Spike TV has launched a multichannel campaign for its new comedy series ?Blue Mountain State.? Mobile plays a big role.

The campaign titled ?Thad Castle for College Player of the Year? includes a billboard in New York City?s Times Square with a mobile call-to-action asking fans to text the keyword BMS to short code 44686 to receive a three-minute promotional video and a direct link to Spike's Blue Mountain State Web site at http://wap.spike.com/bms.rbml.

Mobile Marketer?s Chris Harnick interviewed Todd Ames, vice president of consumer marketing for Spike TV, New York, about the multichannel campaign and mobile?s role in it, as well as Spike TV?s marketing strategy.

What?s the strategy behind including mobile in the overall marketing campaign?
The intent is to take advantage of a sight, sound and motion-capable platform to showcase the series' content - let the show market the show.
 
A second reason is to capture mobile numbers, which allows us to remarket to a user base that self-identified as being interested in the content.

With an installed base, we can release show news and know that a good-sized, interested audience is activated to watch and (hopefully) share their experiences.
 
Additionally, it affords another point of interaction to build interest and connection to the brand and show - it enables deeper engagement.
 
Final thought is that it acknowledges consumers' role in choosing where and how they want to learn about and consume content. Wherever they are, we want to make our offering available.
 
What is the target demographic?
The overall campaign is targeted to males 18-34-years-old, but this element is more focused on the males 18-24 subset.

This crowd is very active on mobile, so building out a mobile element to the campaign is an acknowledgement of their media consumption habits and lifestyle - fish where the fish are.
 
What challenges does mobile address for the network?
Our target audience consumes content from a variety of sources, so including mobile in our media mix ensures we do not miss an important segment of the male population while they are seeking entertainment. Further, it affords greater frequency of messaging if I can surround them on TV, on the Web, on mobile, on the radio and in outdoor.
 
It provides an additional platform, beyond our on-air promos, for tune-in reminders after the launch media push ends. It allows remarketing for episodic promotion, as well as other Spike portfolio entertainment options - Spike TV, http://spike.com, http://wap.spike.com and home entertainment and consumer products.
 
The social aspects of mobile, and the artifacts it creates, for example photos you can email, means users are hardware-equipped to share their experiences. We hope to achieve some of the much sought-after viral spread by providing compelling software worthy of the effort to push send to a friend.
 
Branding is an additional benefit. Mobile provides another interface for fans to spend time with the Spike brand on their platform of choice, in the way they want.

Spike is an entertainment brand, not just a cable network, so we need to be present and credible on all screens.
 
Why was mobile a good fit for this marketing campaign?
The young men we are targeting are very active users of mobile and mobile video, and the target's media consumption behavior drives media selection.

Also, this series' content readily lends itself to the short-form format, delivering bite-sized clips of outrageous humor that are popular in the medium.
 
How important is mobile to Spike TV?s overall marketing strategy?
Mobile is growing in importance as its importance increases in our everyday lives. We are still evolving how it manifests itself in our advertising strategy in terms of mobile banners, or SMS sponsorships and etcetera, but it will continue to increase its presence in our mix.
 
Not to sell us short, though. Spike is already a leading mobile content provider on the major carrier decks and via our WAP site, which receives several million pages views per month.

We use the WAP site to build awareness for our new content by showcasing promotional video with existing popular videos and by tagging most-frequently streamed clips with tune-in info. Mobile video on demand on carrier decks is a substantial footprint and we use tags and promos attached to these videos to raise awareness for new launches as well.