As truTV prepares to launch its first ever live event celebrating the IMPRACTICAL JOKERS 100th episode, the network has partnered with several of today's leading brands to create an extensive, immersive and innovative line-up of marketing activations. Tonight, Sept. 3, at 10 p.m., truTV will celebrate the landmark episode with a live event in New York City that will feature all four Jokers walking a high-wire five stories above the streets of the South Street Seaport. Additionally, the network created promotional and social media campaigns designed to create buzz, conversation and amplify engagement from viewers and superfans of the IMPRACTICAL JOKERS weekly series.
Currently in its fourth season airing Thursday nights on truTV, the
IMPRACTICAL JOKERS features four longtime friends Q, Murr, Joe and Sal as they challenge one another to do ridiculous things in public, all captured on hidden camera, complete with unsuspecting strangers' amused, confused, or flabbergasted reactions.
"While
IMPRACTICAL JOKERS has been rich in embarrassments for four lifelong friends, we're thrilled to have an embarrassment of riches in the form of our many passionate partners working with us on this epic milestone," said Puja Vohra, SVP, Marketing & Digital, Marketing at truTV. "We knew it would take more than traditional methods to elevate this special event above and beyond even the dizzying five stories that the guys are walking, so we built our plan one promotion and one partner at a time, utilizing each one's strengths, expertise and platforms to help us entice viewers to tune-in live."
Below is breakdown of
truTV partnerships and promotions for the
IMPRACTICAL JOKERS Live Punishment Special:
NYC & Company
With New York City as the primary setting for the
IMPRACTICAL JOKERS weekly series, it made perfect sense to partner with New York City's official marketing and tourism organization. NYC & Company, whose mission is to maximize travel and tourism opportunities throughout
THE FIVE boroughs, will provide media support and access to their member businesses across the City.
Millennium Hilton
Millennium Hilton, located in Lower Manhattan, will be providing the stays for the three
IMPRACTICAL JOKERS Meme Sweepstakes winners and their guests.
GEICO
GEICO has been bringing fans of
IMPRACTICAL JOKERS on a walk down memory lane with its weekly countdown of the most hilarious moments, most harrowing challenges and most humbling punishments of the series to date with the Impractical Jokers: FAN-Tastic Countdown presented by GEICO. This digital and social campaign invites fans to share their favorite moments via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Vine using the hashtag #JOKERS100, and showcases their picks online at www.trutv.com/jokers100 and on-air during new episodes of Impractical Jokers. The culmination of the countdown will be the thirty-minute Impractical Jokers: FAN-tastic Countdown Presented by GEICO television special airing Wednesday, Sept. 2, a t 10 p.m.
Additionally, as part of the live punishment special, GEICO will give fans the power to save one of the Jokers from having to walk the tightrope first - and giving them the power to set the order of walkers on the fateful night. Launching the morning of Wednesday, Sept. 2,
truTV and GEICO will allow fans to vote for the GEICO Save to #SAVEJOE, #SAVEMURR, #SAVEQ, or #SAVESAL via their social channels. The results will be tallied in an online leaderboard at www.trutv.com/jokers100 and revealed on-air during the live punishment special.
FanDuel
As part of the live punishment special, each of the Jokers will walk the tight rope to raise money for their favorite charities.
truTV has partnered with FanDuel (www.fanduel.com,) the largest one-day fantasy sports operator, to each contribute $25,000 towards a $50,000 cash prize for the winning Joker's beneficiary. The other three charities will each receive $10,000, provided by truTV. Sal will walk for Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Fronti?res (MSF); Joe for Daniel's Music Foundation; Murr for the Make-A-Wish Foundation and Q for the Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation.
Verizon
truTV is partnering with Verizon FiOS on an
IMPRACTICAL JOKERS sweepstakes offering fans a chance to win a trip to New York City for the Live Punishment Event. FiOS subscribers can enter on Twitter using the hashtag #JokersMemeSweepstakes with a photo meme and phrase related to the series for a chance to win the grand prize trip.
In conjunction with the
IMPRACTICAL JOKERS Live Punishment Special partnerships, the network has created various promotions designed to engage loyal viewers and superfans alike and create buzz leading up the live event. These efforts include:
Museum of Impractical History
By popular demand,
truTV will bring back the Museum of Impractical History, which made its debut in July 2015 in San Diego during Comic Con International. The museum will feature fan-generated artwork and show artifacts from some of the most legendary moments in
IMPRACTICAL JOKERS history as well as show inspired activations.
