Sky Signs Advertising Deal To Put Hex On MSN
MSN has secured a six-figure advertising deal with Sky One to promote its new teen drama, Hex, in the run up to its launch later this month.
The online campaign is designed to build audience anticipation by gradually leaking information about the show, which follows the story of Cassie, a student who discovers she is cursed by ‘terrifying supernatural’ links to the past.
MSN will deliver a four-stage campaign comprising teaser, reveal, launch and post-launch phases which will be integrated across its homepage, entertainment and television channels, as well as on MSN Hotmail, Messenger and MSN Groups.
The teaser campaign begins this week with hockey sticks on the MSN TV channel and snippets of information about Hex and other teen dramas such as Buffy, Angel and The O.C in MSN Groups. Users will be directed to a deliberately unfinished Hex mircosite, which introduces the main characters, but doesn’t give full detains of the show.
This will be followed by adverts on the MSN homepage, Messenger Today page and Entertainment page driving the show’s target audience of 16 to 24 year-olds to the Hex microsite until the series launches. Special Halloween tie-ins will complete a fully integrated campaign.
The online activity will be supported by a extensive offline campaign including character driven advertising targeting young, celebrity and gothic audiences across a range of magazines such as Heat, FHM and Glamour. There will also be a series of specially-branded supplements in broadsheet newspapers and a national radio push in the weekend before launch.
Amanda Anthony, digital marketing manager for MSN, said; “It’s great to be working with Sky, promoting one of its flag-ship autumn shows. This highly innovative campaign shows the strength of MSN’s online reach in targeting difficult-to-reach audiences effectively and innovatively, whilst working very efficiently with the offline campaign.”
Fiona Shaw, Media Manager at Sky, added: “With one of Hex’s key audiences being 16-24 year olds, the challenge for the Hex campaign was getting the right messages across and creating anticipation. The MSN campaign gives us scope to deliver messages in the right places and build a sense of excitement. As a result, it has excellent viral possibilities and lends credibility to the brand in this hard to please group.”
MSN UK recently restructured its sales team in an attempt to increase revenues and improve client services as the boom in internet advertising continues. The shake-up saw the sales division doubled to include 43 members, with a new sales strategy and planning team created to support the existing advertising, agency, direct client and direct marketing teams (see MSN Restructures Sales Team To Cash In on Web Boom).
BSkyB: 0207 705 3000 www.sky.com
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