PROFILE - Michael Hodgson, managing director of Channel 4’s rights division.
New Medium
Innovation, experimentation and creativity are all part of Channel 4’s brand ethos. The broadcaster behind programmes as diverse as Dispatches, Hollyoaks and Grand Designs prides itself on offering the unusual and the unexpected. Now the Channel 4 team aims to infiltrate the events world by bringing the brand to life through ownership of dedicated experiential activity.
“Channel 4 has a reputation for being innovative and challenging. What we’re now trying to do is build or own our own properties. And within that objective, events is one area,” says Michael Hodgson, managing director of Channel 4’s rights division.
Hodgson, 41, was one of the driving forces behind its recent deal with Brand Events – an agreement that saw Channel 4 acquire a 50% stake in subsidiary firm Taste Events. The £1.5m deal was brokered last year and coincided with the addition of two culinary festivals in Edinburgh and Bath, taking the Taste portfolio to five.
“The reason I love Taste is the due diligence for it. All I did was go to the event itself and listen to what people were saying about it. It’s a fantastic day out and people love it. It’s a complete sensory overload. It was clearly going through a growth path but we thought there was a lot more that we could do with it. And it’s in the area of food, with which Channel 4 has got a huge resonance and reputation,” Hodgson adds.
Although the day-to-day logistics of Taste remain with Brand Events, Hodgson and his team maintain a hands-on approach. “We have been much more active in terms of the marketing. We’ve had quite a lot of involvement in editorial features also – for example, there will be an F-Word feature in London,” he says.
The changing landscape of television rights has influenced the channel’s decision to enter the event arena.
Legislative changes that came into effect in 2005 resulted in a new mould of television-driven consumer events such as Media 10’s Grand Designs Live and Brooklands Exhibitions’ A Place in the Sun Live.
He says: “In the past when Channel 4 commissioned a TV programme it had control of the brand and the rights. Now that power sits with the production company. That was a real missed opportunity where we could have done it with a whole load of brands.”
The shift to digital by 2012 also poses problems. Audience cut-through will become less attainable as the number of basic channels available to viewers increases. “Everybody will be able to receive a minimum of around 30 channels. It’s driving this desire to find other revenues because in analogue homes we might have 13% of the viewing whereas in digital homes we may have 6%. So consequently advertisers don’t pay as much,” says Hodgson.
As a result of such changes, events are moving up the agenda and Hodgson hopes to build a portfolio of around six in the next five years. He is in talks with a number of potential partners.
When not brokering deals, he lives in Teddington with his two young children and expectant wife. He coaches an under-six rugby team, which he says is more about “crowd control” than tactics.
His own childhood was spent in England, followed by a stint at St Andrew’s University in Scotland studying Arabic culture, geology and economics. Much of his early career led him overseas and his CV spans Africa, Asia and Europe.
He joined Channel 4 in 2003, bringing business experience from the private equity sector – but his plans are not just about the bottom line. “There’s no point getting into the events industry just to make money. It’s got to be a good fit and something where we think we can add value and reflects well on the Channel 4 brand. I would want its events to mean something in the industry and equally to the consumer. So they know that if they’re going to a Channel 4 event it will have a certain quality and freshness about it.”
Hodgson on…
His first impressions of the events industry… Lots of people have picked up the phone and come to see us. It seems that in the industry you’ve got some very large established players and then there’s a range of smaller, entrepreneurial-led businesses which are keen to give it a good go. That’s probably where our natural affinity is going to lie, because Channel 4’s history is dealing with creative entrepreneurs.
Channel 4’s investment in events… I haven’t been set a budget from Channel 4 – my brief is to bring back the interesting opportunities.
Where his aspirations lie… To make an event attractive enough in its own right that a programme can come out of it. I don’t mean just going along and filming but instead creating a situation where one feeds off of the other. So the programme drives people to the event and the event drives people to the programme.
Written by Claire Bond and published by EVENT magazine
===ENDS, EIA DETAILS BELOW===
The EIA is supported by marketing partners Dubai World Trade Centre, IELA and getmemedia.com
---NOTES TO EDITORS---
About the EIA: www.eventsindustryalliance.com
The EIA seeks to communicate the huge opportunities for business growth via the medium of live event marketing, to place live events at the heart of modern marketing, and increase the medium's market share.
EIA will deliver its vision via:
1. Promotion - influencing key target groups (see below)
2. Measurement - conveying effectiveness of live events / improving industry evaluation
3. Participation - broadening EIA involvement among all live sectors and client companies
4. Expertise - promoting greater skills among users by sharing knowledge and best practice
EIA target groups:
a) Client organisations and their marketing/brand managers
b) Agencies
c) National and marketing media
d) Government lobbying and support
e) Academia
For more information, visit the website at www.eventsindustryalliance.com
---CONTACT---
Events Industry Alliance (EIA)
Declan Gane, EIA PR Manager
Email: declan.gane@eventsindustryalliance.com
Events Industry Alliance (EIA)
119 High Street
Berkhamsted
Hertfordshire
HP4 2DJ
Telephone: (01442) 873331
Facsimile: (01442) 875551
