For television programmers, the lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer are not so lazy anymore. Broadcast networks as well as cable channels now fill their summertime schedules with new episodes of shows during what was for many years a no-viewer’s land of reruns.
One cable channel, Bravo, has been particularly aggressive in staking a claim to audiences during the warm-weather weeks. Last year, Bravo introduced a promotional campaign under the umbrella theme “Summer by Bravo,” which presented stars of its series sharing a night out at a pool party atop the roof of a high-rise.
“Summer by Bravo” has returned for 2011, this time bringing the Bravo-lebrities — as the channel calls the stars of its reality shows — to the country rather than the city.
The new campaign is set at a (make-believe) summer camp called Camp by Bravo, where more than 20 of the channel’s personalities arrive by school bus before they begin to mix, mingle and get into mischief.
The campaign features, among others, Tabatha Coffey of “Tabatha’s Salon Takeover,” Andy Cohen of “Watch What Happens: Live,” Kara DioGuardi of “Platinum Hit,” Rocco DiSpirito of “Rocco’s Dinner Party,” Bethenny Frankel of “Bethenny Ever After,” Kathy Griffin of “My Life on the D-List,” Teresa Giudice and Caroline Manzo of “The Real Housewives of New Jersey,” Padma Lakshmi of “Top Chef,” Jeff Lewis of “Flipping Out” and Chris March of “Mad Fashion.”
The Britney Spears song “I Wanna Go” provides the soundtrack for the campaign, just as many a pop or rock tune has provided the soundtrack to a summer’s worth of memories. (The Macy Gray song “Kissed It” was used for the 2010 campaign.)
The goal of the campaign is twofold. One goal is to burnish the brand image of Bravo, part of the Bravo Media unit of NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment, part of the NBCUniversal division of Comcast.
The other goal is to promote the Bravo programming line-up for summer 2011, which includes new series like “Mad Fashion,” “Platinum Hit” and “Rocco’s Dinner Party” as well as returning series like “Flipping Out,” “The Real Housewives of New Jersey” and “The Real Housewives of New York City.”
The campaign includes commercials, which are being shown on Bravo, of course, as well as in movie theaters and on YouTube.
There is content on a section of the Bravo Web site, which can also be accessed through a mobile site. The content includes video clips and e-cards styled like postcards from summer camp.
The campaign also has a presence in social media Like Facebook and Twitter.
Bravo is not the first channel or network to bring the stars of various shows together for promotional purposes.
For instance, in 2009, ABC ran commercials that showed cast members of series like “Dancing With the Stars,” “Desperate Housewives” and “Grey’s Anatomy” cohabiting in a house that had mailboxes out front decorated with the logos of each show.
The idea of the ABC campaign was to bring to life the idea that, as a network slogan put it, “your favorite shows live here.”
NBC tried a more literal version of the concept in the fall of 1964 with “90 Bristol Court,” an apartment complex with initials that, in a bit of a wink-wink gesture, spelled out “N-B-C.”
The premise of “90 Bristol Court” was to run three 30-minute sitcoms, one after the other, on Monday nights from 7:30 to 9 p.m. They were all set in the same complex, although each show was a separate series with its own title.
Bravo is not likely to schedule a series called “Camp by Bravo” anytime soon — possibly because so many of its shows already reflect a campy sensibility.
But the campaign is more than a team-building exercise for the channel’s featured personalities.
In a study that was conducted for Bravo about last year’s “Summer by Bravo” campaign, one in three people who said they saw the ads agreed the ads directly caused them to sample one or more new shows on the channel.
“Last summer, we were introducing a phenomenal amount of programming,” says Trez Thomas, vice president for brand strategy and creative director at Bravo Media in New York.