|
|
| Alternative media | |
|
|
|
| Alternative media | |
a make-believe champ He's Thad Castle, gridiron star of Blue Mountain Nov 18, 2009
It was a full-body shot of Harrington in his uniform, wearing an intense expression and holding a football in one hand and his helmet in the other. Next to him were the words "Joey Harrington" and "Oregon football," only "Harrington" was crossed out and "Heisman" was written above it. Last week a copycat campaign began in Times Square hyping another athlete for player of the year. His name is Thad Castle. He looks just as intense as Harrington, and the words beside him leave little doubt about his prowess on the field. "Blue Mountain State's Thad Castle," read the words beside him on the 40-foot-by-40-foot billboard, written in BMS's school colors of orange and blue. "The nastiest sack in college football." But there's one huge difference between the Harrington campaign and the Castle campaign. Joey Harrington is real. Thad Castle isn't, and neither, for that matter, is Blue Mountain State. Castle is a character on Spike's upcoming football-themed comedy "Blue Mountain State." The billboard is part of the network's "Thad Castle for College Football Player of the Year" campaign, which is really just a creative way to hype the show. "We're sort of harkening back to the Harrington billboard, aping the types of campaigns that have been done in the past," says Todd Ames, Spike's vice president of marketing, who oversaw the campaign. "Times Square was consistent with that. We wanted to reactivate the memory for that board Nike did. It was a breakthrough at the time." "BMS" doesn't premiere until January, but with the country in the midst of a highly rated college football season, the network wanted to promote the show in a way that tied into the big thing on people's minds this time of year, which is who will win next month's Heisman Trophy for player of the year. The network couldn't actually use the word "Heisman" -- "They are very protective, and we don't want to tread where we're not welcome," Ames notes -- but it did want to tap into fans' passion for the game. "If you're a football fan, you make the association, you'll get the joke, the wink," Ames says. "It's respectful at the same time." There's also the Spike logo in the bottom right-hand side of the billboard as a hint that Castle's not real. And in case there's still any doubt, the billboard invites passersby to text "BMS" to a designated number, which will give them access to a three-minute video in which real-life coaches such as Florida State's Bobby Bowden and Texas Tech's Mike Leach praise Castle's on-field prowess. The billboard, located at the southeast corner of 44th and Broadway, went up last Wednesday and will remain there for two weeks. The campaign is targeting men 18-34, part of Spike's core audience and also the core audience for college football. The stunt works on several levels. First, it will connect with serious college football fans, all of whom remember the Harrington billboard because it ushered in an era of over-the-top Heisman campaigns that has continued today. But it's also perfectly in line with Spike's cheeky attitude. Men 18-34 like to be in on the joke, and this is a very good one. "We believe in the impact of out-of-home advertising. It will create talk and value," Ames says. Spike is also conducting a college tour promoting Castle for player of the year, hosting screenings of "BMS" at fraternities at 14 college campuses and bringing its own version of the mechanical bull ride, with a large football taking the place of the bull apparatus, to each school. "It's fully functional like a bull, it raises and lowers and throws you all around," says Ames, though he admits, "I have not tried it yet."
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
© 2010 Media Life Privacy Statement |
