Taran Swan Hbr Case Analysis - 2602 Words

Taran Swan at Nickelodeon Latin America Background Nickelodeon is a cable channel for kids 2-11 years old. It started out in the US in 1979. Nickelodeon produced cartoons, live action, comedy, drama, music, sports and game shows. In 1996 it was the most popular kid’s TV channel in the US. The international channels had their own names, but relied on US programs that were voiced over. The channels were launched by a team from corporate the company called the Nickelodeon International Swat Team. They would build the channel and transition it to local management. By 1998 Nickelodeon was in more than 30 countries. While Taran Swan was the director of Business Development for Nickelodeon International, she had begun to look into†¦show more content†¦Swan’s enthusiasm and philosophy of open communication and ownership of tasks had brought the Nickelodeon team together. Latin America was very segmented. Regional dialects, customs and languages needed required attention. Rey del Valle was brought in from Fedex to help keep the network on budget. Even though he had no experience in entertainment, Swan was particularly concerned with the bottom line. With this move, and others, money was being spent on gambles but the reasoning behind them was well informed. Investments in quantitative and qualitative studies were recommended by Del Valle, further aligning them with their immersive business strategy. The sharing of employees between Nickelodeon and MTV in Latin America was an immediate obstacle for Swan. Early, sharing Viacom employees was the only option to have a support staff for Nickelodeon Latin America. The extreme differences between the networks confused the advertisement and sales departments. Viacom employees were being asked to sell two networks instead of one, without being given extra incentive to do so. Swan has approached this obstacle by sharing her enthusiasm for Nickelodeon with the Viacom staff via her ‘Growing Down’ meetings. The important ‘childhood’ culture was communicated in the meetings along with their marketing that included the ‘Ayuda tu Mundo’ (Help your