#TVClub

Quote: "I'm so afraid all the people I know are going to think I'm a nerd."  -Denise, Interviewee 2013

Helping envision a TV fan-centric brand at DIRECTV.

Kicking off the project with stakeholders.

Attending a screening of Friday Night Lights at a TV Festival in Austin was part of our research!

Awash in themes, observations and post-its...figuring out what it all means.

Using the analogy of foodies to communicate our insight that being a TV fan is a serious hobby that people enjoy, but that takes lots of mental/emotional work and investment,.

A Mad Men inspired workshop with stakeholders and tv fans to define the brand vision, using the insights from our research and their personal experiences.

Part of our final set of deliverables - a leave behind brand pamphlet with our innovation platforms and customer insights.

Problem
Being a sports fan is at the core of DIRECTV's brand and the company does a great job of engaging customers throughout the customer lifecycle and across touchpoints (Acquisition, Marketing, Customer Care, Content/Programming, Products/Features). However, being the dominant sports provider and having the most HD channels is not enough. In the 2014 brand book, the company mandates “We will continue to make DIRECTV the clear choice among entertainment enthusiasts...Why? Because we love TV as much as you do.”

Goal
The goal of this project was to envision a world in which a love for TV drives the culture, products and services across the enterprise by first defining what it means to be a TV fan and love TV, then using those insights to drive ideation and help make the tv fan brand promise tangible with new concepts and opportunities.

Approach
The approach for this project was a mixture of the team’s typical design thinking process, starting with exploratory research (at a TV festival!), along with a brand strategy approach – using our research and insights to develop a brand vision and platforms as a framework for innovation.

Outcome
As a result of our work, the enterprise has a definition of TV Fans, which has helped shift common assumptions that watching TV is a passive activity, and helped build empathy for our customers, by giving context to their attitudes, behaviors and emotions. We also provided a set of concepts, aligned with the brand vision and platforms, which position DIRECTV to be the clear choice among entertainment enthusiasts. We are currently sharing out our results across the enterprise, determining which concepts to prototype and which concepts align with current projects in other departments.