In previous years, Shaw Media channel Showcase has marketed its fall shows individually with unique messaging and creative for each show, Muriel Solomon, senior director of marketing, Shaw Media, tells MiC.

But the channel is switching things up this year with a more cohesive cross-program multimedia campaign, which shares a series of similar taglines and images, she says.

For example, on a poster promoting its new doctor dramedy series, Royal Pains, the network has wrapped the creative with the tagline, “Most doctors work in hospitals. Ours prefer the Hamptons.” For its spy show, Covert Affairs, it uses the tagline “Other spies are well-armed. Ours also has legs”.

The channel is also promoting Canadian sci-fi drama Lost Girl, Toronto-shot Covert Affairs and Warehouse 13 and Royal Pains with ads on TV, online, OOH, in print and on radio. All of the creative and media were planned and executed in-house.

Promotional wraps for all four of the shows will dominate the St. George subway station in Toronto as well as transit shelters and other subway platforms in the city.

The campaign will be taken to Toronto cinemas with trailers for Royal Pains and Lost Girl, as well as movie-style posters placed inside theatres. The idea around the promo videos is for consumers to sample the shows, says Solomon.

“We felt that a 30-second promo for a new show, with talent that is not necessarily recognizable, will work much better at convincing people to watch the show than just a static ad,” she says.

“The theatre [poster] board, from a creative standpoint, makes the product feel much more theatrical and really elevates the entertainment aspect of the show,” Solomon adds. “It is a great sampling vehicle and enables us to reach a lot of people outside of our own airways.”

The fall campaign launched this week and will run until the end of September.

From Media in Canada