Brief Magazine Spring 2010 : Page 6

Jersey Shore Network: MTV Date: January 21, 2010 Viewers: 4.8 Key to Success: Letting the cast speak for themselves Anyone who has seen an episode of MTV’s hit reality series “Jersey Shore” knows that the cast members have no trou- ble making their voices and opinions heard. So when MTV put together its promotional campaign for the show, they opted for a hands-off treatment, allowing the actions and antics of its over-the-top cast to shine through. “At its heart, we saw ‘Jersey Shore’ as a comedy,” said Tina Exarhos, EVP market- ing and multiplatform creative for MTV. “The cast and the show speak for them- selves. The strategy was to highlight them, in their own words, unfiltered. No editorial POV, just an introduction to the show con- cept and to each of them as real people.” The campaign, executed primarily through on-air promos with some targeted cable ads, sparked immediate conversation – and controversy. The highly publicized backlash against the show’s now-defunct use of the terms “guido” and “guidette” only served to further stoke the fire, which spread to the digital realm as hundreds of YouTubers posted and re-posted the trail- ers for the series. On social media networks, the “Jersey Shore” phenomenon snowballed, with ubiquitous Twitter and Facebook posts and a host of user-generated content, including “Jersey Shore” name generators, which played on the quirky nicknames of cast members such as Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi and Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino. MTV gave back in kind, with a tongue-in-cheek “Jersey Shore Yourself” game on their web- site, where you can deck out your avatar in true “Jersey” style. “We started the conversation, but fans owned the conversation,” said Exarhos.  6 WATCH DOG UPFRONT BRIEF

Watch Dog

Rebecca Job

Jersey Shore Network: MTV Date: January 21, 2010 Viewers: 4.8 Key to Success: Letting the cast speak for themselves Anyone who has seen an episode of MTV’s hit reality series “Jersey Shore” knows that the cast members have no trouble making their voices and opinions heard. So when MTV put together its promotional campaign for the show, they opted for a hands-off treatment, allowing the actions and antics of its over-the-top cast to shine through. “At its heart, we saw ‘Jersey Shore’ as a comedy,” said Tina Exarhos, EVP marketing and multiplatform creative for MTV. “The cast and the show speak for themselves. The strategy was to highlight them, in their own words, unfiltered. No editorial POV, just an introduction to the show concept and to each of them as real people.” The campaign, executed primarily through on-air promos with some targeted cable ads, sparked immediate conversation – and controversy. The highly publicized backlash against the show’s now-defunct use of the terms “guido” and “guidette” only served to further stoke the fire, which spread to the digital realm as hundreds of YouTubers posted and re-posted the trailers for the series. On social media networks, the “Jersey Shore” phenomenon snowballed, with ubiquitous Twitter and Facebook posts and a host of user-generated content, including “Jersey Shore” name generators, which played on the quirky nicknames of cast members such as Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi and Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino. MTV gave back in kind, with a tongue-in-cheek “Jersey Shore Yourself” game on their website, where you can deck out your avatar in true “Jersey” style. “We started the conversation, but fans owned the conversation,” said Exarhos The Pregnancy Pact Network: Lifetime Date: January 23, 2010 Viewers: 5.9 Key to Success: Family ties “I think the key to Lifetime’s new success is getting the two demographics – the older teenage girls and then moms – sitting down to watch our tent pole events, said Bob Bibb, Co-CMO for Lifetime. To achieve this, Lifetime reached out to the college crowd, with mall postings in five key markets, print ads on college campuses in 11 markets and place-based video media in more than 200 colleges. In addition, they broke down the key art for display ads on digital mediums, using the tagline “Not all teen pregnancies are unplanned.” Lifetime also aggressively marketed “The Pregnancy Pact” in conjunction with the premiere of the hit show, “Project Runway,” which debuted a week and a half before “The Pregnancy Pact.” .... The Pregnancy Pact Network: Lifetime Date: January 23, 2010 Viewers: 5.9 Key to Success: Family ties “There was no cookie-cutter approach to the marketing,’” said Nancy McGee, EVP of worldwide marketing for Starz. “We approached this show for what it was – a unique, original, compelling series – and then forged an appropriately innovative marketing campaign to emphasize that.” Starz approached their campaign for “Spartacus: Blood and Sand” in both traditional and nontraditional ways. Along with the standard magazine print ads, billboards and promos on 16 Starz and Encore channels, the marketing team forged a relationship with Men’s Health magazine, which created a Spartacus workout for their January 2010 issue and sponsored a Spartacus-themed gladiator boot camp in Los Angeles, complete with an appearance by the very buff cast members from the series. .. Spartacus: Blood and Sand Network: Starz Date: January 22, 2010 Viewers: 1.2 Key to Success: Marketing both inside and outside the box Super Bowl Network: CBS Date: Feb 7, 2010 Viewers: 10 Key to success: Building on the brand For this year’s Super Bowl, CBS let the built-in popularity of the sports world’s annual mega-event take the lead in its advertising. “Because it’s the biggest event in America, we don’t spend an extraordinary amount of time to promote our coverage,” said Ron Scalera, EVP and creative director for CBS Marketing Group. “Luckily, the Super Bowl promotes itself – so our main job is to brand it as a CBS property.” CBS began its campaign at the start of the football season in September, with a series of spots looking back at the network’s 50-year history of televising the NFL. Each spot ended with the tagline, “Home of Super Bowl XLIV: CBS Sports.” Following the AFC and NFC Championship games, the network ran promos highlighting the star quarterbacks from both teams, as well as the underdog sensation created by the New Orleans Saints’ survival of Hurricane Katrina and progression to their first-ever Super Bowl appearance

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