Behind the Buzz - digital and interactive advertising and marketing

Ugly Betty Online

by Rachel on January 20th, 2007

Entertainment properties are often the most fertile when it comes to online promise and ABC’s Ugly Betty is starting to stretch it’s wings in a few different ways.

First up you have ABC’s site, when you can find it amongst the TV programmes available to watch online. Here you have links to all the other bits and pieces that make up Ugly Betty’s world.

• Betty’s website with information about her and advice on life in the workplace.
• Podcasts that talk about the episodes
• Links to two web series of the telenovelas that Betty likes.
• a contest to design your own dress out of office materials -the winner gets their design on the show
• Be Ugly 07 - a campaign to just be yourself and not be subject to peer pressure to be glamerous and only fit one model. Here you can share your empowerment statements
• A pretty active Message board where you can share with your fellow fans

There’s a good mix of things here - background information about the character and the show, extra entertainment to extend the universe, competitions, a place to meet fans and join a community and a socially aware campaign (that picks up on the zeitgeist tapped into by Dove Campaign for Real Beauty).

It may seem easier to do these things with an entertainment property but this approach can be used for brands as well. An NYT article (unfortunately behind the paywall) on Tuesday looked at Brand ambassadors and how they are being used to bring campaigns to life.

Diageo have Tony Sinclair for Tanqueray, Burger King have their man and Starwood Hotels is looking for a Chief Beer Officer to act as their Brand Ambassador. A little closer to me (ie I work on this) is Sunsilk’s Hairapy Guys. So as TV and film companies are bringing characters to life through extending their world online, brands can bring some personality and humanity to brands either through fictional or real brand ambassadors.

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POSTED IN: Engaging the Customer, TV, Video Content