Schoolhouse Rock! – Great Video Marketing Example

John and I were walking last night and talking about the appalling lack of understanding people seem to have about civics these days. (This is one of our favorite pastimes- walking and kvetching about whatever is bugging us – it’s quite therapeutic!)

He asked me where I had first learned about how the U.S. Government works. . . my answer was, of course, Schoolhouse Rock!

The silly songs and colorful characters stuck in my mind and were effortlessly absorbed by my five-year-old brain, along with the names of all of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and their specialized skills;  which I have since forgotten. But this information was stored neatly and ready to use when I needed it for school or later for “real life.”

In any case, it occurred to me that this is an incredibly powerful example of good marketing:

• It’s targeted to a particular audience (kids!)
• It is placed where they will see it (Saturday morning cartoons)
• It includes engaging characters
• The music is catchy
• It uses repetition (within each video, and each video was shown every Saturday morning for years)
• Each piece is short  (three minutes)

In case you’ve forgotten, here’s the Preamble of the Constitution.

So, what were they “selling?” Education, information, patriotism and civics. For what purpose? Actually, it was a “for profit” enterprise. (see below if you’re curious!)

We’ve discussed before that marketing and sales are something that pretty much everybody, in pretty much every profession, has to do. Doctors have to sell their patients on losing weight or quitting smoking.  Accountants have to sell their clients on keeping good records.  Flight attendants have to sell passengers on complying with safety regulations.  Mediators have to sell people on opposing sides of a conflict on the benefits of coming to an agreement. Engineers have to convince stakeholders that it’s necessary to spend more money to structurally reinforce a component.

Granted, these might be things that patients, clients, passengers and stakeholders should be doing anyway, but we know that people who are the best in their profession (almost any profession) are persuasive people who can get their patients, clients, passengers or constituents to do what they want them to do.

If you have to be “in sales” anyway,  you might just as well get good at it!

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From Wikipedia –

Schoolhouse Rock! began as a commercial advertising venture by David McCall. The idea came to McCall when he noticed one of his sons, who was having trouble in school remembering the multiplication tables, knew the lyrics to many current rock songs. The first song recorded was “Three Is a Magic Number“, written by Bob Dorough. It tested well, so a children’s record was compiled and released. Tom Yohe listened to the first song, and began to doodle pictures to go with the lyrics. He told McCall that the songs would make good animation.

When a print workbook version fell through, McCall’s company decided to produce their own animated versions of the songs, which they then sold to ABC (which already was McCall’s company’s biggest advertising account) based on a demo animation of the original “Three Is A Magic Number” for its Saturday morning lineup. They pitched their idea to Michael Eisner, then vice-president of ABC’s children’s programming division. Eisner brought longtime Warner Bros. cartoonist/director Chuck Jones to the meeting to also listen to the presentation.

The network’s children’s programming division had producers of its regular 30- and 60-minute programs cut three minutes out of each of their shows, and sold General Foods on the idea of sponsoring the segments. The series stayed on the air for 12 years. Later sponsors of the Schoolhouse Rock! segments included Nabisco, General Foods, Kenner Toys, Kellogg’s, and McDonald’s.

Thirty-seven episodes were recorded and produced between 1972 and 1980. The first season of Schoolhouse Rock, “Multiplication Rock,” discussed all of the multiplication tables from two through twelve, with one episode devoted to powers of ten instead of multiples of ten. “Multiplication Rock” debuted all of its episodes in 1973. It was followed in short order by “Grammar Rock,” which discussed the key elements of grammar, one for each song (e.g. nouns, verbs, adjectives). “Grammar Rock” ran new episodes from 1973 to 1975. In 1975 and 1976, to coincide with the upcoming United States bicentennial, a series of “America Rock” episodes aired, covering important moments in American history and the structure of the United States government. “Science Rock” followed in 1978 and 1979, and included a broad range of science-related topics (most were related to human anatomy, but the rest ranged widely from electricity to the solar system).

A follow-up series, “Computer Rock,” debuted in the early 1980s. These were four segments about the then-novel personal computer technology. The shorts featured two characters by the name of Scooter Computer and Mister Chips; these were the only episodes in the series to feature any recurring characters. The “Computer Rock” series was never rerun after 1984, as its depiction of personal computers had quickly become dated.

After temporarily leaving the airwaves in 1985, Schoolhouse Rock returned in the 1990s. The team reunited to produce two more Grammar Rock segments (“Busy Prepositions” and “The Tale of Mr. Morton”) in 1993. It was followed by a brand new series, “Money Rock,” which discussed topics related to money management on both the personal and governmental scale. “Money Rock” aired in rotation with the rest of the original Schoolhouse Rock segments, rotating in new episodes from 1994 to 1996. The show ceased airing on television in 2000, and future new episodes would be released directly to DVD and VHS.

In 2002, the team once again reunited to produce a new song, “I’m Gonna Send Your Vote To College” for the release of the 30th Anniversary DVD. For the new song, Tom Yohe Jr. took over as lead designer for his father Yohe Sr., who had died in 2000.