Thinking outside the box with A&E’s Leanforwards

Do you remember when the cable and satellite television network A&E was the place to go for higher brow entertainment and historical documentaries? I do. And many of us still associate A&E with the sepia toned tint of the past (they do own the History Channel after all). Perhaps thats why they are trying so hard to rebrand and reprogram themselves as HBO has done with high quality dramas and reality based shows (they even acquired the rights from HBO to rerun Sopranos episodes). But winning over the audience is only half the battle. Someone has to pay for all of that production and reinvention (Gene Simmons and Dog the Bounty Hunter don’t work for free you know), someone like advertisers. So how do you show media buyers and ad planners that your new face is the place to sell? With a smart ad campaign of your own of course!

Meet The Leanforwards.

• The A&E Leanforwards are a critical audience segment your clients can’t afford to miss.
• A&E Leanforwards are highly engaged consumers who “lean in” instead of sitting back when watching TV.
• They crave programming that’s authentic, emotional and compelling.
• Leanforwards watch A&E to connect, to be challenged and to viscerally experience every moment on the edge of their seats; people watch other networks to escape, relax and tune out – resulting in a passive viewing experience.

A&E is brilliantly (in my opinion) presenting their audience almost as a reality show of its own to potential ad space buyers. They have created an identifiable character (the lean forward) and built an entire interactive environment (in this case a “museum”) around it. Visit the website and you can see Exhibits (the current shows), learn more about Leanforwards (called that due to the fact that they are SO ENGAGED in what they are watching that they lean forward towards the TV), peruse Nielsen statistics and study videos, play a game and win “artifacts of victory” like computers and TVs, or “shop” in their tongue-in-cheek Lean-Oriented gift shop (where everything except the $9999 ENGAGEment Ring is conveniently out of stock as I’m sure some people would attempt to purchase these quirky items).

A&E has given us an excellent example of “thinking outside” of the proverbial (or perhaps quite appropriate in this television oriented case) box. They have created a highly unique campaign with great viral potential. And if you dont believe me, pretend you are a media buyer and go play Wake the Planner and see if you wouldn’t send that link to your colleagues! Especially when you can pit your company against that rival outfit… (I like to throw things at the lazy planner…)

Tags: A&E, advertising, campaign, Corrie Davidson, design, Leanforwards, Marketing

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 1st, 2010 at 1:00 pm and is filed under Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.