USA Rallies for Unity
New Campaign Leverages Net's Brand to Urge Racial Tolerance
by Linda Haugsted -- Multichannel News, 1/26/2009 2:00:00 AM
USA Network, which spent the 1990s advising viewers to “Erase the Hate,” has revived its pro-social activities under the banner “Characters Unite.” Like the earlier effort, the on-air and online campaign promotes the premise that life is richer when people see beyond stereotypes and embrace individual differences.
Though the historic election of the first African-American U.S. president represents a giant leap toward burying some of the “-isms” that surround us, NBCU Cable Entertainment and Universal Cable Productions president Bonnie Hammer said in a statement, research shows that hate groups are alive and well.
USA has been using the tagline “Characters Welcome” as a brand identifier for several years, noted senior vice president of brand marketing and digital Alexandra Shapiro. In 2009, the channel's marketing team decided to expand that brand identity beyond promoting television content, she said.
The “Characters Unite” campaign puts viewers in front of the camera, with the first spot featuring real people, not actors, telling their stories. The spots debuted on-air on Martin Luther King Day (Jan. 19).
The on-air spots are just the first phase of the campaign. Details of two more elements, under the umbrella titles of “Character Approved” and “Character Project,” will be disclosed in the next couple of months.
It can be tough to sell your superiors on a marketing effort with no immediately obvious bottom-line value, Shapiro admitted — especially during an economic downturn in which companies like parent NBC Universal have been cutting costs and laying off employees.
“Yes, it's a tough sell, but we're dedicated to spend smart,” Shapiro said of the campaign. “We can be a conduit for change.”
USA also hired Podesta Group, a Washington D.C.-based government-relations and public-affairs firm, to represent it on pro-social legislation. Podesta Group represents major corporations and some media firms, including The Washington Post, National Public Radio and Reed Elsevier, parent company of Multichannel News. Shapiro lauded Lifetime Network's advocacy on women's issues, calling it a “gold standard” that USA would like to emulate.
The on-air spots now running direct viewers to www.charactersunite.com, where viewers are urged to take a pledge recognizing that “life is richer and we are stronger as a country when we see beyond stereotypes and appreciate each other as characters.” Viewers can also post their stories to the site and pick up interactive applications for MySpace and other social-networking Web sites to further solicit participation in the campaign.
Charactersunite.com also offers simple suggestions for users looking to broaden their horizons, such as watching foreign films, treating the homeless with respect and reading the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Creative for the campaign was designed by Citizen Group, an agency dedicated to helping organizations and companies build values-based strategies.
Shapiro said the affiliate portion of the campaign is in development. Marketers hope to develop school curriculum with the help of nonprofit groups that support the pro-social campaign, including Amnesty International, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee and the Anti-Defamation League.
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