Check out the first commercial for the Oprah Winfrey Network, which will air in movie theaters around the country and features the track, “Own It”, from will.i.am. The Oprah Winfrey Network, “designed to entertain, inform and inspire people to live their best lives”, launches New Year’s Day.
With brief shots of crowds, dancers and a smiling baby, the ad conveys that “this is celebratory,” Schillace said. The channel is buying movie screen ad time with both Screenvision and NCM, the two dominant in-theater ad distributors.
The ad will be adapted for television, both for the portfolio of channels owned by Discovery and for outside cable channels.
The multimillion-dollar campaign is being coordinated internally by OWN, which is based in Los Angeles. Already, there are commercials on Discovery Health telling viewers about the imminent changes.
During one of the few shows that OWN will keep, the Monday night documentary series “Mystery Diagnosis,” commercial spots tell of its future time slot on OWN, Wednesday night.
There is also a print ad in Vanity Fair promoting “Oprah Presents Master Class,” a profile series that will feature Maya Angelou, Jay Z, Diane Sawyer and others. Schillace said building awareness of OWN’s individual shows was a priority both before and after the Jan. 1 start date.
But so much of the interest will fall on Winfrey’s shoulders. She is sure to steer people to OWN during a Barbara Walters prime-time special on ABC on Dec. 9, titled “Oprah’s Next Chapter.” Ms. Winfrey has also, on three occasions, recorded video and audio for the OWN marketing campaign, and her face is prominent in the display ads that started appearing on Web sites this week.
OWN is buying the space through ad networks to aim at women ages 25 to 54, the demographic that it hopes will make up the bulk of its audience. It is preparing other display ads that will show snippets of OWN programming.
Some of the ads this month will direct people to a tool at Oprah.com to look up the channel position of OWN on local cable and satellite systems. There is also a toll-free number, 888-9GET-OWN. Winfrey tells callers, “See you on OWN New Year’s Day.”
In mid-December, the campaign will expand a bit with a limited number of billboards, including one in Times Square and one on the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood. Between Christmas and New Year’s Day, there will be some countdown clock spots on radio and on the Web. “Oprah’s so recognizable, it makes for really powerful radio,” Schillace said.
Maybe the song in the cinema ad, “Own It,” could make it to radio, too. The song is a bonus track on the Black Eyed Peas’ new album, “The Beginning.”
To hear OWN executives tell it, “Own It” was born out of a conversation between will.i.am and the channel’s chief creative officer, Lisa Erspamer, who said she was looking for a theme for “Your OWN Show: Oprah’s Search for the Next TV Star,” a competition show that will have its debut in January. A half-hour later, will.i.am called back with the song.
Undeniably catchy, its chorus repeats the words “I wanna own it,” and one of its verses calls out Winfrey: “I wanna do it big like Oprah.”
