HBO and the Postal Service are joining forces for the first time to co-sponsor a multimillion-dollar multimedia campaign that is intended to evoke the pleasures of sitting right down and writing yourself — or anyone — a letter. The campaign promotes John Adams, the seven-part mini-series scheduled to begin on the cable network on Sunday. The campaign includes television, print, online, retail and promotional elements.
The campaign, by the Civic Entertainment Group in New York, seeks to demonstrate what it calls the “power of the letter,” which is also the U.R.L. for a special Postal Service Web site that is a central element of the campaign. The Web site is the work of AKQA, which was recently named digital agency of the year by the trade publication Adweek. The website from HBO devoted to the mini-series also directs visitors to the Postal Service’s letter site, and the campaign also appears on the main Postal Service website as well as on placards and posters in post offices around the country. The cost of the campaign- estimated at $5 million to $10 million- is being footed by HBO, as part of Time Warner.
The inspiration for the campaign — and the Postal Service’s involvement — is the reputation of Adams and his wife, Abigail, as prolific letter writers. They exchanged more than 1,100 letters from 1762 until 1801, dating from their courtship through his presidency. Indeed, in the Broadway and movie versions of the musical “1776,” the songs sung by the actors playing John and Abigail Adams were based on the contents of their letters. The campaign is indicative of a couple of trends. One is the growing willingness of marketers — including media companies like Time Warner, which make entertainment products — to look beyond conventional outlets for their sales pitches.
The campaign to encourage viewers to watch John Adams includes commercials on television and in movie theaters, as well as outdoor advertising and newspapers ads. But the Postal Service offered an "opportunity to extend communication beyond traditional advertising platforms, on a scope and scale that’s pretty broad and impressive," said Zach Enterlin, vice president for advertising and promotion at HBO in New York. "We have a presence in almost 13,000 locations," he added, referring to the posters and placards in the post offices. And the cancellation marks promoting the mini-series are to appear on more than three billion pieces of mail. Mr. Enterlin played down any perceptions of the Postal Service as old-fashioned or low-tech, calling it "a national institution with a great legacy."
The other trend that the campaign epitomizes is the increasing eagerness of organizations like the Postal Service to consider teaming up with corporate partners. For decades, such deals were off-limits, particularly when the Postal Service was part of the presidential cabinet as the United States Post Office. More recently, the Postal Service has affiliated with marketers that include Pillsbury, for a tie-in campaign selling holiday stamps, and the film-maker George Lucas, for a "Star Wars" campaign that featured mailboxes designed to look like R2-D2. The partnership with HBO "is the most elaborate" of those the Postal Service has agreed to, said Joyce Carrier — yes, that is her real name — who is the manager for channel advertising at the Postal Service in Washington. "The more we thought about it, the more we thought, ‘This is a great opportunity,’" she added. "HBO is a wonderful brand and the cast is first-class."
Pun intended. The cast of John Adams is led by Paul Giamatti as Adams and Laura Linney as Abigail. Other cast members include David Morse, Sarah Polley and Tom Wilkinson.
HBO will begin John Adams with two back-to-back episodes. The remaining five episodes are to be shown each Sunday from March 23 through April 20. Each episode will be rerun several times, as is the practice at HBO. They will also be shown on a sibling network, HBO2.
The campaign, by the Civic Entertainment Group in New York, seeks to demonstrate what it calls the “power of the letter,” which is also the U.R.L. for a special Postal Service Web site that is a central element of the campaign. The Web site is the work of AKQA, which was recently named digital agency of the year by the trade publication Adweek. The website from HBO devoted to the mini-series also directs visitors to the Postal Service’s letter site, and the campaign also appears on the main Postal Service website as well as on placards and posters in post offices around the country. The cost of the campaign- estimated at $5 million to $10 million- is being footed by HBO, as part of Time Warner.
The inspiration for the campaign — and the Postal Service’s involvement — is the reputation of Adams and his wife, Abigail, as prolific letter writers. They exchanged more than 1,100 letters from 1762 until 1801, dating from their courtship through his presidency. Indeed, in the Broadway and movie versions of the musical “1776,” the songs sung by the actors playing John and Abigail Adams were based on the contents of their letters. The campaign is indicative of a couple of trends. One is the growing willingness of marketers — including media companies like Time Warner, which make entertainment products — to look beyond conventional outlets for their sales pitches.
The campaign to encourage viewers to watch John Adams includes commercials on television and in movie theaters, as well as outdoor advertising and newspapers ads. But the Postal Service offered an "opportunity to extend communication beyond traditional advertising platforms, on a scope and scale that’s pretty broad and impressive," said Zach Enterlin, vice president for advertising and promotion at HBO in New York. "We have a presence in almost 13,000 locations," he added, referring to the posters and placards in the post offices. And the cancellation marks promoting the mini-series are to appear on more than three billion pieces of mail. Mr. Enterlin played down any perceptions of the Postal Service as old-fashioned or low-tech, calling it "a national institution with a great legacy."
The other trend that the campaign epitomizes is the increasing eagerness of organizations like the Postal Service to consider teaming up with corporate partners. For decades, such deals were off-limits, particularly when the Postal Service was part of the presidential cabinet as the United States Post Office. More recently, the Postal Service has affiliated with marketers that include Pillsbury, for a tie-in campaign selling holiday stamps, and the film-maker George Lucas, for a "Star Wars" campaign that featured mailboxes designed to look like R2-D2. The partnership with HBO "is the most elaborate" of those the Postal Service has agreed to, said Joyce Carrier — yes, that is her real name — who is the manager for channel advertising at the Postal Service in Washington. "The more we thought about it, the more we thought, ‘This is a great opportunity,’" she added. "HBO is a wonderful brand and the cast is first-class."
Pun intended. The cast of John Adams is led by Paul Giamatti as Adams and Laura Linney as Abigail. Other cast members include David Morse, Sarah Polley and Tom Wilkinson.
HBO will begin John Adams with two back-to-back episodes. The remaining five episodes are to be shown each Sunday from March 23 through April 20. Each episode will be rerun several times, as is the practice at HBO. They will also be shown on a sibling network, HBO2.
