MTV and Pepsi Cross-Promote Fashion Series
MTV and Pepsi have teamed up to promote both the cable channel’s fashion-centric reality micro-series and the fashion phase of Pepsi’s global restyling campaign.
“Fashion: The Life” is a Web-based reality series that features three young fashion designers preparing for a major trade show in Las Vegas. The show, which launched Oct. 8, is being promoted on air via “podbusters”—extended TV spots that appear in the middle of regular commercial breaks and tease content—running during the popular MTV reality program “The Hills.” The spots will drive viewers to full episodes of the series on the network’s new fashion site http://www.thelookrightnow.com.
The Web site also offers visitors the chance to upload fashions to a personalized ‘My Closet” profile page and to view a homepage “Latest Looks wall” of fashion trends. Future enhancements include a “rate this look” voting feature and a friends feature called “I Like Your Style” that lets members add people to their profiles. People who get added the most will be named “Fashion Icons” on the site.
Pepsi will have an ongoing presence in the “Fashion: The Life” series, partly because one of the three designers featured is responsible for designing the PepsiStyle apparel line. The company will also promote the show through its Pepsi Xtras newsletter and by linking to it from the Pepsi by Design Web site, http://www.pepsibydesign. The URL is also being promoted on more than 500 million beverage cans worldwide.
“Fashion: The Life” will benefit from other promotional channels, too. It will be incorporated into the virtual-reality world that MTV Networks has created for “The Hills” at http://www.thehills.mtv.com, where participants can meet and talk with the featured designers, vote for their favorite designs and even “buy” virtual clothing for their avatars. The designer who wins the popular vote will be the guest of honor at a Virtual Hills virtual party.
The micro-series will also be available as content within on-demand “Hills” episodes available through MTV’s video on demand (VOD) cable service. “Fashion: The Life” will also be featured as bonus content on the DVD of “The Hills: Season 3.”
