Putting on a Big Show

Joe Earley made it pretty clear how he plans to promote Fox shows in his relatively new role as executive vice president of marketing and communications when he paraded a dozen live cows on the streets of New York City in May. Earley knows how to drum up publicity.

It was all part of a push to promote Fringe, a show from Lost creator J. J. Abrams that doesn't premiere for another three months.

“We brought some live cows into Manhattan — the point there was to make sure people knew there is some humor in this show,” Earley said, explaining that cows provide comic relief in the drama's first episode. “One of the things that is so amazing about Fringe is that it's a procedural with some sci-fi elements, but it also has humor.”

Besides the cows, the Fringe promotion included people whizzing around on Segways handing out apples, which also tie into a Fringe storyline; nighttime images of graffiti projected onto Manhattan skyscrapers; digital billboards in subway stations; and print ads in The New York Times and New York Post. All at a time when advertising and media buying agencies were gearing up to spend around $9 billion in the annual upfront ad market.

“There were a lot of teasing events in Manhattan during the upfront and we knew media and advertisers would be out and about,” Earley said. “The whole point was to say: 'This is the big show.'”

It was Earley's first upfront in charge of Fox's marketing and communications, although he had been involved in past upfronts. Earley was promoted into his new role last August.

“This is the first one where every piece of the upfront was my responsibility, from the promos that were shown to every piece of ancillary material to the organization of it and even the post-party,” he said. “Luckily, I work with an amazing team of people who are very talented and capable.”

Earley, 41 years old and the father of an 8-year-old daughter, has been with Fox since 1994. He has held positions in marketing and, more recently, was in charge of communications.

The marketing and communications units merged into one department when Earley was promoted.

“During my tenure here, I realized a few things about Joe,” said Fox chairman of entertainment Peter Liguori. “First, he understands the Fox brand. Second, he is a strong leader, both respected and liked by his peers. And he's a showman. I felt these three characteristics served us well, in terms of someone who would be the head of our marketing and communication strategy.”

Merging the two groups made sense because of Earley's background in both departments. But it was also a business decision to ensure the Fox brand is consistent throughout its on-air promos, advertising and press coverage.

And that's something Earley is playing a big role in: Defining the Fox brand.

For years after it launched in the mid 1980s, Fox was an underdog to ABC, CBS and NBC. Its image was similar to that of the trouble-making Bart Simpson from one of Fox's earliest and most enduring hits, The Simpsons.

But Fox is the big dog now — it ranked No. 1 last season.

Despite its stature, under Earley's direction, Fox is playing to its bad-boy image. Why squander two decades of brand building? This image will help Fox stand apart from its competitors, Earley said, as viewers and advertisers are increasingly lured to dozens of cable networks and new media.

Earley plans to reinforce the Fox brand through marketing campaigns for such shows as Fringe and ongoing series like House and last season's No. 1 new show, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, which Earley said would feel out of place on any network other than Fox.

In fact, one of the first glimpses into Earley's style was seen on Terminator. It was heavily promoted for months before it debuted, often with images of nothing but the Terminator robot's glowing red eyes.

“If you look back at Terminator, that's really where I first got to imprint my vision of how the entire marketing and publicity departments work together,” said Earley. “The idea is to have media buys that also get press coverage, to extend the return on investment on what we're doing.”

Earley is planning a major fall relaunch of the show, which, like many others last season, was short-lived because production ended during the 100-day writers' strike.

In the meantime, he's focused on summer shows like the ongoing reality competition So You Think You Can Dance.

Earley has been making his mark on that reality show, which has been pulling solid ratings so far this summer. He tweaked its marketing and publicity with bolder graphics and images of dancers —

sometimes in silhouette — jumping, moving and dancing even in static print ads.

The show also got a lot of extra press coverage for a record-breaking dance competition outside the theater where the American Idol finale took place.

“We held a dance-off, conveniently at the location of the American Idol finale, where all the press was covering the red carpet,” he said. “We also had a very strong on-air campaign using new graphics during a big American Idol show.”

Earley, who began his career in film production and had his first stint in publicity at HBO, likes to promote shows in a big way. But he never loses sight of what he's trying to accomplish: Strengthen the Fox brand and help drum up interest in Fox's shows.

“In a business where page upon page is written about the monster-size egos and personalities of people who brutally win their point of view and stuff it down other people's throats, it's refreshing to see someone who is results oriented,” said Liguori. “He ultimately cares about what's best for this network, which is infectious and effective.”