The Objective

CSI: NY delivers a winning formula with its cutting-edge forensics wrapped in mystery and technological sophistication, for the first time, in the city that never sleeps. It is currently rated one of the top 10 shows on U.S. network television.

For the online campaign, the objective was to create awareness about the show & encourage user interactivity to clearly demonstrate what the show was about. While the first objective could be met through innovative banners, the second needed a strong hook to invite consumer interest.

The Solution

To communicate what the show was about, the best solution was to create a virtual episode, with all the characters present. The user directed to this through the banner campaign on Rediff, Yahoo & MSN – for maximum reach. Exchange4media and Indiantelevision were also used for the advertising and marketing community.

The Route

The campaign began with teasers for a few days prior to show launch - just priming the audience for what's to come. Drawing from the theme of the show, it showed a few crime scenes with identical photos, with one key difference that the user had to identify.

The launch campaign began the day the show went on-air with interesting banners about the show & what the viewers could expect. All the key sites drove traffic to the advergame - a FIRST of its kind. It used both online and wireless media - ensuring a hook to captivate the user. The user had to solve a murder using the clues - some of which were on screen and some that could be obtained only via SMS. It was exciting and made for great stickiness. It also gave AXN a valuable database who opt-in to receive future communication from the channel.

The Results

The campaign delivered 12.2 million impressions with an average click through rate of 1.0% (industry average – 0.5%) i.e. 1.2 lakh clicks. The Splash ad unit on www.rediff.com & the DHTML North ad unit on Yahoo.co.in generated CTRs of 2% & 5% respectively. There were over 22,000 unique entries to the contest and close to 7000 unique opt-ins.