Boxing Out: Game Show Network takes a mystery cube on tour.
They say marketers looking to succeed need to think outside the box. The promotions team at Game Show Network has that one covered – and while they’re at it, they’re thinking inside the box as well as all around it.
The Culver City, CA-based cable channel late last month launched a What’s in the Box? tour centered on a 10-foot-by-10-foot box towed through 12 markets over six weeks. Destination metros include Philadelphia, Boston, Washington, DC, and other markets where GSN has broadcast carriage.
The network will put a different object in the box each week and release daily hints as to what it is via TV and radio spots, the Internet, and field staffers. The latter are hyping the channel and the promo while traveling along with the box in a Game Show Network-branded van.
Contestants in each region call a toll-free number or visit local retail partners (from a list including Sam’s Club and Applebee’s) to register their guesses. Answers are revealed each Monday and a winner chosen from among entrants who correctly identify the mystery object. Winners score such prizes as cash, gift certificates to online retailer whatshotnow.com, and merchandise from Gendarme Fragrances.
The effort seeks to raise awareness among current GSN cable subscribers as well as consumers who don’t yet receive the channel.
GMR Marketing, New Berlin, WI, handles the promotion, which is the Game Show Network’s first reach into several of the markets. The effort is part of a larger corporate branding campaign that also includes ads from TBWA/Chiat/Day, San Francisco, running on such networks as Comedy Central, E!, Lifetime, Nick at Night, TBS, and USA. Spots carry the tagline, “You Know You Know.”
A unit of Sony Pictures Entertainment, the Game Show Network broadcasts classic shows as well as new ones. The outfit is currently plugged into 27 million households.
Over the last two years, GSN has orchestrated several mobile talent-search efforts, including a 1999 hunt for an on-air host that ran in 11 markets. However, What’s in the Box? has a slightly different twist.
“We were looking to do something that consumers couldn’t help but play along with,” says Dena Kaplan, the network’s senior vp-marketing.
And that’s her final answer.
