The Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing (CTAM) last week announced that Kevin Leddy, SVP-new product development for Time Warner Cable in Stamford, Conn., will succeed Douglas Holloway as chairman of the organization's board of directors for 2002.
Introducing new products has become a big part of the cable industry, and, in an interview, Leddy said he believes marketers should be more involved in developing the products they market to consumers.
?CTAM needs to strengthen the bridge between marketing and engineering, so we're going to work much more closely with CableLabs,? he says.
Many new cable products are based on technology. Two of the industry's priorities are video-on-demand and subscription video-on-demand, ?and each is complicated on the tech and the engineering side,? Leddy says. ?In order to market those effectively, CTAM members need to have some knowledge to properly position them to consumers.?
Leddy is also committed to making CTAM members more aware of CableLabs' Open Cable process, an effort to allow consumer electronics companies to attach devices to cable network products.
?How will we get the consumer electronics industry to support that? We need much more creativity, more developers thinking about that, because it's good for the consumer,? he says. One move in this direction, he says, was the tour he took at the Consumer Electronics Show last week with 25 cable executives ? many of them high-level marketers ? who met with consumer electronics developers.
Although continued consolidation may worry some trade organizations, Leddy believes CTAM is secure as cable's marketing coach and cheerleader ?because of its position in marketing new products and services.?
A 22-year industry veteran, Leddy started at the National Cable Telecommunications Association in 1977, where he worked for about a year. In 1980, after graduating from business school, he went to Warner Amex Cable ? now Time Warner Cable.
Leddy's not concerned that his work with CTAM will impinge on the time he gives Time Warner. The CTAM board meets quarterly, and Leddy, a board member for five years already, says that CTAM is ?very careful? not to demand too much time from its volunteers.
Other CTAM appointees include Len Fogge, EVP-creative and marketing, Showtime (vice chairman); Dave Watson, EVP-sales, marketing and customer service, Comcast (secretary); and Jim O'Brien, president and CEO, the Cable Center (treasurer). Rounding out the board are directors Brian Kelly, SVP-marketing, Time Warner Cable; Joe Rooney, VP-marketing, Cox Communications; and Brad Samuels, EVP-affiliate relations, Comedy Central.
Back to this issue
