Before joining Playback, I spent time working as a stringer out of New York for Marketing Magazine and a couple of years writing and editing for Strategy Magazine.

One of the things that struck me during this time was how much effort and resources went into a product before the actual promotion phase began.

I mention this because the challenge articulated by Telefilm Canada chairman Richard Stursberg through his speaking engagements in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal will require a deep rethink of how producers, broadcasters and distributors approach their products.

I was surprised to learn through our cover story (‘Experts rethink audience testing’) that there is very little, and sometimes absolutely no, research behind most Canadian-produced TV programs. ‘We go with our guts,’ is the mantra heard by network executives in Canada.

In his speech in Toronto on Nov. 20, Stursberg suggested the need for ‘a more intensive development process.’ Later, he said, ‘We also have to look at scheduling and promotion of Canadian programs.’

What he failed to do was connect the two.

Let me pose some questions. How do you promote a product without a foundation of research? How many programmers and producers possess empirical data on the target audience for a particular program? Do they know definitively what is important to this segment? What their concerns are? What their interests are? How do you spend millions on a production without understanding the target audience?

In a perfect world, this means compiling data even as the first script is being penned; this means market research and focus groups to pick apart a pilot; this means returning to the consumer again and again once the show has been launched to see if the themes still resonate.While such intensive research may be too expensive for a small market such as Canada, to ignore it completely, is hubris.

Certainly there is nothing wrong with relying on one’s gut, as well.

But, imagine if other sectors worked like Canadian TV. Imagine a conversation between two executives at Kellogg that goes like this: ‘Johnson, competition is stiff. We need a breakthrough product that will capture the 18 to 34 demographic.’

‘I’ve been thinking about that, chief. Thai food is really popular. How about a Pad Thai cereal bar?’

‘Great. I’ll get the boys at the plant working on it. We’ll start shipping in the fall.’

Not, by any measure, the groundwork for a successful product launch. But how often do you hear about a new show that had its genesis in a casual conversation between a producer and network exec?

Now, one can point to the U.S. and say, these guys research everything to death, whether it be cereal bars or TV shows, and there’s still no guarantee. Shows that test well are regularly cancelled after only a few weeks.

But it must also be acknowledged that many of the most successful shows in Canada have had plenty of research behind them, albeit not of the traditional two-way-mirror, focus-group approach. I refer to some of the classic comedy programs from Wayne and Shuster to SCTV to Air Farce, all of which were workshopped live for years before the cameras got rolling.

In his Toronto speech, Stursberg said: ‘The litmus test for success is the simple question, ‘Are Canadians watching?’

But before we get to that point, another question needs to be answered: What does the audience want?