New TV show uses phone calls for promotion

Published February 16, 2015 at 7:24 am

While maintaining all of the traditional channels for marketing is essential, adding an unexpected one helps an initiative to stand out. Take the upcoming Fox comedy series “The Last Man On Earth”. Already the subject of a marketing blitz from the network, the team behind the show has incorporated themed phone calls into the strategy to further entice potential fans.

The premise of the show, which will debut next month, sees former “Saturday Night Live” actor Will Forte as the titular human traveling around an unpopulated post-apocalyptic world. In keeping with this theme, thousands of flyers designed to look homemade have appeared throughout the country, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

In addition to an in-character picture of and message from Forte, the flyers also contain a phone number for viewers to call and theoretically get in touch with him. The source says that some callers will actually get the chance to speak to Forte this way, while most will be directed to voicemail. The real-world marketing efforts don’t stop there: The show will also be promoted via themed “survival” vending machines and contests.

Combined with the other tactics being used to promote this new show, Fox could easily heighten user interest than its competition by seeming to go beyond traditional boundaries of campaign marketing, while still being omnipresent enough to land viewers when it finally premieres.

By using automatic marketing solutions, a company could tie its brand to different underused platforms and make sure all of the potential targets of a campaign see the proper message within a similar timeframe. Different platforms, online and off, could also require their own pacing, which means timing needs to be taken into consideration no matter how a campaign is launched.