Video Campaign Has Celebs Praising New York Times' Online Treasures

Clips are built with viral distribution over social networking channels and blogs in mind.

Aiming to boost awareness of its multimedia offerings, the New York Times has launched an online marketing campaign that features video vignettes of celebrities presenting unscripted descriptions of their favorite corners of NYTimes.com.

The campaign includes videos of Kenneth Cole, Padma Lakshmi, John Leguizamo, John Cameron Mitchell, Isaac Mizrahi, Bebe Neuwirth, Cynthia Nixon, Dr. Mehmet Oz, Lynn Redgrave, Eric Ripert, Ben Stein and Justin Tuck. While the site launched with 12 video vignettes, Yasmin Namini, the newspaper’s senior vice president of marketing and circulation, said more [from the same batch of celebrities] will be published soon.

“This is a marketing micro-site,” explained Namini. “The micro-site has marketing modules on NYTimes.com. When you click on them, they take you to the site.” She said the company also ran a full-page ad in the newspaper Tuesday announcing the micro-site. Other publicity efforts include promotions on the Times’s YouTubeand Facebook pages, Namini said.

Although the micro-site was created with help from Your Majesty, a New York-based marketing company, all other aspects of the campaign were designed in-house.

The videos are built with viral distribution over social networking channels and blogs in mind. Namini and Soraya Darabi, manager of partnership and buzz marketing, noted the celebrity videos are easy to e-mail and share on social networking sites.

“The public relations department has a considerable contact list with influential bloggers,” noted Darabi. “There will also be considerable press outreach… Ideally, these videos will be promoted elsewhere off of our channel.”

Photographer and documentary maker Douglas Keeve directed the videos. To get the celebrities for the effort, the Times “cast a wide net,” said Namini. “We sent out about 100 or so letters to various celebrities in all different walks of life. These 12 were among those that responded.”

Because the vignettes were not scripted, the celebrities sometimes do not clearly describe where to go for the features they espouse. To deal with that, the site creators included drop-down menus that appear with the videos. Viewers can click on the menu’s tabs to see the feature being discussed in the vignette.

Subscribe to get your daily business insights

Whitepapers

US Mobile Streaming Behavior
Whitepaper | Mobile

US Mobile Streaming Behavior

5y

US Mobile Streaming Behavior

Streaming has become a staple of US media-viewing habits. Streaming video, however, still comes with a variety of pesky frustrations that viewers are ...

View resource
Winning the Data Game: Digital Analytics Tactics for Media Groups
Whitepaper | Analyzing Customer Data

Winning the Data Game: Digital Analytics Tactics for Media Groups

5y

Winning the Data Game: Digital Analytics Tactics f...

Data is the lifeblood of so many companies today. You need more of it, all of which at higher quality, and all the meanwhile being compliant with data...

View resource
Learning to win the talent war: how digital marketing can develop its people
Whitepaper | Digital Marketing

Learning to win the talent war: how digital marketing can develop its peopl...

2y

Learning to win the talent war: how digital market...

This report documents the findings of a Fireside chat held by ClickZ in the first quarter of 2022. It provides expert insight on how companies can ret...

View resource
Engagement To Empowerment - Winning in Today's Experience Economy
Report | Digital Transformation

Engagement To Empowerment - Winning in Today's Experience Economy

1m

Engagement To Empowerment - Winning in Today's Exp...

Customers decide fast, influenced by only 2.5 touchpoints – globally! Make sure your brand shines in those critical moments. Read More...

View resource