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WHERE THE WEBSITES GREW
"Marketing guru," Janet Elaine Smith's PromoPaks: Nearly Free Marketing Tips
for Authors proclaims. However, she has a lot of other hats she wears in her daily life as well. One of them is "Private
Investigator." As a worker for the charitable organization she and her husband have run for over 30 years, Robert LaBine has approached her to do PI work for him.
Now Robert
LaBine is not just some small-town local yokel lawyer in North Dakota. In "his day," he was an Asst. DA in New York City,
but he moved to the plains to find a safer place for his children to grow up. Not having enough hours in her days, Janet turned
down the offer, but like Patrick and Grace and Max Stryker in her mysteries, she does love getting to the facts behind the
front-page headlines.
Janet's husband Ivan is a "Law and Order" devotee. Every night, the TV is tuned to
the USA Network to listen to the reruns, then switches over to NBC for the current offerings. While Janet busily works away
at the computer behind him, she hears the programs in the background.
After just so long, you begin to know exactly what's coming next. Like the one where
the little girl was raised by lesbian parents, and when the lawyer questions her, she answers over and over again, "Mommy
Marie!" Janet often sits there when that particular show airs and beats her to the punch by mimicking the little girl with
repeated "Mommy Marie!"
But how sad is it when the commercials or some sort of blurb or promotion begins
to stick in your craw. That was the case with one simple two-word phrase: Characters welcome. What did it mean? What was the purpose of it anyway? And who were the characters? Inquiring minds want to know, especially
Janet Elaine Smith's mind.
Her investigative mind led her to do a search on Google. Not only did she find out,
but she decided to jump on the bandwagon herself and offer people who had characters a chance for them to have their own website.
That's what this site is all about. Welcome to my site, and yes, your characters are more than welcome here too. If you go
over to the USA Characters Welcome website, you will see a place to add your own character; one of the questions they ask
for is the url to each character's website. Now you have a chance to have one to add to their website, as well as for your
characters to have one too.
The following is the press release from USA Network to explain their "Characters
Welcome" program.
For the first time in its twenty-five year history, USA Network is launching a comprehensive branding initiative
extending across all media, including on-air, off-air and online platforms, [as] announced today by Bonnie Hammer, president
of USA Network… The campaign…features a new logo and the tagline “Characters Welcome,” a statement
that will reflect and inform every aspect of USA, from marketing and promotion to program development.
“When we started developing a brand strategy we knew we wanted it to be enhancing rather than limiting,”
said Hammer. “We didn’t want to tack on a meaningless tagline or claim an arbitrary niche or demo. I believe we’ve
succeeded in developing a campaign that’s organic to USA, something that captures and communicates what the network
is about, what lives and breathes on its air.”
“In talking to our viewers and realizing what they loved best about USA, we realized that there was
real connective tissue around the concept of strong, relatable characters,” added Chris McCumber, senior vice president,
marketing and brand strategy. “‘Characters Welcome’ delivers a clear message that establishes an immediate
emotional connection with our audience.”
“The beauty of our new brand is that it truly embraces everything we do,” said Hammer. “Whether
it’s an obsessive compulsive detective like Monk, the tormented returnees of the 4400 or a real-life action hero from
the WWE, it’s the compelling, sometimes complicated, often funny characters that make USA Network what it is.”
…USA’s website will offer an…extension of its brand message, called “Show Us Your
Character.” “We will literally lay out a welcome mat for our audience,” said McCumber…
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