The first branding document for Nick-at-Nite

Written by Alan Goodman
for Fred/Alan, Inc., New York City
1987

.....
Introduction 1994, by Fred Seibert

Assignment: POSITIONING NICK-AT-NITE
Agency: Fred/Alan Inc.
Date: 1987
Positioning document written by Alan Goodman

I’ve worked on a lot of networks, but Nick-at Nite is one I truly enjoyed.

The idea of America’s first oldies television channels scared a lot of
people; my partner and I tried to sell a broadcast version of it to ABC for at least two years. But we loved TV so much we kept trying. The idea of seeing the good stuff again was appealing to us and, with not too much persuasion, the whole Nickelodeon staff.

If only the ad-sales department agreed.

Even though Nick-at-Nite solved a huge problem of what to do--efficiently--with the nighttime Nickelodeon satellite time, and the high ratings proved that American cable consumers loved--loved--the idea, the sales department insisted that they couldn’t sell spots on a network of “reruns,” and certainly not “reruns in black & white!” They tried to change the network to “all comedies” but found that the promotion people (led by Betty Cohen, by the way) and programmers couldn’t find as good an approach as “TV for the TV Generation.”

This positioning paper was written after the dust settled to give everyone working on Nick-at-Nite a re-grounding in what the network was, and how to communicate the attitude of America’s first oldies TV station.