"Welcome to Adventure Country" was a multi-channel marketing campaign to introduce a new block of adventure-based reality programming on CMT.
It not only provided branding for the block, it also brought to life a fictional territory populated by everyday heroes brought up to think a little more “adventurously.” Combining adrenaline action with human interest, CMT Adventure Country was designed to appeal equally to men, women and kids; a perfect appointment for family viewing.
Beginning in Charlotte, Sacramento, St. Louis, fragments of Adventure Country started to bleed into real life - found objects that seeded the story in a visceral, fun way, to be discovered and shared on the streets and online.
Flyers advertising lost gators, adventurous yard sales, and action-packed job opportunities started to appear on street corners, while biz cards for fictitious businesses were distributed in coffee shops and restaurants. Postcards could also be collected, and eagle eyed pedestrians could even see a Gator 911 truck going about it's daily business.
Targeted Facebook ads, partnerships with local bloggers, craigslist postings and participation from local radio DJs all pointed to a special Adventure Country telephone hotline, which gave details of an upcoming "casting call" in local malls.
At these events, thousands of families waited in line to dress up in authentic adventure gear for an official photo, shared online on Flickr and Facebook. Combined with local blogger tweetups and FourSquare checkins, it provided a rich background of online archeology to be discovered and explored by a national audience as the campaigned expanded nationally.
The next morning, high profile bloggers and YouTube celebrities started to receive very unusual packages - custom action figures created in their likeness, a limited edition run of Adventure Country heroes, with accessories for both marine and gator rescues.
Included with each was a specially recorded personal video from the star of Gator 911, welcoming them to Adventure Country, and directing them to a unique online experience - welcometoadventurecountry.com.
The website (archived here) featured an immersive and highly interactive map of Adventure Country, allowing everyone to explore all the objects created and distributed in local cities, and see all photos from the local experiences.
(Screencapture of website)
The experience also contained two specially created "mockumentaries featuring some of the other ordinary residents of Adventure country as they went about their business. One was a ground-breaking Facebook Connect video (see the site to activate) that allowed YOU to put yourself at the center of Adventure Country. The second humorously explored where the residents' focus on adventure was due to something in the water.
To close the loop, on-air promos featured Adventure Country branding, the stars of the shows, and an invitation to explore the online experience.
And as potential viewers became interested in the shows and wanted to follow along, all paths led to two Facebook Fan Pages, which propagated an aggressive schedule of custom content, video interviews, behind the scenes clips - even recipes for viewing parties, as thousands set the date on their Facebook calendar for tune in.
