CBS Launches “Get Into Something Good” Fan-Centric Marketing Campaign
CBS will use this Sunday’s AFC Championship game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Cincinnati Bengals to unveil a new fan-centric marketing campaign around the theme “Get Into Something Good.”
And here’s the unique angle of the spots viewers will see on Sunday: They don’t actually include clips from the shows. Instead, they focus on the superfans behind shows like “Survivor,” the “FBI” franchise, and freshman comedy sensation “Ghosts.”
“We’re really trying to break some norms and see things differently,” CBS president and chief marketing officer Mike Benson said. “I think it’s a more innovative and modern way to consume a show or promote a show. And the way we strategically looked at them is, why does every promo have to be something that’s a clip-based promo? Is there a way to actually look at our marketing where we’ll intrigue the audience and then give them the clips and give them more context around the program, characters or stories? That’s really what we’re doing here and how it’s starting to work, both on air and what we’re doing on social media.
In the on-air spots, three fictional families portray passionate fans of “FBI”, “Ghosts” and “Survivor”. The promos are narrated by “FBI” star Jeremy Sisto, “Ghosts” star Brandon Scott Jones (who plays Isaac, the pompous revolutionary American ghost of the 1700s in the series) and the host/executive producer of “Survivor “Jeff Probst. Here they are below:
“We’ve been working to make the CBS brand modern and relevant, and a big part of what we need to do is educate audiences about the shows we have and remind them how popular they are,” Benson said. . “We need to help the public understand that there are people who are obsessed with and love these programs. We embrace this idea of fandom because word of mouth continues to drive TV and fandom drives TV. And so , the whole origin of the campaign came from the ideas that we were seeing around the fans of our shows, and it really encompasses how our audience goes to a large extent to eat, breathe, and sleep on their shows.
As for “Get into Something Good,” Benson was hesitant to call it a network tagline, but he said CBS would use it as a theme to lean into as a network mission. “It’s a rallying cry to prove to the public that we have good things worth their time,” he said. “It’s a line that we’re going to start using and developing in a way that continues to prove that when you watch CBS or CBS programs, whether on Paramount Plus or elsewhere, it’s time well spent.”
It also somewhat replaces CBS’s tradition of touting its No. 1 network status, which Benson has pulled off since taking over marketing for the network. “I don’t want to go out and brag that we’re number one, the public doesn’t care anymore,” he said. “Of course, it’s important to say there’s a show that’s really popular and a number one comedy, but when it comes to the brand of the network, people don’t really care if we’re number one. .
The idea of including “regular viewers” as a cornerstone of a campaign is also a bit of a throwback to campaigns from the 1970s and 1980s, including CBS’s:
“We take some things that we could have done in the past that were really cool and reinvent those things,” Benson said. “And for me, that’s kind of a fun thing to do.”
Benson points to the fall kickoff promo, featuring “B Positive” star Annaleigh Ashford, which was produced at the start of the season:
Meanwhile, CBS said the “Get Into Something Good” campaign also extends to social media, where last week Probst issued a challenge on CBS’s brand handles (Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok) for viewers to show “How Big of a Fan” they are by using #CBSFanFlex in their posts.
Here is Probst’s message:
And some recent posts:
@bran__flakezz #point with @cbs my very first event 😂 #CBSfanflex #survivor #reality show #Jewish #gay #Leo
Proposed to my wife this way in 2018! #CBSFanFlex pic.twitter.com/89j8j7Y27S
—Colin McBride (@interface2x) January 27, 2022
@schultzzie #point with @cbs my time has come #green screen #cbsfanflex #cbssurvivor
@thehaleyweiss #point with @cbs #green screen arguably problematic that buffs say “out-eat, out-schmooze, out-pray, oy vey”#CBSFanFlex #survivorcbs
Responding to @JeffProbstThe history of the IG
The Survivor Ancient Voices theme was played at my wedding two weeks ago!! Get me on Season 44! Or 43, I’ll take it…#CBSFanFlex #Survivor pic.twitter.com/d1u6rI9tKo— Jacob Savitt (@jdsavitt) January 27, 2022
