USA Puts Marketing Muscle Behind The Starter Wife
Multimillion-Dollar Campaign to Back Six-Hour Limited Series
By Multi Channel News Staff -- Multichannel News, 5/8/2007 3:09:00 PM
For starters, there’s a multimedia campaign. Then, there are programs involving promotional partners, as well as guerrilla-marketing initiatives.
Add it all up and USA Network’s upcoming six-hour limited series, The Starter Wife, is being supported by a multimillion-dollar marketing campaign, including a consumer sweepstakes offering aimed at boosting awareness for the project, starring Debra Messing.
Based on the eponymous best-selling novel by Gigi Levangie Grazer (the wife of Imagine Entertainment honcho Brian Grazer), the limited series, airing on five Thursdays beginning May 31, is a wickedly funny tour de force about a woman’s quest to redefine her life following a divorce after years of life to a Hollywood studio chief.
“The theme of reinvention applies to all audiences, not just divorced women. Anyone at any age entering a new stage of life will be inspired by the challenges and the humor in The Starter Wife,” USA senior vice president of marketing and brand strategy Chris McCumber said in a prepared statement. “The theme of ‘starting over’ is universally relevant as evidenced by the breadth of this expansive campaign.”
On the media side, USA will engage in a massive tune-in blitz that includes national and local TV spots; a print presence in leading entertainment, fashion and lifestyle publications, plus national and local newspapers; radio campaigns in 10 markets; and various out-of home vehicles.
In New York, the latter will manifest with messaging on commuter rail cards, subway two-sheets, bus tails and bug kings, phone kiosks and oversized wild postings. Outreach in Los Angeles will include high-impact billboards and bulletins, plus wild posters.
Alternative advertising includes grocery-store backlit panels, as well as aerial banners over beaches and parks in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.
Digital advertising will extend to video pre-roll sequences, rich-media units, sponsorships and takeovers across entertainment sites, portals, celebrity/fashion/gossip sites and women’s community/dating sites.
Tying in its partners, USA is working with five companies. Pond’s, the presenting sponsor, has married its brand to the limited series since production began, with tie-ins manifesting at the retail point-of-sale, via logo integration and branded content, online elements and consumer involvement via contests and sweepstakes.
In conjunction with USA, Too Faced produced 5,000 branded Quickie Chronicles for usage in promotional giveaways and retail beauty demonstrations.
Nordstrom will offer its customers complimentary “fresh start” makeovers to celebrate the premiere.
Last month, Essie’s Starting Over collection -- a new line of colors inspired by the limited series - was released in more than 50,000 of the best-known salons and spas around the country.
USA sister company iVillage.com linked with Dress for Success to create a microsite replete with show clips, excerpts from the novel, a pledge board, blogs and advice.And 20-second public service announcements will drive women to starterwife.ivillage.com to make a personal pledge to themselves (e.g. “Starting today, I will … “).
Publisher Simon & Schuster issued the pocket-book release of the title last month, and it features key art with a tune-in burst. The publisher -- which also has online support including a Grazer author page, audio clips and cast interviews -- is reaching out to 8,000 book clubs and fiction databases and is also issuing discussion guides in its May/June book-club reader program.
Meanwhile, a national Fresh Start sweepstakes launched May 1 and will continue through July 5. The grand prize includes a four-night luxury trip for two to Los Angeles for a complete life makeover. A total of 10 first prizes will include one day of pampering at a local spa and three “just because” flower deliveries, while 20 others will receive The Starter Wife Malibu Survival Tote Bags.
As for guerrilla tactics, USA plans to build buzz with everything from taking over 64 nail and beauty salons in New York, Los Angeles and Connecticut with branded nail kits, aprons, POP displays and promotional DVDs to deploying branded ambassadors dressed in Malibu chic attire that will hand out Pond’s co-branded products and fake diamond rings in 10 markets the week of May 24.
Should the limited series score big in the ratings, USA officials say they are considering revisiting The Starter Wife as another high-profile programming event or pushing it to a traditional series format.
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