Chris Moseley: Branded For Life - Lunch at Michael's

Originally Published September 12 2003There are few people in the marketing and television community who engender such a loyal and dedicated following as Chris Moseley EVP Worldwide Marketing for Crown Media Holdings and parent of the Hallmark Channel Chris is one of the acknowledged deans of television brand marketing recognized for building the Discovery Channel and launching The Learning Channel Animal Planet Discovery retail stores and now the Hallmark ChannelBut her career could have been very different if she had followed any one of several early career choices Originally Chris thought she would follow in her father39s footsteps by attending Cornell Law School and becoming an attorney But when she visited Ithaca NY she quothad a visceral intuitive reactionquot that convinced her Cornell and law school were not in her future Her Dad at 91 is still a practicing attorney and disappointed he couldn39t turn his practice over to ChrisInstead she studied international relations at the Johns Hopkins program in Bologna Italy although she quothas no recollection of how she actually got therequot At college in Wooster Ohio she had met Tom Moseley and upon her return from Europe they met again and were soon engaged and married They moved to Chris39 hometown Baltimore where she was offered a job as a secretary in the WBALTV newsroom quotI thought it was the coolest jobquot she recalls quotWhere else can you watch 39Godzilla39 movies from your desk at 4PMquot While at the station Chris was encouraged to audition to be the onair weather girl quotbut I was teased unmercifully and decided that I would never be on airquot She became assistant promotion director but Tom was promoted to his company39s headquarters in Hartford Connecticut quotI quit my job and moved for Tom who is now an attorney but ever since I have dragged him from city to city every time I have changed jobsquotFrom Hartford Chris and Tom moved to Miami and then to Los Angeles New York back to Maryland for Discovery to New York and Los Angeles again for ABC Network and now to Hallmark in LA In New York Chris worked originally for WPIXTV as promotion director Jane Maas a creative legend herself met Chris while her agency Muller Jordan ampamp Weiss was pitching the WPIX account Jane asked Chris to join MJampampW and the two women became lifelong friends while developing marketing and branding strategies for Hearst Magazines and several other media clients In 1988 while working at Earle Palmer Brown agency Chris received a fateful call from headhunterSusan Bishop asking if Chris would consider joining an emerging cable network in Maryland with only 55 employees It was time for Chris to go back home and to Discovery Channel What few people know is that a house Chris had loved since she was a child had just come on the market and a selling point for her was the opportunity to purchase and live in that house Chris and Tom still own the house and consider it homeAlthough it may seem Chris has moved frequently she is actually a homebody quotI39m a nut about gardening and learning all about plants I39m a dirt grubberquot she laughs quotI won a garden design competition for best rock garden when I was 12 Now I have a rose garden and am getting my arms around tropical flowersquot Chris also loves to cook and has been known to volunteer to prepare major dinner parties shipping live Maryland crab in for crab cakes picking fresh mint in the field for minted melon balls and waking at dawn to visit the Farmer39s Market to pick out what39s fresh and then cooking until 2 AM the next day quotNote to selfquot she jokes quotIt39s time to hang up my whiskquotChris calls Baltimore home and she loves LA and the challenges of marketing an independent channel with the extraordinary brand heritage of Hallmark but she misses her New York friends quotNew York is a terrific professional environment especially for women It39s very performance orientedquot Her history as an quotindefatigable brand builderquot has always been focused on performance quotIn a sea of choices and parity products you need to define for consumers what sets you apart that cements their relationship with youquotChris is most proud of her longlasting relationships a team she has worked with for years She credits Jane Maas for teaching her the quotOgilvy ampamp Mather paradigm of bringing people together for giveandtake brainstorming with no territoriality that gets in the way of ideation The challenge is to keep raising the bar being relentless in the pursuit of excellent strategies and creativity and keeping people motivatedquotA colleague of Chris39 comments quotChris is an incredible motivator She is constantly challenging us to be the best we can and she always reinforces how great she thinks we arequot Wherever ChrisMoseley may travel she will be branded for life as the television industry39s ultimate brand builderChris can be reached at contactjackmyerscom

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Chris Moseley: Branded For Life - Lunch at Michael's

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