Country Music Television Looks to Razorfish for Updated On-air Image.

Business & Entertainment Editors

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 13, 2000

With the widening appeal of today's country music sounds and its celebrities, CMT: Country Music Television has contracted Razorfish, Inc. (Nasdaq:RAZF), the digital solutions provider and strategic brand marketing firm, to update its current on-air look, providing the 24-hour country music television channel with a more contemporary feel.

Razorfish's creative director Bob English explained, "With the growing popularity of artists like The Dixie Chicks and Shania Twain, CMT wanted to revitalize the channel's on-air look and feel. This was quite a challenge for our designers because they needed to avoid alienating the existing audience while attracting new and younger viewers to the channel."

By retaining the logo's existing red, blue and yellow color palette, English and his creative team inverted the colors in the logo and applied a more defined guideline as to how, when and where the logo colors would be represented in other on-air graphics and imagery. As English affirmed, "Although the color change sounds simple, and was fairly subtle, it definitely made the logo appear more contemporary."

Taking a very simple and clean approach to the graphics, English, designer Stephen Fuller and director of photography Andrew Turman also utilized the growing list of contemporary country music stars who are crossing over into mainstream music categories.

Among the elements the Razorfish team delivered were a series of five Artist IDs shot on 35mm film in a Nashville soundstage. By showcasing many of today's hottest country music performers interacting with a physical CMT logo, the spots connect today's contemporary country stars with the channel in the most literal sense.

The five "Artist IDs" are balanced with nine "Passion IDs," which present a broad demographic profile of individuals talking about why they're so passionate about country music. The novelty is that the Passion spots are filmed from a behind-the-scenes perspective. The individuals filmed thought they were participating in a casting session, thus allowing them to express themselves in a more genuine, less self-conscious way. The resulting testimony speaks volumes as to the widening appeal of country music as well as the devotion and loyalty of its fans.

In addition to the two distinct on-air ID packages, Razorfish also delivered three promotional packages designed for ease of use by the channel's local producers. Included in these promotional kits are navigational elements -- a scrolling menu, credit squeezes, "coming up" banners and lower thirds. The updated graphic elements and promotional spots were designed to provide a personal warmth and contemporary style, visually conveying the channel's migration across traditional country music boundaries to a more modern and consistently branded channel environment.

Added English, "We spend a great deal of time and energy listening to the client, exacting not only how they define themselves today, but where they plan to be tomorrow. CMT is continuing to broaden its audience base and advertiser appeal, and the updated design we created for the channel conveys that while retaining the warmth and personality that attracted so many people to this outlet in the first place."

The project, under the direction of Country Music Television's Stacey Killian Hagewood, was executive produced for Razorfish by Maribeth Phillips with Chris McCumber serving as director and Melissa August as project producer. Karl Cluck wrote the various scripts for the project, and Robert Pennington acted as editor. Post production was completed at Spontaneous Combustion, and original music was created by JSM.

Founded in 1995, Razorfish, an end-to-end digital solutions provider, recently acquired brand management and broadcast design firms Lee Hunt Associates and Fuel Design. The acquisitions have expanded the company's core capabilities of leveraging digital technologies to include strategic brand marketing and design expertise for traditional entertainment media. Razorfish delivers a complete set of end-to-end solutions including strategy, design, and technology services across platforms, devices, and networks.

With offices in Amsterdam, Boston, Hamburg, Helsinki, Los Angeles, London, Mannheim, New York, Oslo, San Francisco and Stockholm, Razorfish employs more than 1,300 people. With headquarters in New York, Razorfish clients include Excite, Fox Kids, NBC, PBS, ESPN, Quokka Sports, and Charles Schwab. More information about Razorfish can be found at www.razorfish.com.

Credits:

Creative Director:                 Bob English
Executive Producer:                Maribeth Phillips
Writer:                            Karl Cluck
Designer:                          Stephen Fuller
Director:                          Chris McCumber
Director of Photography:           Andrew Turman
Project Manager:                   Melissa August
Production Coordinator:            Arik Penchina
Post Facility:                     Spontaneous Combustion
Flame Artist:                      Adam Gascoigne
3D:                                Edgeworx
Modelmaker:                        Dan Castelli
Colorist/Telecine:                 Tapehouse/Anx (Milan)
Mac Artist:                        Gary Looft (AfterEfx)
Off-Line Editor:                   Robert Pennington
Post Producer:                     Trevor King
Music Package:                     JSM
Client:                            Stacey Hagewood,
                                    Creative Services Director,
                                    Country Music Television