Corus Entertainment launched the rebranded Scream specialty channel as Dusk today with a flashy media campaign targeting the channel’s broadened 18- to 49-year-old demo.
The new channel launches with a new look and new programming that focuses more on mystery, supernatural, thriller and suspense-themed shows and movies. The rebrand is meant to expand the channel’s reach to a broader audience, including the female demo Corus specializes in with its Viva, Cosmo and W channels. The campaign, with Media Dimensions handling the buy, rolled out across television, theatres, storefronts, radio, print and online. Creative elements were handled by Imaginary Forces and Zig. The campaign is being supported with a free, month-long preview of Dusk on participating providers from Sept. 9 to Oct. 9, reaching over seven million homes.
The most innovative media aspect of the campaign is a storefront installation display at College St. and Palmerston Ave. in Toronto, running Sept. 9 to Oct. 4. Designed to look like an empty storefront, the window display will be activated when a person walks by, triggering the appearance of a ghost that will breathe on the window, revealing the Dusk logo on the glass.
Corus is also going after movie lovers with a media buy in 360 Cineplex theatres across Canada, featuring a series of mini 0.02-second ‘flashes’ that build buzz for longer 30-second spots that run throughout the pre-movie programming.
‘We were going for a campaign that would deliver as much reach and targeting as we could,’ Jim Johnson, vice president marketing, Movie Central and Dusk, tells MiC. ‘We really wanted to reach as many adults as we can, focusing on the repositioning, as well as the broader reach of the programming.’
Radio ads airing nationwide will take the scary vibe further with spots that are meant to sound like ghostly voices reaching through the static as a user flips the dial. Television spots will be rolled out across Canada on Canwest properties Global Ontario and Global BC, as well as other Corus channels. The television push is complemented by online advertising and ads on cable programming guides. The online component features interactive ads, such as a mirror shattering to reveal the Dusk logo.
www.dusktv.ca
