HISTORY’s first foray into the scripted arena, “Hatfields & McCoys,” was a strategic step to expand the brand into new genres of storytelling. Building upon the scripted miniseries event’s record-breaking success, HISTORY sought to further establish the network as a home for highly stylized and premium television programming with the launch of its first scripted series. Promoting the March 2013 premiere of “Vikings,” a high-adrenaline, historical drama based on real Viking accounts, would call for a promotional campaign that was as epic as the series itself.

To ensure success and stand out amongst competitors, HISTORY aimed to create a comprehensive, integrated campaign that would raise awareness and build buzz among the network’s core audience (adults aged 25-54). HISTORY also sought ways to target younger males, an audience subset they knew would be critical to the success of the series.

The early 2013 launch of God of War: Ascension offered HISTORY an ideal platform to directly market “Vikings” to a passionate, engaged audience that would be receptive to the core themes of the series (brotherhood, mythology, warrior culture). Additionally, Sony’s existing relationship with Best Buy offered HISTORY additional exposure for “Vikings” in the form of a co-branded retail extension.

To promote their first scripted program, “Hatfields & McCoys,” HISTORY launched a special out-of-home campaign in New York City. The exteriors of subway cars were fully branded to look like the feuding family’s respective front porches (alternating between a Hatfields car and a McCoys car for the complete length of the train), complete with life-size representations of the Hatfield and McCoy families. Inside, all seating was wrapped to look like antique wooden rocking chairs with several of them “occupied” by characters from the miniseries. Inset monitors ran video content promoting the miniseries.

Keeping in line with the narrative of the clashing clans (and marking their territory), the Times Square Station and Grand Central Terminal also featured a series of subway two-sheets depicting the various family members. McCoy’s creative dominated Grand Central Terminal while the Times Square Station featured the Hatfield’s.

RATINGS:

Over 18m cumulative viewers tuned into all or part of the two telecasts of Vikings on premiere night. It defeated all broadcast competition among Adults aged 18-49 (2.5m) and Males 18-49 (1.6m) in the 10 p.m. hour. “Vikings” also made HISTORY the #1 network in all of television among Males 25-54 (1.6m).

[SOURCE: Nielsen Live+SD 3/3/13. Reach based on 1' qual. 10p/11p telecasts]

After 6 weeks, “Vikings” continues to be the #1 new cable series of 2013 among total viewers (4.7m) and the 25-54 age group (2.1m).

GOD OF WAR ENHANCED DEMO/DOWNLOADABLE WEAPON:

• 900,000 downloads of the enhanced demo as of March 27. Survey found that:

o 91% viewed the “Vikings” content on the demo.

o 73% of users cited that as a result of the demo, they were more likely to tune in to the premiere of “Vikings.”

o 61% tuned in to the Vikings premiere.

• YouTube Masthead featuring PS3 Demo Callout had a 35% CTR. This was 35% higher than the TV Entertainment benchmark of 0.26%.

• 300x250 “Vikings” banner with video promoting Mjölnir Weapon received an incredible 3.88% CTR.

• Standard banners alone drove 50,000+ qualified clicks to learn more about the Demo and Weapon.