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Syfy Pushes to Line Up Integrated Advertisers for Upcoming Multiplatform Series

Apr 23, 2012  •  Post A Comment

Syfy is getting an early start on lining up advertisers to integrate into an upcoming series, Advertising Age reports. The series is “Defiance,” which will be a coordinated TV series and multiplayer online game.

“Defiance,” set to debut in April 2013, is still casting. As we reported earlier today, the show just brought aboard new cast members Mia Kirshner of “The Vampire Diaries” and Fionnula Flanagan of “Lost.”

Because of the complex cross-platform nature of the project, Syfy is getting a head start on pitching the show and game to potential advertisers.

Linda Yaccarino, president of cable entertainment and digital advertising sales for Syfy owner NBCUniversal, said: "We are in conversations with potential advertisers nine months in advance. We have never thrown back the curtain this early in a project."

The series is a joint venture with video-game developer Trion Worlds. The plot, set 30 years in the future, has human beings and aliens sharing Planet Earth and rebuilding a society after a devastating war.

The story notes: “The show and the game will influence each other and evolve together, said Syfy President Dave Howe. If, for example, the game warns of an invasion, ‘then the show will reference that battle in the following episode,’ he said. ‘If a massive storm moves in on the show, it moves in on the game.’"

Syfy and Trion are looking for brands that would make sense in the context of "Defiance."

Said Nicholas Beliaeff, senior VP of development for Trion Worlds: "The game could have a highway with rest-stop signs, and one of the signs could have a Burger King symbol. When they get off the highway, they find a Burger King that survived the universal war."

One Comment

  1. This is all fine and wonderful, just so long as the series holds up on its own as television and doesn’t require that you be immersed in their online RPG to be able to get what’s going on and vice-versa.

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