Cross & Crescent

When Ken Ruck (Delaware 1991) shows up to work each day, he finds six cell phones, a Sony PlayStation 3, a Nintendo Wii, and a Microsoft Xbox 360 in his office.

And to maintain perspective, he also has an Atari 2600 that was originally sold in 1977.

“I did play games early (in my childhood) but I wasn’t a gamer all my life,” Ruck says. “I got more involved in it once I understood the potential.”

Today, Ruck is the senior director of wireless and interactive television for Viacom MTV Network Kids and Family Group with responsibilities for the continental United States.

MTV Network Kids and Family Group is a group of media properties owned by Viacom MTV that focuses their brands and products toward kids or parents.

Those brands include the TV networks of Nickelodeon; Noggin, which is a toddler network; and The N, which gears itself more toward younger teens.

Ruck also manages content for two internet-based properties, Parents Connect and GoCityKids, as well as two other web-based properties, Neopets and Shockwave, which are mainly gaming portals.

“So any brand or property within MTV Networks that programs their content toward kids or families, I’m responsible for the wireless and the interactive content,” he says.

Complexities of a New Environment

One of the biggest challenges Ruck faces with wireless content development is that it’s a new technology that faces an entirely new set of business rules governing content distribution.

Plus, it’s a unique and very complex technology where every carrier has a different technology platform, and every wireless handset has a different operating system.

When Ruck and his team develop a game or a platform for a mobile device, they have to develop up to 500 different versions just to cover the U.S. market.

Ruck’s group builds all types or wireless content, including everything from videos, games, screen savers, wallpapers, ring tones, and text messaging products.

One of their latest services is a video-clips service channel that enables users to watch video clips on their cell phones.

Last summer, Ruck says, the Nickelodeon show “Mr. Meaty” was launched for cell phones even before it was available on cable TV. In addition, some wireless carriers also offer a simulcast of Nickelodeon’s programming.

“For Nickelodeon, the kids and family group, for all of our brands, the primary factors for success is really about content ubiquity,” he says. “What I mean by that is being able to get our content to as many different media and devices where our users are — whether that’s the Internet, television, cell phones, or iPods.”

Passion for New Technologies

Ruck has spent his career moving back and forth between Internet start-up companies and working for large media companies such as ACNielsen, Viacom, or Virgin.

“It was always really about following where the medium was going or following what the next place the user was going to access their medium on,” Ruck says.

He says in the Internet days it was always a lot more obvious.

“It was a brand new movement where users were going to their computers to play games that they hadn’t played before against people from around the world,” he says. “They were watching videos; they were engaging with other people.”

After about 10 years, Ruck says he quickly saw that mobility, or more precisely portability, was going to be the killer concept.

With the emergence of Apple iPods, where people could take their music on the go, it was only a matter of time before they would want to watch their videos and play games anywhere they went.

“I saw that cell phones were already pretty pervasive and I saw an emerging industry for content there, so I made the move from the Internet into the mobile space.”

He says he really enjoys the challenges of the emerging technologies and their supporting business models, which are still being created.

“I enjoy being on the forefront of media distribution, getting content — that is games or video — to a place it hasn’t been before, where users really want to use it and consume it,” he says.

Keeping Parents Engaged

The world of mobile gaming is not only new, but it also is a very lucrative business with more than $1 billion in sales in 2006, Ruck says. And that number is expected to grow significantly over the next few years.

Ruck says it’s lucrative because nothing is really ever given away for free, whereas on the Internet, users typically expect free downloads.

Ruck says the wireless content they develop always speaks to the age of the targeted consumers, but their marketing and advertising speaks to parents.

“We have a lot of processes in place where we follow both internal guidelines as well as regulatory guidelines in regards to marketing to children,” he says.

“Kids must have parental consent whenever there’s any kind of marketing of commerce,” he says. Viacom MTV also must follow all the guidelines and policies established by groups like the Children’s On-line Privacy Protection Act and the Federal Communications Commission.

Nickelodeon prides itself on being at the forefront of protecting children’s privacy and interests. They have been a pioneer in children’s entertainment and the No. 1 cable television network for children for the past 12 years.

Early Leadership Skills

At the University of Delaware, Ruck majored in biological sciences, which taught him a way of understanding logic and applying that logic to different areas.

“My core studies were in biology and chemistry, but really it was about understanding principles and logic and applying that to different business areas,” he says.

Lambda Chi brothers living in Ruck’s dorm first introduced him to the Fraternity. He says he gravitated toward them because they had similar interests.

After joining Lambda Chi, Ruck was heavily involved, serving on different committees and as the chapter’s ritualist.

“My years of standing up in front of a room of young, intelligent, college guys and trying to convince them to go in one direction or to follow one principle definitely pays off now,” he says.

Today, whether he is giving a speech in front of a few hundred people or fielding questions in front of a room full of reporters, his experiences at Lambda Chi have helped him gain confidence in managing these different situations.