Talk about serious product and brand integration–TNT and Dove Hair Care are unveiling a creative and interactive consumer promotion around TNT’s newest original series, Trust me, a 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.
Set against the backdrop of the high-pressure world of advertising, the show focuses on Mason and Conner, 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, 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 branded promotional elements throughout the entire series. Trust Me will highlight Dove Hair Care in the “Damage Control” episode airing Monday, 3/9, 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. 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 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.
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 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.
RBR/TVBR observation: Wow. This is pretty impressive brand immersion, on multiple levels. Getting viewers involved in the creative process itself for an advertiser is genius, let alone getting them immersed in the product. This is the kind of example all media should use for their own sales efforts to agencies and clients—even if on a smaller level. If the show is a hit and the strategy indeed drives viewers to action/purchase, it will be measurable to say the least. We also look forward to see how Rolling Rock is introduced.
Needless to say, there are plenty of clients Rothman Greene & Mohr—and TNT—will be pitching.
