Bride’s Sets Date For ‘Virtual Wedding’
T.L. Stanley
Bride’s magazine partners with Romance Classics cable network for a “virtual wedding” with $50,000 worth of gifts from on- and off-air sponsors that include Zales, Wamsutta, Cuisinart, Procter & Gamble’s Oil of Olay, Wonderbra and Disney.
The WWWedding (tagline: “virtual wedding, real prizes”) aims to draw engaged couples on-line in the two months ahead of the June 29th “simultaneous worldwide nuptials” and grab demographic information on them as they personalize a “dowry” of prizes. The promo is pulling in new advertiser categories with the appeal that “if you brand these consumers now, you’ll have them for life,” said publisher Deborah Fine.
Romance Classics will point consumers to the on-line event and sweeps via 30-second “teasers” and two-minute spots on its air and sister channel American Movie Classics. Spots also will air across the nets’ parent-company Cablevision Systems units, including Bravo, Independent Film Channel, regional sports and news channels. Contest sponsors are buying time on the nets, with promo tags. The sweeps gets additional exposure via Cablevision’s Clearview and Loew’s theater chains, The Wiz consumer electronics chain, Madison Square Garden and Radio City Music Hall. Bride’s will hype the promo in its June/July issue, billboards, radio and print and local market events. Its sponsors will tout the virtual wedding at retail, via online and print. The cable net has partnered with Bride’s in the past for on-air wedding tips vignettes, the current Bride’s On Location bridal shows and a 12city Big Toss $50,000 giveaway last summer. A Bride’s half-hour TV series is in development for 2000.
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