NEW SHOW PROMOS GO OUTSIDE THE BOX

BY SHIRLEY BRADY

Some folks dream of ordering pizza over TV. Lifetime hopes to order up viewers for its new Saturday night programming by advertising the new series where weekend noshers can first get a taste ? on pizza delivery boxes.

?What we want to do is create some awareness and general buzz about our two new shows, using things above and beyond traditional media,? says Tom Hanft, SVP of marketing, advertising and promotion for Lifetime. ?We tend to use radio and television, spot and cable, but we really want to take advantage of the time of the year and also the fact that we're trying to establish a new night.?

The new pizza box ads, tagged with the slogan ?Saturday nights just got hotter,? are part of a monthlong campaign through mid-August to promote 1-800-MISSING and Wild Card, two new shows starting Aug. 2 that will enhance the network's existing weekend lineup on Sunday nights.

Focusing on larger markets, the pizza boxes are targeting ?mom-and-pop ? not Dominos-type ? places,? says Hanft. The unusual promotion includes guerrilla marketing teams now hitting beaches in New York and Los Angeles with show-branded kits of pretzels, beach balls and bottled water. If beachgoers look up, they'll also catch a glimpse of heli-banners ? helicopter-flown aerial advertising ? promoting the series.

The shows are also popping up on valet parking tickets in L.A. and on emery boards in Manhattan nail salons. ?We're trying to connect with women in activities related to Saturday,? Hanft adds. ?We want to reach people where they are on a hot, Saturday summer day.?

Lifetime isn't the only network trying to grab potential viewers while they catch some summer fun. Discovery ? which dispatched cavemen and -women to promote its Walking With Cavemen special to city folks in June ? is in the midst of its Entertain Your Brain marketing push, a multifaceted campaign which includes on-location trivia stunts and giant shark decals in hotel pools to support Shark Week 2003.

Court TV is enticing moviegoers at Loews theaters with Forensic Files stunts; Food Network is doing the same with Unwrapped. Networks may be old pros at hawking their brands on Manhattan's hot dog carts and cabs, but Showtime surprised jaded New Yorkers earlier this summer by touting new series Dead Like Me in fortune cookies.

As Hanft points out, cutting loose a little in summer is meant to supplement, not replace, traditional marketing tactics such as sweepstakes, which the network is also running to support the new series. It's difficult to quantify how much buzz ? if any ? is generated by being hip and/or having fun. While ratings are obviously a key measure, building a brand's value and loyalty are intangibles that go beyond the water cooler (or the beach) and into viewers' hearts and minds.

?Hopefully all this will have that extra oomph that's going to differentiate us in the marketplace and make us more unique, while further reinforcing a connection with our female target,? he says. ?It's always rooted in our objectives ? what we're trying to accomplish with both our programming and target audience.?