filming period. Each episode will be filmed over a period of 10 days and it will take a little over four months including breaks (Gornstein, 2007). Editing will begin the day after the second episode is done filming. The pilot will air on April 28th and a new episode will air every Thursday until July 21st. The schedule of the third season will be almost exactly the same. The only difference is that the dates will be different.

YEAR ONE

Date/Timeframe Event/Milestone

5/1/15 Approval from Board5/20/15 – 8/1/15 New hires

7/13/15 – 8/31/15 Find participants for pilot10/1/13 – 10/31/15 Film pilot11/1/15 – 11/14/15 Edit pilot

12/11/15 Pitch pilot

YEAR TWO

Date/Timeframe Event/Milestone

1/1/16 – 5/31/16 Find new participants3/7/16 – 7/7/16 Film Season 1

3/17/16 – 7/14/16 Edit Season 14/28/16 Pilot airs on TV

5/5/16 – 7/21/16 Season 1 airs

YEAR THREE

Date/Timeframe Event/Milestone

1/1/17 – 5/31/17 Find new participants3/7/17 – 7/8/17 Film Season 2

3/16-17 – 7/13/17 Edit Season 24/27/17 – 7/20/17 Season 2 airs

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6: Strategy EvaluationEvaluation Strategy & BenchmarksThe show airing on TV is the most important benchmark. As previously mentioned in the chart above, the company needs to hire new crew members and find participants to film our pilot episode. This process of hiring new employees to work on set and finding three participants is going to happen over a three-month period. Pink Sneakers is going to start the hiring process in May and will be finished in August 2015. Pink Sneakers will also be searching for the participants between July and August 2015.  In year two, Pink Sneakers is looking to find new participants and film season one. Next, the company will edit the episodes and air them on TV starting early May 2016. The final step is to repeat the steps taken during year two in the third year. It will take approximately four months to shoot the first season episodes for season two, between March and July 2016. After the filming is completed, the company will then edit and air season two, which will be aired in late April of 2017.

The main factor Pink Sneakers will use to measure our performance is the number of viewers watching the show. The company is considering one million viewers as a success.  If that number is not reached, the company will decide if any corrective action needs to take place after analyzing the show ratings as well as any reviews and critiques from our viewers.(Reality Tea, 2015).  Furthermore, the main goal is for a network to purchase the rights to air the show with a secondary goal of achieving positive reception from the viewers. Pink Sneakers will make sure to survey viewers about the show and ask survey participants how they would improve it to reach these goals that Pink Sneakers has set. Also, an important factor that the company will use to measure the performance is when The Audience gets renewed for a new season. Continuing to get The Audience renewed for continuing seasons will guarantee that the show has been successful. According to Bill Gorman from TV by the Numbers “this year we should know most, if not all, of the news for existing shows by late Friday, May 8” (Gorman, 2015).

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AppendicesAppendix 1: Competitive Analysis

Pink Sneakers Productions

Sharp Entertainment

T Group Productions

Bunim/MurrayProductions

Revenue USD 17,500,000 USD 82,000 USD 910,000 USD 75,000,000

Domestic or International?

Domestic International International International

Location Apopka, Florida New York, NY Santa Monica, CA

Van Nuys, CA

Target Age 13-26 25-50 30-55 13-26

Genre Reality Reality Reality Reality

Appendix 2: Organizational Chat

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Appendix 3: Sample Marketing MaterialAdvertisement

Twitter Feed / Profile

Appendix 4: Operation Cost Breakdown

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