One of my favorite new holiday campaigns is “Make Your Own HBO,” which in addition to hilarious TV spots, includes  a website where users can recreate select scenes from shows like “True Blood,” “Entourage” and “Eastbound and Down” using augmented reality-enhanced sock puppets.

It is, after all, just the latest in a string of campaigns that reinforce HBO’s unconventional approach to marketing TV shows through non-television platforms.

Together with agency BBDO and partnerships like Big Spaceship and Circ.us, HBO has a long history in innovative digital campaigns, most notably with its famous Cannes Lions Grand Prix-winning "Voyeur Project."

Sure, the subscription cable television network could always advertise its shows on other television networks – and it often does.

But in an effort to highlight its longtime “It’s not TV, it’s HBO” positioning, the cable network first looked beyond the small screen to build a truly groundbreaking experience with "Voyeur."  The result is the ultimate in advertising as content.

Watch the video here, and then listen in on excerpts from a pair of source interviews with Courteney Monroe, HBO's executive vice president of consumer marketing, for the new book, THE ON-DEMAND BRAND. In part one, we discuss HBO’s approach to "Voyeur" (in coming days I’ll share segments of a later interview about this past year's “HBO Imagine” campaign). Along the way, you’ll gain insights into how HBO approaches multi-platform marketing initiatives – and you'll hear Monroe’s perspectives on what makes a campaign viral, and what most definitely will not.

COURTENEY MONROE, EVP, CONSUMER MARKETING: BRANDING HBO (PT. 1)

(Approx. 5:43)

 

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"... EXCELLENT ..."

“Through persuasive arguments and Q&A's with the major players in advertising, Mathieson makes an excellent case for greater creativity and outside-the-box thinking backed up with solid ideas."

Publisher's Weekly

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