Liz Kalodner

World Screen Weekly, July 24, 2008

Executive VP and General Manager

CBS Consumer Products

In the wake of the tremendous success of the CSI franchise, universities across the U.S. have reportedly seen a dramatic increase in the number of students applying for forensic-science programs. Tapping into this wave of wannabe sleuths, The CSI Experience, a touring museum exhibit, has been making its way across the U.S. The hands-on exhibit is intended to encourage young students to take an interest in science. It is one of a host of brand extensions developed for the series by the team at CBS Consumer Products, which is led by Liz Kalodner.

Visitors to the touring museum are given an opportunity to assess a fictionalized crime scene and then venture into a lab in order to solve the mystery. “It’s been tremendously successful for kids aged 8 and up,” Kalodner explains. “It’s great for school groups—it’s teaching kids about science.”

Also in the live-events space, CBS is bringing a CSI stage show to the Six Flags Magic Mountain theme park in California, “where the audience gets to solve the crime on stage,” Kalodner notes.

Another category that has been key to extending the CSI brand has been gaming, Kalodner says. “We’re doing lottery games, a video game, we have a new DVD game from Hasbro, we are talking to people about slot machines. The gaming piece of it is a wonderful application.”

Survivor has also proven to be a lucrative brand for the CBS Consumer Products division, from candles to sunflower seeds to a workout program and more. It’s not, however, just CBS’s current hits that are receiving the attention of Kalodner’s team. At Licensing Show last month, the company unveiled Television City, a branding initiative to exploit CBS’s library of classic shows, many of which are securing a new generation of fans now that they’re available for online viewing through CBS.com.

Kalodner explains that the company is taking a two-pronged approach to the library. The first involves seeking out partners for individual shows. She cites as an example the “southern comfort” food line under the Mayberry’s Finest brand, based on the 1960s series The Andy Griffith Show. The second is to offer up the entire portfolio, under the Television City umbrella, for companies that “could do multiple properties simultaneously, like Hallmark. Television City is associated with CBS because of the headquarters in L.A., without saying CBS. That works for us, because our library includes shows that were on various networks. It gives manufacturers and retailers and ultimately consumers a way to think about this wonderful collection.”

Looking ahead, Kalodner is eager to roll out brand extensions to The CW’s highly anticipated 90210, and to further build on the Star Trek collection of merchandise, in the run-up to the upcoming theatrical feature from J.J. Abrams. “We’ll continue to extend the brand into all categories.”

It is the variety of opportunities available that most appeals to Kalodner in her current position at CBS, which she has been in since last year. Previously, she spent much of her career in the kids’ business, beginning at The Walt Disney Company, where she spent a decade in a variety of positions. Switching over to Silicon Valley for a stint running an online dating service, Kalodner returned to the kids’ fold when she joined Sesame Workshop, where she served as the executive VP and general manager of global consumer products. She says she has enjoyed the transition from targeting a single demographic to developing products for a broader audience. “This portfolio is one that really challenges you creatively. The kids’ business, you know what the main categories are—this portfolio requires a different kind of thinking, different categories, different applications.”

—By Mansha Daswani