Anti-tobacco campaign “truth” has partnered with music network Fuse for a documentary on Vans Warped Tour 2006, with a starring role for truth’s marketing tour team.
One of truth’s bright-orange “truth trucks” travels with the Warped Tour as part of the seventh annual summer “truth tour” run by the American Legacy Foundation. The truck and its crew will appear in each of the six episodes of Warped: Inside & Out airing on cable network Fuse from July 19 through Aug. 23.
The deal leverages ALF’s ad buy on Fuse, and reinforces its presence at 45 Warped concert stops.
“We can never match [tobacco marketers’ ad] spending, so instead we stay ahead by being more cutting edge and going directly to teens with our messages,” said ALF Executive VP-Marketing, Communications and Public Policy Joseph Martyak in a statement.
This is the first time that Fuse has worked with a marketer to produce branded programming. The network has exclusive broadcast rights to Warped Tour, a prime attraction for Fuse’s 12- to 34-year-old audience.
The documentary follows Warped Tour performers and staff— tour founder Kevin Lyman— scenes at the truth truck woven in. Fuse will post show segments online at fuse.tv, via cell phones through fuseMobile, and through pay-per-view via fuse On Demand.
Fans with cell phones can text in comments that will run on-screen during Fuse’s weekly four-hour block of Warped Tour programming, including Warped: Inside & Out.
ALF has its own text-commentary project underway: “ntwrk truth,” a “wi-fitti” (think wireless grafitti) system that lets kids text in a message to be displayed on a video screen in a game arcade, café or other public gathering spot. Kids can text in from anywhere in the country and watch the screens online to see their comments, and others’. Truth staffers act as “text jockeys” to monitor what goes on-screen. ALF began “ntwrk truth” in February, and now has six screens in ice cream shops, sandwich shops and cafes in Baltimore; Chicago; Seattle; Boulder, CO; and Cambridge and Somerville, MA. There are no plans to expand.
Boston-based Arnold Worldwide, ALF’s lead agency with Miami-based Crispin, Porter + Bogusky, handles the truth tour and initiated “ntwrk truth” with an assist from interactive agency Loca Moda. Washington-based ALF is also mulling other texting applications, as well as gaming.
This year truth also piggybacks The AND1 Mix Tape Tour (25 stops), as well as the CosmoGIRL! Beach House Tour (4 stops). Two tour trucks will reach 800,000 teens by summer’s end.
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