Just as April showers are supposed to bring May flowers, the many “upfront” presentations scheduled this month — wooing marketers and agencies before the start of the 2013-14 television season — are bringing complementary advertising efforts intended to reinforce those pitches.
For instance, the FX cable channel has started running ads, which include signs on New York streets, which carry the theme “Fearless.” The campaign is meant to reinforce the FX brand identity as a risk-taking channel, as evidenced by series like “Louie,” “Justified” and “Sons of Anarchy.”
And this week, the NBCUniversal division of Comcast will introduce a trade campaign that carries the theme “Content. Consumers. Collaboration. Amplified.” The campaign, with a budget estimated at $1 million, is intended to convey that NBCUniversal offers marketers and agencies a broad, diverse collection of networks, channels and Web sites on which to run ads – more than just a network, NBC, which has ratings problems in prime time and personnel problems in its morning and late-night slots.
Each ad will offer its own, modified version of “Amplified,” as in “Digital. Amplified,” “Comedy. Amplified,” “Social. Amplified” and “Journalism. Amplified.” There will also be an online presence for the campaign, at amplified.nbcuni.com, as well as print ads that use augmented reality, through a free app, Aurasma, to present short video clips.
The “Amplified” campaign is being created internally at NBCUniversal, by its integrated media group division. An agency named All Day Every Day, with offices in New York and Los Angeles, is working on the elements at amplified.nbcuni.com.
The goal is to promote “the power of our portfolio” and “our storytelling capabilities” for marketers, said Linda Yaccarino, president for advertising sales at NBCUniversal.
Asked if the campaign is being mounted now to help promote NBC, Ms. Yaccarino said it was being introduced because it was an “important time of year,” referring to the upfronts.
John Shea, executive vice president and chief marketing officer for integrated media at NBCUniversal, said, “The important thing we want our clients to know as we go into the upfront, and beyond, is that we’re able to work with them as one seamless portfolio.”
Several NBCUniversal cable channels like Oxygen have already made their upfront presentations, while others, including Bravo, E! and Syfy, will host them this week and next.
NBCUniversal also plans a companywide digital presentation-cum-party in New York on April 24, before the week of so-called Digital Content NewFronts begins the following week.
The print ads are scheduled to start appearing on Wednesday, in publications that include The Hollywood Reporter, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. There will be online ads as well, on cynopsis.com and mediapost.com.
Article source: http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/02/nbcuniversal-ad-campaign-bolsters-its-upfront-presentations/?partner=rss&emc=rss