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September 2005 - Strategy Magazine
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Spankin' the competition - Muriel Solomon, director of marketing, dramatic networks, Alliance Atlantis
Muriel Solomon's cheeky ads are sending her ratings up

by Annette Bourdeau
page 16

Muriel Solomon is the saucy lady behind all those naughty Showcase ads. But, she's quick to point out that it's not all her. "I'm not the exclusive dirty mind around here," she says, laughing.

Whatever she and her cohorts are doing at Alliance Atlantis, it's working. Since Solomon, 35, assumed her position as the director of marketing, dramatic networks (overseeing Showcase, Showcase Action, Showcase Diva and IFC) in 2001, her campaigns have won numerous awards and ratings have gone way up.

In June, her channels took home 13 Promax awards (which honour TV's best marketing and promotion,) including gold for funniest cable channel promotion for its in-house "Thanks, Showcase!" branding campaign, and tied for gold with HBO in the cable channel's best program promotion category for, ironically, HBO's own series Six Feet Under. And, the Six Feet Under campaign, developed with her agency FCB Canada, has made it into this year's editions of Applied Arts and Communication Arts.

A large part of Solomon's success at Alliance Atlantis can surely be chalked up to her keen ability to think outside of the black box. "She's always looking for non-traditional ideas...thinking about how we can create some impact," says Sunil Sekhar, VP, accounts at FCB. "In today's environment, that's essential."

Her upcoming campaign to promote fall TV this season is no exception. It's not a straightforward programming push: it has three goals - to promote the brand, the 10 p.m. timeslot and the shows. The resulting effort, "Showcase at 10," hits all three messages, most notably through an innovative guerrilla tactic developed with Montreal-based Gearwerx.

Showcase will brand a fleet of vehicles in Toronto, Vancouver and Ottawa that will chauffeur people home in time for the 10 p.m. lineup. The fleet will be equipped with TVs running promo reels of the fall programs, which includes premium cable shows picked up from HBO and Showtime like Rescue Me, Weeds and The L Word.

"She was determined to find a solution - she wasn't willing to accept something that didn't hit all three messages and as a result we have a great campaign," says boss Heather Conway, EVP, corporate affairs & international channel development at Alliance Atlantis. "She has a great strategic mind and she's great at execution - often people don't

have both."

Solomon honed her strategic thinking skills working in CPG as a baby food brand manager at Heinz, where she was responsible for launching a cereal for infants. It was her first marketing job, and her first job in Canada after moving here from Paris when she was in her 20s. She developed her business chops while earning undergraduate and graduate degrees in business management from the British Chamber of Commerce and Bordeaux's Superior School of Commerce respectively. During her five-year tenure at Heinz, she saw her brand generate double-digit growth, and take home an industry award for creativity and innovation.

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