Rick Lewchuk graduated from Lethbridge College in 1979 with a diploma in Communication Arts. 
The North Battleford, Sask., native is now senior vice-president of Creative Agency and Brand Strategy for CTV. Wider Horizons tuned in with him about his success in branding the network.
WH: Nice title; what does it mean?
RL: We have upwards of 30 channels to market and promote. Your brand is strategic to your position in the marketplace. I remember a former manager at Coca-Cola said, when asked if he had his choice between the secret Coke formula or the brand, he’d take the brand; it’s worth 80 per cent of the company’s value. Your brand is hugely important, especially in TV. We take care of ours at CTV. I have about 200 people handling all design, production and media buying.
WH: And how’s that process going for you?
RL: CTV hasn’t been easy. Prior to the present owner buying the network, it was run like a co-op, one in which many independent stations played down their CTV affiliation. When Baton got control of the network in 1996, we had a serious look at it. It was in such bad shape we questioned whether it was worth keeping. We made a decision, after eight months of research, that we could rejuvenate the brand. But it’s not been an overnight thing: it’s taken 12 years.
WH: Are you pleased with the situation now?
RL: We’re happy with the recognition at this stage. We continually study and track that to gauge the public’s perception of us. As I say, in the mid-1990s, it was not a strong brand. A lot of that came from the network structure. People in southern Alberta, for instance, would have had a much stronger affinity for CFCN [the Calgary network affiliate] than CTV. It was a much stronger brand than CTV. That’s changed now; most people in southern Alberta wouldn’t think all that much about CFCN as a separate brand; it’s CTV.
WH: How is CBC doing with its brand management?
RL: CBC has a strong brand identity, but it’s not always one you want to have. It works well in some parts of the country, not so well in others. CBC’s brand is not as strong in southern Alberta, for instance, as it is in Ontario; people in southern Alberta think of it as a centrist network. We work well in all areas of the country.
WH: But that hasn’t always been so.
RL: When we started, we were strongest in Saskatchewan and the Maritimes, and weakest in B.C. That’s mainly because the affiliate there hid its CTV ownership as frequently as it could. There’s been much more growth in B.C. now.
WH: How strong is your Canadian identity? Does it tend to get buried by American networks and programs?
RL: I think people identify with us as a Canadian network. One of our competitors – I won’t tell you who it is – has a real identity problem because most people think it’s American. On a day-today basis, it has a problem with its identity. We don’t project ourselves as strictly Canadian, though, because a lot of our more popular programs are American.
WH: Does that hold for your other properties?
RL: No. TSN, for instance, would be considered Canadian; it’s strongest programming is Canadian. Discovery Channel would be hard to qualify as either Canadian or American; it’s more international in scope.
WH: You’ve done well with some home-grown programs such as Corner Gas.
RL: Corner Gas, and Flashpoint has been another solid production for us. It allows for creative flexibility when you can work on a project yourself. We’ve been out to Saskatchewan every summer to see Brent [Butt, creator and star of Corner Gas]; it’s been great to work with him and his team. And Flashpoint is filmed in Toronto, but is now airing on CBS in the States. It’s kinda cool when you can do that.
WH: Is there potential for growth there?
RL: It will grow. It’s driven by economics. American networks used to have scads of money to throw around and didn’t really need us, but with smaller budgets now, they’re looking to work with us. CBS sent a crew up to Toronto to produce their own promotions for Flashpoint, but they used our talent. They’re beginning to recognize our creative abilities. Last June at the Promax/BDA Awards [a global, non-profit association supporting the role and effectiveness of entertainment and information content marketing, promotion and design professionals] CTV’s creative agency took more awards than anyone else in the world. We were competing with CBS, NBC, ABC and Fox and we beat them hands down.
WH: How did your education at Lethbridge College prepare you for your work in television?
RL: I came to Lethbridge College at 16, so I was pretty young. By 21, I was already a manager at a station in Regina. I got a huge head start at Lethbridge College so I didn’t have to learn on the job. The academic portion was pretty strict: only six of us passed. There was such a desire in the industry to have people with education, so getting a job was easy. We split our course time 50-50 between academics and hands-on work. Everyone had to take a shift on the college radio station [CRLC The Kodiak]. In my last semester, I was coming to school at 5:30 a.m. to select the music for my 6 a.m. shift, taking classes all day and then putting in a full shift at CFAC [now Global TV] until midnight. It’s where I discovered chocolate-covered coffee beans. But I was 19 and I could handle it in those days.
