People don’t often give perfect strangers a hug on the streets of New York City, but street teams are making that risky move in the spirit of an HBO campaign to tie some of its shows to the 50th anniversary of the peace sign.
The street teams outside HBO’s midtown Manhattan headquarters are giving out hugs and coupons to encourage passersby to slow down and check out the cable programmers’ peace-and-love-themed T-shirts in its ground floor store.
Hearkening back to the ‘60s era of peace and love, HBO has emblazoned those words on T-shirts with slogans linked to several of its series, such as “Peace, Love, Vampires” for “True Blood,” “Peace, Love, Cosmos” for “Sex and the City” and “Peace, Love, Big Love” for “Big Love.”
“We didn’t want to just do something generic. We wanted to make this our own somehow,” said James Costos, HBO vice president of licensing and retail.
The store was conceived as a “showplace” where HBO could offer its licensed products when it was opened two years ago, according to Costos, who said the peace and love theme was intended to evoke the spirit of the holidays.
Grand Central Marketing, which is running the campaign, hit on the street team tact of four seemingly latter day hippies offering passersby hugs in the anachronistic spirit of the promotion, figuring everyone can use on in these trying times.
“We call this hug marketing,” said Matthew Glass, GCM president and CEO. “We do a lot of intercept marketing. The challenge is this interaction, to talk to consumers.”
GCM also created a peace sign sculpture in the store, which stands 57 inches and weighs 240 pounds, with a hand-cut Italian glass mosaic exterior. The words “Peace, Love, HBO” are written on it in letters made up of Swarovski crystals.
Since the campaign commenced on Monday, HBO has seen double-digit increases in its store business, according to Costos.
Several local radio stations are also touting the “Peace, Love, HBO” message, with the campaign slated to run through Christmas Eve.
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