Created in June, this Axe news-report-mocking video about a fictitious Alaskan town that used Axe deodorant to attract women because the town had none, has finally found a home beyond the bits and bytes of the viral highway. The video will be central to an interactive television campaign running on Comcast ITV's Cartoon Network Swim Block and will consist of a news banner that runs along the bottom of programming which, if clicked, leads to the video.
Furthering its embrace (experiment?) of releasing television content online, CBS will produce original content of its hit drama CSI Miami and will show it exclusively on CBS.com. Promising to reveal a major secret about team of CSIs, the scene has local news reporter Erika Sykes (Amy Laughlin) share a piece of information with Detective Ryan Wolfe (Jonathan Togo) that, we're told, will lead to an undercover investigation that will unfold on the show this season. Way to tease, CBS. The bonus scene will appear online immediately following the east coast broadcast of CSI Miami, Monday, November 21.
The bonus material featured on CBS.com will be sponsored by GM's Hummer, featured heavily in the series. CBS and Hummer will promote the combined broadcast/online storyline with spots on the network and ads on CBS.com.
"Advertising within TV shows is still the mother lode of how the networks bring in their revenue, and CBS and the other networks have an extremely important interest in protecting the sanctity of the first-run show's ratings," said Andy Donchin, executive vp and director of national broadcast at Carat. Andy might be eating those words in a few years as cable and broadcasters wake up and smell the VOD. Certainly, not everyone is going to pay for ad-free content but an entire generation who will refuse to accept current ad supported content models is fast growing and simply won't settle for business as usual. Additionally, if show producers and broadcasters see a viable and profitable pay per VOD business model, they'll dump advertisers faster than Cue Cat came and went.
The American Chopper guys are crossing the pond to Europe with their Discovery reality show, taking the dignity out of England and modifying it to suit their less than dignified style. In the spot, the three American Chopper guys basically rip the dignity out of England, in a humorous way, of course, and laugh at a tiny scooter as if to crush it with their loud, obnoxious Harley's. The spot was created by Convert of The Ebeling Group.
In an effort to build viewership for its entry into the already over-crowded mystery alien genre, CBS will offer three episodes of Threshhold online without ads. Each episode will be available at the completion of its Friday, 9PM airing.
"We think that the traditional network run will always be the primary broadcast, but this is an opportunity to recruit viewers that may not have experienced the show yet or (provide a chance) for those that missed an episode to get caught up," said Chris Ender, senior vp CBS Communications Group. While true for now but with the proliferation of downloadable shows, the model may, forever, change.
New Yorkers are having fun with currently running New York Rangers television campaign, called "Bobby Granger's Guide to the Rangers," in which a fan named Bobby Granger interacts with new York Ranger players to, among other things, explain this season's new rules.
One spot's got Ville Nieminen doing what he does best, swearing. One has Bobby trying to teach the non-New York players how to speak "new yawk" which doesn't go over too well with Canadian Dominic Moore. Another has Booby getting Russian language lessons from Jaromir Jager which gets him into trouble with Petr Prucha.
On Thursday, October 27 at 3PM, CBS.com will feature the "Ghost Whisperer Halloween Seance," hosted by medium James Van Praagh. Van Praagh, who is co-executive producer of the CBS television drama Ghost Whisperer, will perform readings for the general public via streaming video on CBS.com.
People will be able to call Van Praagh at 323-227-1000 and speak to him personally as he connects to the dead while others can simultaneously converse in a designated chat room. Hmm. Watching Jennifer Love Hewitt seems far more interesting than this.
Little Red Riding Hood is nowhere to be found in this spot for Halls but some dudes dressed up like pigs are worried a dude dressed like a wolf is going to huff and puff and blow their house down. It's a fairly amusing spot, especially since the guy playing the wolf looks like he can't stop cracking up while acting his part.
Mountain Dew has introduced a new energy drink, MDX, and will launch a BBDO created ad campaign called Be Nocturnal, consisting of two spots, "All Night Long" and "Sunglasses At Night," October 22 during the World Series to introduce the drink. Print and radio will accompany the television. Check it all out here.
Philips Electronics is paying CBS $2 million to be the sole sponsor of 60 Minutes this week. The show will kick off with a 90-second ad followed by two stories in the first half of the show. During the second half of the show will have two ad breaks. Total ad time will clock in at 6 1/2 minutes versus the usual 12 with affiliates dropping in a few local ads.. There will also be an opening sponsorship billboard.
|
|
