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TVOne Keeping Its Ads in the Family

Dec 9, 2007  •  Post A Comment

TV One, the upstart network for African American viewers, has begun offering the kind of multiplatform marketing packages advertisers are demanding from the biggest networks.
For liquor marketer Diageo’s, the network pulled together its national cable network, associated Web sites, radio stations owned by parent Radio One and Radio One’s magazine Giant to support a concert tour by John Legend that is sponsored by Diageo’s Baileys brand.
TV One is calling its multiplatform offering One Solution, and Keith Bowen, executive VP for ad sales and marketing, is responsible for overseeing revenue generated across the company’s platforms and for developing sales strategies for One Solution.
“We’re convinced that with our footprint, there’s nobody who can really cast a wider net among African Americans,” Mr. Bowen said. “If anyone’s trying to reach African Americans, which almost all marketers in this country are, one would think they would come to us first.”
BET, the leading network for African Americans, is in about 88 million homes, compared to 3-year-old TV One’s 42 million, and has one of the leading Web sites.
But with radio and print baked in, “they’d be hard pressed to reach as many people as we reach on a weekly basis,” Mr. Bowen said.
“Certainly BET’s got a lot of viewers, but One Solution felt like a more organic fit,” said Adam Pincus, director of branded entertainment at MediaCom, which put the deal together. “They had these other ways of talking to their audience—our audience—through radio, through Giant magazine. They’re the Web.”
Baileys sponsored John Legend’s tour last year and this year wanted to expand its reach with a national media channel.
“It was really important to us to reach the right target consumer,” said Melissa Woodbury, brand manager of Baileys. “TV One was a really good fit for us in terms of reaching that right audience.”
The promotion is built around a one-hour special that will air on TV One Sunday and is being promoted on-air by the network. The special combines concert video of Mr. Legend and the musicians he’s signed for his new record label, HomeSchool Records, with behind-the-scenes footage designed to let viewers get to know the performers. In addition to Mr. Legend, Estelle and The James Gang are featured.
TV One is working with its cable distributors on local promotion of the tour on systems in Atlanta, Charlotte, Boston and Chicago.
Radio advertising on Radio One stations promotes the concert tour in 10 to 12 markets.
A special editorial feature on Mr. Legend and his record label appears in Giant magazine.
Digital market support appears on Radio One sites and broadband video content is running on TV-Oneonline.com.
None of the parties would discuss how much the program cost.
Mr. Bowen said that at this point, it is difficult to tell how many individuals the campaign will reach because each media is measured differently. The network is doing proprietary research to come up with an aggregated reach number.
Baileys is the first marketer to use all of the platforms Solution One is offering. Mr. Bowen said he was close to a few more deals moving into 2008.
While pushing Solution One, Mr. Bowen said that some additional responsibility for advertising on the cable channel would be assumed by Senior VP Lisabeth Hayes and VP Jeff Tyrell.

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