Can 'Stephen Colbert' Transition to Stephen Colbert?

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Stephen Colbert in 2006, when he was named one of Time's 100 Most Influential People of the year.

Image: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty

By Todd Wasserman2014-04-12 05:00:12 UTC

There have been brands that rebranded themselves and celebrities that have changed their images. But what about an entertainer whose brand is based on an exaggerated version of himself?

That's the unique branding dilemma facing Stephen Colbert and CBS. Colbert, who is set to take over The Late Show for the retiring David Letterman in 2015, is planning to retire the pseudo-conservative character he created for Comedy Central's Colbert Report. That means when viewers tune in to the new Late Show next year they will be seeing...what exactly?

Colbert has appeared as himself several times in the past. As a series of videos on Slate illustrate, the out-of-character Colbert is not that far off from "Stephen Colbert," only less bombastic and lacking the fake right-wing politics.

While it may be a fairly easy transition to make from an entertainment standpoint, though, marketing the new Colbert will be tricky, branding experts say.

Allen Adamson, managing director of branding firm Landor Associates, likens Colbert's situation to a typecast actor taking on a new role. Early in their careers, for instance, both Woody Allen and Steve Martin were indistinguishable from their standup comedy personas, but later changed their images with more sober films. "It's like a new product launch," Adamson says. He adds that CBS has two options — keep the new Colbert under wraps to create a buzz or "sample" the new Colbert with out-of-character appearances.

Josh Feldmeth, CEO of Interbrand New York, Toronto, and San Francisco, says Colbert also has to overcome his association with liberal politics. "If you dig into the demo, there's a pretty strong ideological lean," he says. "It probably doesn't match up one-to-one with the Late Show demo." Adamson points out that late-night talk show hosts have traditionally been at least perceived as politically neutral. "They may not have appealed to everyone, but they didn't offend anyone," he says. "They were middle-of-the-road. Colbert may be polarizing."

(Talk show host Rush Limbaugh has bolstered this assertion by declaring that CBS has "declared war on the heartland of America" by hiring Colbert.)

That may be the case, but Henry Schafer, EVP of The Q Scores Co., which measures celebs' popularity, says Colbert's association with liberal politics has led to an impassioned following among the desired 18-34 year-old demo. Colbert's ranking in the Q Score, which measures the percentage of people who say a celeb is among their favorites, is higher than Jimmy Fallon's or Jimmy Kimmel's, but he's less well known.

For comparison, Tom Hanks has the highest Q Score of any celeb right now, 45 and 91% awareness. The average Q Score among late-night talk show hosts is 16 on 31% awareness.

Schafer says reintroducing Colbert won't be a big deal since he is already so beloved among that younger demo. "That's what prompted CBS to go in that direction to clearly stay competitive," Schafer says. "He's a more off-center kind of host. He has more of that polarity about him than the other two, but he's going to stir emotions, so he'll be attractive."

Topics: branding, Business, CBS, david letterman, Marketing, stephen colbert