Twitter
truTV's will utilize a number of Twitter's platforms - including Twitter, Periscope and Snappy TV - to create a fulsome promotion. Paid and organic efforts, including a day of promoted trend, will amplify everything happening across the Twitter universe through the flight of the campaign. Fans will be invited to join the conversation via the official hashtag #LivePunishment.
Additionally, no major TV event is complete without a social War Room monitoring and responding in real time. The
truTV social team will be in the field and at home base responding to and engaging in conversation with fans and viewers before and during the live event.
Periscope "Under The Wire" Campaign
The live Periscope "Under the Wire" campaign, which informed followers to expect more information leading up to the live punishment event, began the week of August 24.
On Thursday, Sept 3, the day of event, there will be several broadcasts via Periscope throughout the day, including a pre and post show. Additionally,
Howie Mandel will take to his handle @howiemandel to broadcast before and during the live event.
Snappy TV
truTV's social team will take advantage of Snappy TV, which creates instant highlights by bringing video content into Twitter's real-time conversation, straight from the TV. The most compelling moments will be available on Twitter's desktop and mobile platforms as they happen for fans to enjoy and share.
Yahoo Livetext
When
truTV learned Yahoo was launching an innovative new live video texting app, Yahoo Livetext, which allows people to connect with their friends visually while texting, they jumped at the chance to try it out. On September 3, five lucky fans will be selected to live text with pre and post-show host Casey Jost and some of the most colorful people from the Jokers' past between 8:00 p.m. - 8:30 p.m. ET and 11:00 p.m.- 11:30 p.m. ET. Just download Yahoo Livetext on your iOS or Android phone and add "Jokers" to your friends, then be by your phone during that timeframe.
House Party
truTV is working with House Party, a platform that gives fans exclusive access to brands they love and helps them host viewing parties from the comfort of their own homes. House Party will identify influencers within
IMPRACTICAL JOKERS core viewers to provide 150 fans across the country all they need to host a perfect party and the tools to share their experiences across social channels. Fans will pre-promote the event and live tweet their reactions during it. Each party will get a party pack including: bingo cards with bingo prize, masks with iTunes full episode download, t-shirts, posters and more.
Livestream
Livestream, which offers live streaming event coverage, will provide viewers with five alternative camera angles of the live punishment special. They will also help produce a pre and post event live digital show that will be available on truTV.com.
Big Honcho Media
Working with individual radio stations and cable systems, the partnership with Big Honcho used promotions and premiums to amass over 2K local TV Spots; 12.8MM Impressions and 319 local radio spots in the Impractical Jokers' top performing markets
iHeartMedia New York/Z100/Power 105
iHeartMedia New York will run spots from Aug. 31- Sept. 3, driving tune-in and inviting fans down to the live broadcast at the South Street Seaport. On September 3, Garrett from Z100's
Elvis Duran and the Morning Show will be on-site hosting on the main stage from 7:00 p.m. -9:00 p.m. and the Z100 and Power 105.1 Party Patrol will be passing out swag on-site from the Z100 tent.
YouTube
truTV's
Youtube channel has almost 500k subscribers and over 300k views making the
IMPRACTICAL JOKERS the most successful franchise on truTV's
Youtube page. Beginning on August 31, the network will dedicate its page to the four Jokers and their biggest and best punishments to date.
Additionally, every day leading up to the live punishment
truTV will feature a new piece of content surrounding the live punishment including long and short form pieces of content in a Live Punishment Special Playlist, which will be placed at the top of the channel. The network will also make five of the highest rated episodes to date available to view on the channel.
Whipclip
The Whipclip mobile app allows
IMPRACTICAL JOKERS fans the ability to create short video clips of their favorite Joker moments from #LivePunishment and immediately share them to their social networks and friends via email and SMS. It also gives fans the opportunity to go back and watch the best pranks from previous episodes, directly from their phones. Whipclip is available for free on the App Store and on Google Play.
To catch up on every single episode of the
IMPRACTICAL JOKERS - seasons 1 through 3 - on demand. In an unprecedented move, the network has made every regular-season episode to date, as well as
IMPRACTICAL JOKERS specials, available via VOD and digital on-demand so
truTV subscribers can binge watch whenever and wherever they want via http://www.trutv.com/watch and
THE WATCH truTV mobile app.
Impractical Jokers is produced for
truTV by NorthSouth Productions (Say Yes to the Dress: Atlanta, Double Divas), with Charlie DeBevoise, Mark Hickman, Joe Gatto,
James Murray,
Brian Quinn, and Sal Vulcano serving as executive producers.
Comments
To post a comment, you must
register and
login.
