5 Minutes With… Simon Downing and Federico Gaggio

 

 

FG > We are fortunate that we have an audience that seeks out the content we offer. The brand has been established for 25 years and has always been at the forefront of innovation. The Discovery Network is received in over 175 countries, which makes us one of the most distributed channels in the world. Fundamentally, we know that what we offer is something our audience wants. The Discovery Network satisfies people’s desire to step out of their daily routine and think about the bigger reality that they are part of. 

 

SD > We’ve worked hard over the last couple of years in order to build a degree of consistency around the brand’s positioning and communication. Federico and I are always working to make sure we stay on a clear trajectory. In a world where there is so much fragmentation and choice, I think it is important that brands have a very defined understanding of what their expectations are. We work with the proposition that we deliver intelligent entertainment. The unique offering from Discovery is the combination of entertainment and enlightenment in equal measure. We actively take part in the decision-making process for all of the commissioned programmes. People understand what they can expect from Discovery, despite the plethora of choice. That’s what I think makes us different for our competitors. 

 

 

SD > Firstly, the vision that we set out for the site was that, in terms of digital spaces, Discovery is about entertainment, enlightenment and participation. Referring back to my point about the proposition for the channel (‘intelligent entertainment’), our audience tells us that Discovery is about “fun with facts”. You can’t do facts without fun and you can’t do fun without facts. 

 

One of the things that came out of our research is that, before Federico and I became actively involved in the brand, we were seen as being too focused on facts. I think that was slightly unfair, but it was the perception and the reality we had to deal with. 

 

We want to make factual comment more accessible. Therefore, when we put the site together, Federico and I were thinking about what we could do to make facts and documentaries entertaining and engaging for all? That is the vision behind the site. There are a lot of different portals based around genres, which encourages audience participation. We have editorial teams and community managers that facilitate conversations and aggregate content from around the web.

 

FG > It has been fascinating to think about user experience in the digital space. We wanted to move away from the simple aggregation of content to a more engaging and immersive experience. The site is very visually driven and defined by the brand and there is also a lot of activity behind the scenes that ensures the content is topical and relevant to local audiences.  

Instead of being perceived as a big, generic brand that comes from abroad, the user-experience online relevant to the audience, dependant on certain influencing elements, such as nationality. The site is also linked to our social media sites, which therefore places it at the heart of an online ecosystem. 

 

 

SD > They’re an endorsement of the work we undertake. We have taken our creative and marketing teams on a journey over the last two or three years. It’s important that we tell people about the work we are doing because we want to ensure that all of the creative teams gain full acknowledgement for the sensational contribution that they make to the success of our business. 

 

FG > I think ultimately awards are incredibly important to recognise the value of the work that our team does. They also help raise visibility. 

 

There is a lot of value and prestige attached to the Discovery brand, whereas in the past it was possibly a little bit quiet. One of the achievements of the team is establishing Discovery’s place in the digital landscape. 

 

 

SD > First and foremost, it’s about being absolutely clear about who you are, what your brand is and what you represent to your audience. If you fully understand those points you can collate them consistently across a number of platforms. In a world where there is so much fragmentation, people will always navigate themselves towards something that they understand. The analogy that I always use for this is of a person walking into a crowded house party. They will always make their way to a person they know. 

It’s the same thing for Discovery. As the market fragments and the number of platforms multiply, our consistency in delivery and communication has to be completely true. Otherwise people don’t have a sense of expectation around our brand and it will dissolve and disappear. 

 

 

SD > Personally I never had any ambitions to work in television. I started my career in cosmetics and trained as a ‘classically trained marketer’, which means I learned about all aspects of marketing. In television, people don’t really know what marketing is. Many tend to think that a marketer is ‘the guy who makes the posters’. However, it is very much about research, insight, setting strategies, understanding distribution channels, how a brand presented, your customers and the environment. 

 

After working in cosmetics, I fell into video games at a time when they were beginning to get big. I was responsible for launching Grand Theft Auto and after that I fell into digital. MTV appointed me to launch their website in 2000 and I eventually moved over into their broadcast sector. 

 

 

SD > I went from MTV to Channel 5 at the time when they really wanted to reposition to an upmarket audience. I oversaw the transition from Channel 5 to Five. It was interesting because the audience was growing and it was changing massively as a brand. I think that the channel is now in a great place and very true to who they are and who they represent. In those days, I think we tried to make Five something that it really wasn’t. It was always going to be cheeky and fast-paced, but we really tried to take it upmarket, which was a struggle. It is now in a comfortable place in the market and people know what to expect.

 

Coming to a place like Discovery, where the brand is so much more clearly defined, really does make our jobs much easier. 

 

 

FG > I’m originally a designer. I started graphic design just as the computer generation began to develop. That threw me into the deep end of advertising very early on. I then moved to Paris and there I studied how identities are created, defined and developed on air. I eventually fell in love with London and decided that was the best place to work and I moved there during the mid 1990s. 

 

Learning to understand the importance of design in the context of a brand’s strategy was an interesting experience. It is not just decoration; it’s integral to a user’s experience of a brand or a piece of content.

 

I been lucky to meet people like Simon who completely understand our audience. We have an excellent team whose work enables us to keep moving forward, to be innovate and to develop new solutions for bigger and more complex problems. 

 

 

SD > We are undertaking a number of different strategies, which we can’t expand on too much, but Discovery definitely will not be standing still. We are constantly looking at ways we can grow our audience. We’ve already had a brilliant couple of years with regards to audience growth and network reach. 

 

I think our biggest challenge this year, and I think I speak for almost everybody within the industry is trying to do twice as much with half as much. By that I mean we need to work much harder, but we must keep our operating costs locked down. 

 

We also have to seek out innovative ways to reach out and connect with our audience. The days of writing out a cheque and commissioning an advertising campaign have gone. Now the money isn’t there, so we have to look at other methods, such as social media. We are looking at evolving all of those aspects this year. Hopefully we will also have some exciting announcements to make soon.