TNT and Dove Hair Care Unveil Creative Promotion Around TRUST ME
TNT Announces a Breakthrough Co-Marketing Initiative
with Unilever's Dove Hair Care� Brand around the New Series TRUST ME
Rolling Rock to Also Later Join the Series
as Part of Large Scale Co-Branded Sponsorship
Series Set in a Top-Ranked Ad Agency Starring Eric McCormack and Tom Cavanagh
Set to Premiere Monday, Jan. 26, 2009, at 10 p.m. (ET/PT)
TNT and Dove Hair Care� are unveiling a creative and interactive consumer promotion around TNT's newest original series, TRUST ME, a sharp, witty drama from Warner Horizon Television that centers on two best friends working as creative partners at a top-ranked Chicago ad agency. Significant consumer marketing support will enhance the Dove Hair storyline which focuses on providing real women solutions to hair damage, featured within the story arc of the season, and create extensive opportunities for viewers to interact with the Dove Hair brand through custom online marketing tools and a consumer sweepstakes. TNT will later introduce Rolling Rock within key storylines for the series and integrate the brand through a separate marketing sponsorship. Details on this and additional sponsorship deals will be announced later in the season.
"We are marketers just like our advertising partners and understand the absolute necessity to have meaningful platforms to communicate to consumers effectively," said Linda Yaccarino, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Turner Entertainment Ad Sales/ Marketing and Acquisitions. "Both powerful brands, Rolling Rock and Dove Hair Care, will have the opportunity not only to communicate their message through custom TNT marketing and promotions driving awareness for the series, but also to give viewers a glimpse into their branded objectives through compelling storyline development. It's a unique way for viewers to emotionally connect with each brand on an entirely new level."
"Partnering with TNT on this integration has provided Unilever with an opportunity to continue promoting our world-class innovations with marketing initiatives that are meaningful to our target customers," said David Rubin, marketing director for Dove Hair Care. "The multimedia components we have developed together allow viewers to interact with our brand on a personal level and communicate that Dove is the solution for repairing damaged hair."
"TNT's TRUST ME provided the perfect platform in which to seamlessly integrate the Dove Hair message of protection and repair," said Melissa Shapiro, Managing Director, The Exchange, Mindshare. "Turner was an ideal partner when it came to collaborating on unique ways to deliver brand attributes without detracting from the show."
Set against the backdrop of the high-pressure world of advertising, TRUST ME focuses on Mason (McCormack) and Conner (Cavanagh), a pair of ad men whose strong creative partnership has served the firm of Rothman Greene & Mohr extremely well over the years. Mason, an art director, is a responsible, workaholic family man with a beautiful wife, two children and an undying loyalty to the brands he helps sell. By contrast, his creative writing partner, Conner (Cavanagh), is a single, impulsive copywriter with the attention span of a teenager. Their yin-yang relationship is put to the test when Mason is named a creative director of the agency, making him Conner's boss.
TNT worked with Mindshare, Unilever's media agency, to build in unique Dove Hair Care branded promotional elements throughout the entire series. TRUST ME will highlight Dove Hair Care in the "Damage Control" episode airing Monday, March 9, through storyline integrations. In this episode, the Rothman Greene & Mohr agency � still smarting from the loss of a major account � steps up its efforts to keep current client Dove happy and satisfied. When the Dove brand asks for a new campaign for its line of conditioners, Mason creates conflict within the agency by challenging the other members of his team to come up with creative ideas in competition with award-winning copywriter Sarah Krajicek-Hunter (Monica Potter), the writer assigned to the Dove account. Dove will also be featured in the first two episodes of the season through passive integrations, introducing the storyline that will be resolved later in the season.
TNT's Website, tnt.tv will feature extensive branded promotions for Dove Hair Care around the series TRUST ME. In conjunction with the start of the active integrations within the show's storyline, tnt.tv will host Dove Hair Care and TNT's "Be the Creative Director" promotion, in which viewers can "join" Rothman Greene & Mohr and help to produce a new Dove ad, and also have the opportunity to enter a consumer sweepstakes. Visitors to www.bethecreativedirector.com will have the opportunity to watch a brand brief presented by a Dove brand marketer, highlighting the objectives of the Dove brand for a new campaign. Users can then utilize that information and play the role of creative director building off of the storyline featured within the series, participating in weekly assignments to produce the next Dove spot. Each week, users will choose from advertising components including voiceovers, music, graphics and hair care models. A combination of these elements will also be featured within the show's storyline as RGM also puts together the components to their Dove ad campaign. Participants return the following week online to see which selection received the most online votes and to check on their next assignment. At the conclusion of the season, participants will be able to compare the consumer choice ad featured online to the Dove ad developed within the series TRUST ME.
Online visitors checking out the assignments will also have the opportunity to enter the "Be the Creative Director Sweepstakes," providing one grand prize winner with a creative director's prize package, including a creative director's bonus check, a trip for two to New York, a consultation with a celebrity hair stylist and a computer and software package. Dove products will also be provided to second and third-tier winners. TNT will drive viewers online to participate through co-branded Dove on-air spots running within TRUST ME episodes, as well as across TNT, TBS and truTV programming. People magazine will include a sweepstakes ad in their March 9 issue, further enhancing the marketing messaging surrounding the series. TNT will extend that reach with a digital campaign across top online destinations and entertainment-targeted Websites.
In addition, tnt.tv will also feature a click through link to Dove.com where visitors to the site may register to receive free Dove product samples, while co-branded Dove billboards, in-show graphics and tune-in support will also be featured on TNT.
Joining McCormack and Cavanagh inTRUST ME are Monica Potter (Boston Legal), Griffin Dunne (Law & Order: Criminal Intent), Sarah Clarke (24), Mike Damus (Lost in Yonkers) and Geoffrey Arend (Garden State). Produced by The Shephard/Robin Company in association with Warner Horizon Television, TRUST ME is executive-produced by THE CLOSER's Greer Shephard, Michael M. Robin, Hunt Baldwin and John Coveny. Baldwin and Coveny, who created the show, also serve as writers. They have a combined total of over 20 years of experience in the advertising world, having worked for J. Walter Thompson and Leo Burnett Advertising in Chicago.
Unilever launched Dove Hair Care in 2003 and continues to innovate with products that help give women the confidence they have healthy and beautiful hair. The Dove Hair Care portfolio includes a full line of shampoos, conditioners, treatments, and styling products created with unique serums to repair, protect and moisturize hair based on women's own hair needs. The collection of products is designed to care for all levels of damage, delivering soft, smooth, beautiful hair. Learn more about Dove Hair Care at dovehair.com.
Turner Network Television (TNT), television's destination for drama and one of cable's top-rated networks, offers original series, including the acclaimed and highly popular detective drama The Closer, starring Kyra Sedgwick; Saving Grace, starring Holly Hunter; Raising the Bar, with Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Gloria Reuben and Jane Kaczmarek; Leverage, starring Timothy Hutton; and Trust Me, with Eric McCormack and Tom Cavanagh. TNT is also home to powerful one-hour dramas, such as Bones, Cold Case, Law & Order, Without a Trace, ER and Charmed; broadcast premiere movies; compelling prime-time specials, such as the Screen Actors Guild Awards�; and championship sports coverage, including NASCAR and the NBA. TNT is available in high-definition.
Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., a Time Warner company, creates and programs branded news, entertainment, animation and young adult media environments on television and other platforms for consumers around the world.
|