Given that Canwest’s newest specialty channel, Global Reality, is launching on Canada Day, the opportunity to take advantage of the date was too good to resist, Muriel Solomon, VP, marketing strategy, specialty, Canwest Broadcasting.
On June 30, the mediaco will start promoting Global Reality with an in-house created, planned and purchased campaign that spans TV, online and OOH. The print and OOH will focus on Ontario while the TV and online are national (natch).
The print starts June 30 with a full-page ad in Metro Toronto and a cover wrap of 24 Hours, and gatefolds in the Toronto Star and Ottawa Citizen on July 1. The 24 Hours will be distributed by brand ambassadors at over 200 TTC and GO stations in the GTA. The print ad features Donald Trump bursting out of a gift box with the tagline, ‘Happy Birthday Canada! We Got You a New Reality TV Channel.’
Canada Day, July 1, will see Global Reality-branded street teams head out to celebrations in Toronto and Ottawa (Ashbridges Bay and Mel Lastman Square in Toronto; ByWard Market and Parliament Hill in Ottawa) where they will be handing out Global Reality tattoos. Street teams and tattoos are a natural fit for a big national celebration like Canada Day, Solomon says.
‘It’s a fun and cost-effective way to reach a lot of people and at large-scale events, tattoos are very popular,’ she tells MiC. ‘We expect that people will have our logo on their forehead that night and probably for a few days following!’
The TV element is already in-market on Global and Canwest specialty, and will continue through the launch and into the foreseeable future. Online, the new channel will be the subject of a site takeover of Globaltv.com on June 30, and has its own home on Globalreality.ca, where full-length episodes and supporting content will be housed.
The social media strategy for the launch is Facebook-focused; users with reality TV-related keywords in their profiles will be invited to attend the ‘virtual launch’ of Global Reality Channel and encouraged to participate in polls.
The channel is targeted at adults 25 to 44, and will include past and present reality programming. It launches on Rogers VIP (approximately one million subscribers) and will be available free to Rogers Digital subscribers for three months as a preview.
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