CBS Daytime

When viewers get a look at CBS' "hot" new daytime promos, all they see is the perfected end product of a lot of planning and hard work. CBS.com chatted with Barbara Bloom, Sr. VP of Daytime Programming, to find out more about what goes into creating a new daytime promo campaign.

The daytime "Hot Enough For You" promos feature the hit song "If You're Not The One" by Daniel Bedingfield.

Plus, check out our behind the scenes slideshow at the shoot!

CBS.com: When working on a new promo campaign, how does the process begin?
BARBARA BLOOM: The shows had really terrific story insights and at the same time, Susan Banks [Director, On-Air Promotion, CBS Daytime] and I had been talking about sort of revitalizing the look and feel of the daytime promos that were on the air. I really felt that they needed to be simplified and more direct. I was looking at the stories that were coming in and I thought, "These are great stories." I was working with the creative teams on the shows. I brought in MKA [Advertising], the outside advertising agency that helped us with the Jack Wagner [Nick, B&B] shoot and Susan and I met with them. We noodled through [and asked], "What's the promise that our business fulfills for these viewers that makes it a successful business?" We have intriguing characters. At the same time we had great story with a lot of the already extraordinary cast, we had new faces coming in in the best way possible. I looked to it and thought, "How do we own this and at the same time remind and invite the audience to watch more often?" We have an extraordinarily loyal and terrific audience, but we need to remind them not to get complacent. That happens in two ways: it happens in the storytelling and it happens in the way [the shows] look and promote it. As we were looking at several of the ideas that MKA pitched to us, "Hot Enough For You" stood out on that level. It says to the audience, "We're exciting; we're sexy; we're romantic; we're intriguing; we've got it all here for you." We're hot enough for you, "hot" being sort of more of an iconic term to just mean we're the place to be, for you. I like to say, we're one-stop shopping for all of your viewer needs.

CBS.com: So MKA comes up with the concept and they approach you with a pitch?
BARBARA BLOOM: Well, we work together. We strategize about who we're trying to reach, what are our goals in reaching them, what is it that we want to say, how do we want to do it, what kind of feel do we want to have in it. Then within the parameters that I give to them and what we discuss together in conjunction with Susan, they come back and say these ideas appeal to us. Two of the ideas that appealed to me was the tagline "Hot Enough For You." Also, I really liked the word play that they had in another campaign called "The Gist." You sort of think it's one thing, but then it's another. I like the idea of not having voiceover on the spots for a while, of letting the visual speak for itself and in the episodics, letting the sound bytes speak for themselves. I love the "playing with fire," and the "back-stabber." I mean, I just like the spin on it because again, that's another level of we're surprising.

CBS.com: These promos are more mysterious, leaving more for the audience's imagination than a promo that's actually lays it out for you.
BARBARA BLOOM: I think it invites you to join in. It's whatever is happening on the screen and the person watching as an emotional participant. That's why I think these spots speak to you. They include you in that dynamic by not labeling what everything is. Also, we're an extraordinarily successful daytime daypart that has franchises that are historic. They've been here a long time. Guiding Light turns 51 this year, As The World Turns turns 47, The Young and the Restless turned 30. I think sometimes people think, "Oh, [the show's] been here 47 years. I can watch it tomorrow." This is sort of to say, "Hey, it's happening right now. You're missing it right now."

CBS.com: What do you think the key is to capturing the attention of viewers?
BARBARA BLOOM: I think the shows themselves are their best audience drivers. I think our role is to bring the audience to the shows as successfully as possible by keeping up the level of suspense. Each of the shows moves at a different pace. I think however engaging and surprising plays out for some shows or for some particular stories within a show, engaging is long. For some, it's short, depending on the story and the pace. I don't think there are a lot of airtight rules you can hold every single show to the same level. Then you wouldn't have the individual flavors that we have. But I think that certainly advertising and the way that we frame the advertising and the way that we showcase, particularly in the weekly episodic spots the footage from the shows, helps position that so it gets to the audience in the cleanest, most direct, most exciting fashion. That will help, in terms of keeping that level of enthusiasm up.

CBS.com: You attended the shoot. Were you happy with how it went?
BARBARA BLOOM: Oh, it was fabulous! I always attend shoots. I'm a shoot junkie. Having had marketing as part of my background, I like to be at the shoot because sometimes things happen that change it, that are exciting, where you will get something that you didn't want. Also, I like to know in my head what the footage is going to look like. It's old training from working in marketing, that you sort of have that rough cut edit in your head when you leave the shoot that day. I think it works better if you're not blind in the process. If you're not expecting people to just hand you a finished product and then you're responding to it. It was great. The actors were all fabulous. They couldn't have been more terrific. They had a lot of fun. They were just stunning.

CBS.com: Was it what you had envisioned it would be on the day of the shoot? Did it evolve into new things?
BARBARA BLOOM: Yeah. Sometimes it evolves when you are there. We did a spot, which is going to air with Roger Howarth [Paul, ATWT] next week. He was sitting in between shots on these stairs waiting for them to set up this swivel that they were going to do. He just looked so great there that we ended up shooting him there. The director and the agency worked really close together in terms of what the look of the spot was. They talked me through it ahead of time, but I'm always surprised when I get there how great it is.

CBS.com: After the shoot what happens next? Does it go through weeks of editing and do you sit in on those sessions?
BARBARA BLOOM: We edit them here in-house. Susan and our in-house team was there and we had a producer from MKA there. They came out and edited the first five spots for about four days. I intermittently went in and out of editing for it.

CBS.com: Have you been happy with the on air result?
BARBARA BLOOM: Oh yeah, I love them. I think there's always stuff you wonder later [like], "Did you get enough of this dynamic? Did you get enough of that dynamic?" Or you remember a shot that you liked that really didn't work when you ended up piecing it all together or you're always surprised that something that you weren't sure really popped on camera or vice versa. But, I think they're effective and what I really like also is that the in-house team is really running with the concept.