MTV Drops "Music Television"

I had a number of friends this week tell me to post about MTV. The network just recently dropped the "music television" tag from its now iconic logo. A shock heard round the world? Hardly.

MTV had long ago dropped music videos from its core programming. Not entirely sure why, to be honest, other than to drive up audience numbers. I guess constant streams of music videos just were not enough to bring in a big audience and ad revenues. So the network slowly and then not so slowly started adding specials and series and original programming of all sorts. Now there's barely a music video in sight.

Fine by me, actually. I've always enjoyed the MTV programs, right from the start of the first "Real World". When I was a brand manager and launched Clean & Clear we even did a strategic partnership with Cindy Crawford's "House of Style". And we can't forget this year's "Jersey Shore"! Didn't miss the emphasis on videos then and certainly don't miss them now.

From a marketing perspective it makes sense to me. The brand isn't defining itself through music, but through it's target audience and the lifestyle it leads. Targeting driving branding, which is just fine in my book. Fulfilling a need and evolving with its audience. Great marketing.

So I therefore have no issue with the brand cleaning up its logo. Music is no longer what defines the station.

Can you imagine though the next generations of viewers asking "what's the M stand for?". Marketing?

And we can comfortably say that we were there when video killed the radio star.

What's your experience? Jim.