America Online and CBS said they are launching the “AOL/CBS Tune In!” campaign, a first-of-its-kind online promotion to celebrate CBS’s fall premiere week.
For a nine-day period beginning on Sept. 19, CBS will have a promotional
presence throughout many of AOL’s highest-trafficked areas, and will also
offer AOL members the opportunity to interact directly with some of the
biggest CBS Television personalities through AOL Live events. Spending on the
campaign was not disclosed.
CBS will premiere its new fall schedule on Monday, Sept. 21. Each night’s
primetime lineup will be promoted daily in a variety of ways throughout many
of the most popular areas of the AOL service.
The campaign will also provide CBS with a prominent presence on AOL’s “Fall TV
Preview” area of AOL’s Entertainment Asylum both on the Web and on the
proprietary service.
“Fall TV Preview” will feature schedules, network stars’ photos, multimedia
features, and show descriptions. CBS promotions and nightly lineups will also
be highlighted in banner ads on AOL e-mail screens, in AOL People Connection,
the AOL Welcome Screen and a Thank You Screen members will see as they exit
the service.
As part of the agreement, AOL Live will feature a different CBS celebrity each
day of the campaign in a live online interview where AOL members can interact
with the stars. Members can also link directly from AOL Live to CBS promotions
and information about the celebrities and their CBS shows.
“Our AOL partnership gives us an exceptional opportunity to increase awareness
and sampling of our new primetime schedule among the highly sought after
audience of media-savvy viewers in interactive households,” said Leslie
Moonves, president and CEO of CBS Television.
“By using the unique nature of this medium to cycle the online audience back
into television viewing, CBS is embracing this medium in a way that no network
has ever done before, and we applaud their initiative, their innovation, and
their creativity,” said Bob Pittman, president and COO of America Online.
