IFC’s new Thursday night lineup includes an intramural hockey team from Denis Leary and a widowed grandmother played by David Krumholtz.
With this unexpected combination and quirky subjects, the network had to find new and different ways to promote them at new and different locations. So IFC turned to bars, video games and strip clubs.
Benders is IFC’s new hockey comedy about passionate hockey fans who are mediocre on the ice. The network played on that passion to promote the show to fellow fans who tend to feel “underserved in their sports coverage,” IFC’s Head of Marketing Blake Callaway told Broadcasting & Cable.
With the tagline “No Regretzkies” and TV spots about the team, IFC targeted EA video games, NBCSports.com and NHL.com along with outdoor ads at Madison Square Garden and Boston’s Prudential Center. Benders also appeared in bars near hockey arenas in the form of stick tape, pucks and swag bags, hoping to attract some of the nearby hockey teams who meet for a beer after games.
Gigi Does It is a new comedy about a grandmother who becomes suddenly rich when her husband dies. Gigi is played by Krumholtz, who based the character off his own grandmother.
For this debut, IFC embraced #GOLO (Grandmas Only Live Once), inviting grandmas everywhere to Hunk-O-Mania’s Sexy Seniors Night in New York and Miami on Oct. 9. IFC is promoting the night on air as well as with print ads in the Village Voice and The New York Times.
Read more at Broadcasting & Cable.
Brief Take: IFC has fully embraced its tagline of “Always On, Slightly Off” with its new comedy lineup as well as the way it’s decided to promote those shows, understanding that what its comedy viewers want is something a little different.
Image courtesy of IFC
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