What makes or breaks an enterprise can often be summed up in three words: location, location, location. And that was the case with BET Holdings Inc., whose PR and marketing minds launched its new movie channel in a city where it knew people would rally around the event.
Washington, D.C.-based media and entertainment company BET Holdings, Inc. and Encore Media Group (EMG), an Englewood, Col.-based cable TV channel provider, premiered BET Movies, the first black movie channel, on Jan. 31.
The premiere was held a day before the channel was nationally launched in Baton Rouge, La. The event coincided with Black History Month, which began Feb. 1. The rally was held on the steps of the Old State Capitol and drew over 2,000 people who came to join in the celebration and catch a glimpse of the new product.
Targeting the Market
Baton Rouge was chosen from a list of four possible launch sites nationwide because of its significance in theCivil Rights movement as a city in the south, its large black community, the market's size (approximately 100,000 people subscribe to its Tele-Communications Inc. cable system) and the proximity to Southern University (SU), a historic black college.
The event took about a month to plan, with EMC and BET working together and heading all the PR in-house. Planners wouldn't disclose the budget for the event, but said that part of its success can be linked to the spirit of those they worked with in the city.
"In a big city like New York or Los Angeles, you're just one of many things going on, but if you're in a market that doesn't get a lot of attention, the city and state will put their weight behind it...everyone from the local traffic patrolmen to the governor," said Marc McCarthy, diector of communications at EMC. EMC issued four media alerts nationwide, the first on Jan. 22, which ran on PR Newswire. Two others were sent to trade press, to top newspapers in the top markets and to broadcast entertainment programs the week before the event. One was sent several days later.
About 800 video news release notifications were sent to TV stations nationwide a few days before the launch. The video was uplinked the night of the event.
"You should target the trade media in your industry first, the people you have the best relationships with, get them to do exclusives on the event and then hit consumer and business-to-business media," said McCarthy, in reference to exclusives that ran in Broadcasting and Cable and Multi Channel publications a week prior to the launch.
Actor Spike Lee worked with EMC and BET to create a commercial on BET's basic cable channel - about a month before the launch - and urged the public to call their cable operators and ask them to carry BET movies. This advertisement, with an 800 number included, drew over 100,000 callers in the first five days and 50,000 calls came in that night. This secured BET and EMC's belief that there was a demand for the channel.
The launch event was packed with festivities, beginning with the SU marching band kicking off the noontime rally. Free lunch was offered and local urban radio stations MAX 94.1 and Q-106 provided the music. BET showed an outdoor multimedia presentation that included fireworks and clips of movies to be shown on the channel, such as Cry Freedom and Do the Right Thing. The channel on the video screen was operated by a giant remote control, held by John Sie, chairman and CEO of EMC.
Wesley Mallette, senior publicist at BET, said "the Old State Capitol Building was like a big castle, and between the fireworks and video presentation, the visual appeal was the perfect element for the media."
To make the event a success, planners hit on some regional flavor. EMC and BET used local vendors to prepare and sell the food and had local musicians perform live music.
The event was meaningful to the black community because "it was a coming together of a lot of different things. The event was symbolic in an historical context. And in relation to Black History Month, BET's making history every day, so the event was a great way to kick off the month," said Mallette.
For the month of February, the BET basic cable channel will air BET movies as a special promotion to pull in subscribers. So far, there are about 400,000 BET Movie subscribers, but things are still getting rolling since it takes time to work out deals with the individual cable system in each area nationwide.
McCarthy said that EMC and BET are still waiting for the Bacon's (national news analysis service) media clips to come through, but he said that the entire local media was at the event, with all the major stations, NBC, ABC, CBS and FOX running features about the new channel. And now, three weeks later, TV shows like Entertainment Tonight, Access Hollywood and Up to the Minute are covering the story as the channel gets picked up by more cable systems. (BEC, 202/608-2000; EMC, 303/771-700)