Cablefax The Magazine - July 2010 - 30

INDEPENDENT MARKETER OF THE YEAR
Mitch Robinson
Marketing and Business
Ops Manager
Click Cable TV
What does it take to shake up a staid,100-year-old utility
so that it can compete effectively against giants like
Comcast? For Mitch Robinson, our Independent Marketer
of the Year, part of the answer is purple hair.
Although he admits " I'm not a young guy who looks good
in colored hair, " Robinson last February had his locks dyed
purple-the color that dominates Click's service trucks, its
billboards, its Web site and, well, everything.
Robinson had lived in the Seattle-Tacoma area before
joining Click. " I wasn't sure what Click was, " he says.
" Was it a power company? A cable company? I figured
other people felt the same way. " Research proved
him correct. Click had an identity crisis. That's when
the purple haze descended on everything Click. " We
wanted to stand out and entertain. " It's also when Click
Network Tacoma Power gave birth to Click Cable TV
and the tag " Your Local Choice. " Today Click Cable TV
has 110 employees serving 25K subs.
But the purple hair? Robinson did it when certain
" lofty " sub and revenue goals, set nearly 4 years ago,
were reached. But this was not a 'hair today, gone
tomorrow' situation. Robinson kept his colorful mane
for " a long 3 weeks " and attended a slew of community
events and business meetings. " The chairperson would
usually say, 'Before we begin, Mitch, tell us, why is your
hair purple?' And I lost no opportunity to talk up our
company in these community forums, " he insists.
The significance of Robinson's purple hair hasn't,
er, receded. Pictures of his coiffure abound on walls
in Click's offices. " He took one for the team...it raised
morale, brought us together and reminded us that we
reached our goals, " says Click's Government/Community
Relations Manager Diane Lachtel. " It was very
popular with field employees, " she adds, noting service
techs initially got plenty of ribbing driving around town
in Click's all-purple trucks.
While hair might make the man,
it takes more to make a good
marketer. Beyond his hair-raising
antics, Robinson " knows
how important it is to make a
mark in the community when
you're up against a strong
competitor like Comcast, " says
NCTCs SVP Dan Mulvenon.
Indeed, " Markting is all about
HUE GO TO MY HEAD:
Robinson looks like a cross
between Billy Idol and Dennis
Rodman (inset) before
going all purple to salute
Click employees.
differentiation, " Robinson says,
" and we've layered localism on
top of everything we do. " So
Click's ads feature local high
school musicians. And it picked
up WGN because it knew
Chicago Cubs' skipper Lou Piniella
is a local hero-Robinson
Fast Facts
\ Click has been offering cable products since 1998.
\ " The farther you got from my house the more people
liked [my purple hair], " Robinson says. His 9-year-old
daughter was so embarrassed by it she asked him to
drop her off several blocks away from her school.
30
cablefaxmag.com
even staged a Piniella-style base-throwing contest to
generate buzz. Click sponsors Saturday matinees at a
local theater for subs and non-subs alike. And Robinson
holds free, quarterly sessions for subs, where he
discusses how to get more value from cable. Recently
he treated a packed auditorium to free, brand-new
remotes. It was an Oprah Moment. Is it coincidence that
Oprah starred in the film The Color Purple?
July 2010
CableFAX: The Magazine
http://www.cablefaxmag.com
Cablefax The Magazine - July 2010

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Cablefax The Magazine - July 2010
