Scripps Networks Treats Its Social Voice as a Vital Layer of the Entertainment Brand Playbook

When ION expanded its general entertainment lineup with women's sports in 2023, the brand strategy team at Scripps Networks saw an opening. A bigger, more diverse audience was coming to the network, and the comment section was the fastest way to meet them. The team rebuilt ION's social voice around fan-to-fan conversation, treating the comments as a live signal of what new and longtime viewers wanted from the network.

Marlie Kelleher is Director of Brand Strategy, Entertainment at Scripps Networks, where she oversees brand positioning and social strategy across six linear and streaming entertainment brands, including ION, Bounce, and Grit. She joined Scripps in 2024 after more than a decade at HBO and Warner Bros. Discovery, helping lead creative strategy and co-branded subscriber acquisition campaigns across video, digital, social, and in-real-life activations.

Reaching that expanded audience means stepping back and letting the core fan base lead the conversation. Fan-to-fan dialogue carries more weight than anything a brand can broadcast on its own, and that conviction shapes everything from how ION talks back to viewers to how the team decides what makes it onto the feed in the first place. "When your fans are talking to other fans in the comment section, that is gold. That is the signal you are doing something right," says Kelleher.

Brand filter, fan voice

With a broader audience watching ION, Kelleher's team is shaping a social voice that speaks to longtime fans and new viewers at once. To turn the industry buzzword "authenticity" into something concrete, Kelleher built a persona document. The doc translates corporate brand filters into a humanized social voice, then maps that voice to each platform where the network shows up.

"We made the brand filters the jumping-off point. How we show up on social will not always be a direct translation of how we show up as a corporate brand, but it should always ladder up to those core values. If one of our core filters is 'thrilling,' we have to ask how we consistently embody that on social. We define how we want to respond to things and the specific energy we are putting out there," Kelleher says.

The document gets pressure-tested monthly. The team runs analytics reviews, watches what posts pop, studies competitive accounts, and stays flexible about what works. Experiments that perform get a boost. Posts that miss get retired. The same discipline shapes which conversations the team leans into on each platform, since one announcement can land differently across Instagram, Facebook, and X. "Our legacy fan base is on Facebook, and they love the established programming. It is a place where we focus on what they are most interested in rather than push something different," she notes.

The Wahlberg effect

Without a click-to-watch button on a social post, linear TV social teams cannot chase the conversion metrics most digital marketers live by. Kelleher's team prioritizes brand-awareness signals instead, tracking impressions, non-follower reach, video time spent, shares, and comments as early indicators of whether a viewer will take the extra step to tune in. The approach has driven strong year-over-year growth across ION's social channels on minimal paid media spend. "Especially for TV, there is not a one-to-one customer journey. If we provide a link, it does not mean someone can immediately start watching. We want to grow our fan base so they want to sample the actual product," Kelleher adds.

That measurement philosophy turns community management into content production. ION launched a digital series called ION the Street, hosted by Kelleher's Senior Social Media Manager, Jordynn Berry, that meets fans at network events and spins audience reactions into a recurring social franchise.

Spontaneous talent moments feed the same engine, and the social team watches the comments closely for chances to amplify. "Blue Bloods is one of the programs on ION. If Donnie Wahlberg slips into the comment section, that is a big win for us. We then look at how we can highlight that and turn it into its own creative post," she says. A recent ION TikTok leaned into the running joke that actors fake-eat during scenes, prompting Wahlberg to comment, "I always ate." Kelleher's team built on the exchange, giving the brand a natural way to play off both talent and audience. By spotlighting fan-favorite interactions, ION gives the algorithm a reason to push posts further and fans a reason to keep coming back. The move also signals to other talent that the network's comments are a worthwhile place to drop in.

Reddit, set, go

Looking two to five years out, Kelleher expects the comment section to graduate from a feedback channel into something closer to a stage. She sees creators breaking out on the strength of their replies alone, storytelling unfolding entirely in the threads, and cross-vertical brand partnerships forming organically through public banter. Comments evolve into engines for their own content, talent, and deals.

Instagram remains the demographic sweet spot for the Scripps entertainment portfolio, with TikTok and X playing supporting roles. Reddit is the next platform on Kelleher's radar for the kind of conversation it rewards. "I would love to get into Reddit more. You have to have a good narrative and bring something good to the table." 

That instinct also shapes how she thinks about partnership pipelines. Two brands trading jokes under a third party's post can build the kind of public chemistry a deck and a discovery call rarely produce, and the audience watching becomes part of the deal. "I can see a lot more brand integrations across verticals. A lot of times, it happens organically. You might never put two brands together, but if you see them bantering and commenting on each other's posts, that can be a great way to start a relationship that could eventually monetize and become an actual partnership," she adds.

Career in the comments

For Kelleher, the comment section operates as an ongoing discipline. It rewards brands that show up consistently, write back like humans, and let real fans push the story further than any brand-owned post can on its own. As legacy networks navigate audience shifts, talent dynamics, and platform fragmentation, the teams paying closest attention to who is actually replying may be the ones writing the next playbook.

That logic extends past the brand side. With media hiring tightening, Kelleher sees comment-section engagement as a free channel for job seekers and freelancers trying to get noticed. "The job market is rough right now, but start posting and engaging with brands. You never know whose path you might cross, and there are a lot of freelance opportunities out there. For people trying to figure out the next steps in their career, start engaging with brands in the comment section," she says.