Fox is roaring into 2015 with a big promotional push for its new drama Empire that plays up both the glitz and glamor of the music industry, as well as the boldfaced names leading the cast.

The soapy ride through the music business stars Terrence Howard as Lucious Lyon, record label mogul whose three sons and ex-wife—played by Taraji P. Henson—are all battling for control of his empire.

The tag line? “Music. Family. Drama. The Battle Begins.”

Viewers are by now familiar with the series’ on-air promos, which began in mid-October during Gotham, and have been mainstay of Fox’s NFL promotion, according to Laurel Bernard, Fox’s executive VP of marketing and media.

“This is an event—Empire is a show that plays across all audiences,” said Bernard. “Rather than say this is a show for one group or another, we are presenting it as an event that has something for everyone.”

Still, Fox is taking care to over-deliver to demos that have a built-in audience for the series, Bernard said. The network is oversampling to women who love soaps and drama, viewers who love music, fashionistas, and gay and lesbian audiences (one of Lyon’s three sons is gay, which drives a significant storyline).

All told, Empire is getting the network’s biggest marketing push for a new series heading into the midseason, Bernard confirmed.

A big part of that push has been selling the record industry lifestyle to viewers.

“We feel like that there are parts of the hip-hop lifestyle that are aspirational,” Bernard said. “We wanted to maximize these over-the-top elements to the right audiences.”

A “Run the Empire for a Day” sweepstakes launched around Thanksgiving and offered one winner and five friends a trip to Los Angeles for “a VIP experience fit for a star,” including hotel stays, chauffeur, styling, and passes to the series premiere event.

More recently, an “Empire Takes Over the Empire State” event kicked off Monday with show-branded double-decker bus tours taking New York City riders to locations steeped in hip-hop history—including Chung King Studios, Roseland Ballroom and The Cutting Room.

Late Monday, the network plans to #LightTheEmpire with a light show on the Empire State Building synchronized to the premiere of one of the series’ original recordings—“The Moment"—on iHeartMedia’s flagship hip-hop radio station Power 105.1.

Photo: Fox
Photo: Fox

Earlier in the campaign, Fox street teams helped rebrand the Black Friday shopping day into Gold Friday offering golden Empire-branded shopping bags at malls across the country.

Custom jeweler to the stars, Ben Baller, whose pieces start at $25,000, also is creating a one-of-a-kind piece of Empire jewelry that will be given away to one lucky fan.

Tastemaker screenings in New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago also have included the likes of supermodel Naomi Campbell.

But Fox isn’t just leaning on bling and ballers to bring out the viewers—they’re also leaning on the high wattage of the stars behind the series.

On-air promos prominently call-out the red carpet cred of Howard and Henson, who are both past Oscar nominees. Oscar winner Gabourey Sidibey, who is billed a guest star, is also seen in the spots.

“We’re thrilled that we have this amazing recognized cast—the two of them specifically help set this show apart,” Bernard said. Having two well-known stars that viewers recognize from a variety of dramatic roles help lure that broader audience the network is aiming for, she said.

Real-life hitmaker Timbaland is also on board as the series’ songwriter-producer, helping craft an authentic sound for the original music that will serve both back the episodes and serve marketing material.

Fox is no stranger to using recorded music to amplify its marketing campaigns—see: Glee, American Idol, X Factor—but Empire is different, since the songs aren’t covers and they’re building hits from scratch.

The first track—No Apologies—was released by Columbia Records just before the holidays, and has helped fuel the premiere marketing. New tracks will serve as the focus for on-air promos as the season unfolds.

An online music hub gathers all of the new tracks together, and the network has also partnered with Spotify to create character playlists to promote the show.

Timbaland will also sit down with Power 105.1’s popular Breakfast Club crew on Monday for a special 30-minute tribute program that looks at his tracks and will run on 44 iHeartMedia stations across the country.

“This is one of those really cool projects where it’s kind of like, ‘you have an idea? Let’s figure out how to make it work,” Bernard said. “I think this speaks to the breadth of the audience that is going to enjoy this show: Everyone needs to feel in their own way.”

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