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CW?s Vampire Diaries takes a bite out of mobile

The CW network is running mobile advertisements in ChaCha?s SMS program to promote the teen television drama ?The Vampire Diaries.?

Starting Oct. 24, The CW placed reminders in ChaCha?s SMS service to scare up interest ? and viewers ? for the Oct. 29 Halloween-themed episode. The campaign is targeted towards teens and young adults, also The CW?s core demographic.

?The CW audience is incredibly tech-savvy and mobile devices are about as universal with our viewers as the television,? said Caty Burgess, director of media strategies at The CW, Burbank, CA. ?So it makes perfect sense for us to utilize a service such as ChaCha to reach out to our viewers and drive them to watch The Vampire Diaries on-air.?

The CW was formed as a joint venture between Warner Bros. Entertainment and CBS Corp. and is home to programs such as ?America's Next Top Model,? ?Gossip Girl? and ?90210.?

ChaCha is a free mobile answers service that lets users call 1-800-2-ChaCha or text questions to ChaCha (242242) on wireless devices and receive answers within minutes.

For the promotion, ChaCha developed numerous scripts to play off the theme of ?Halloween Sucks.? 

When providing answers to questions texted in by teens, ChaCha will serve up teasers such as ?If vampires R your thing, then you can't miss ?The Vampire Diaries? Halloween episode TONIGHT @ 8/7c only on The CW! Find out if Halloween really sucks!?

ChaCha created more than two dozen scripts to direct viewers to tune-in to the Halloween episode.

Ms. Burgess said that the target demographic for the campaign is young adult viewers, particularly young women who use mobile devices. 
 
The Vampire Diaries is based on a series of books of the same name by L.J. Smith.
 
Ian Somerhalder and Paul Wesley star as vampire brothers, both drawn to the character of Elena, played by Nina Dobrev.

In the Oct. 29 Halloween episode of The Vampire Diaries, Vicki?s (Kayla Ewell) behavior becomes more dangerous and Stefan (Paul Wesley) tries to help her while Elena tries to convince Jeremy (Steven R. McQueen) to stay away from Vicki.

Caroline (Candice Accola) gives Bonnie (Katerina Graham) a necklace she took from Damon (Ian Somerhalder) to wear with her Halloween costume, and when Damon tries to take it back, he is surprised by Bonnie?s abilities.

While The CW may be one of the newest networks on TV right now, it is far from new to mobile.

Recently the teen network launched two iPhone applications.

The CWTV application features videos, pictures and the opportunity to buy episodes from Apple?s iTunes. Kia Motors has branded the main banner with a logo next to The CW?s and has advertisements integrated with all features of the application (see story).

Retail giant Target was the launch sponsor of The CW network?s new iPhone application, CW City Wize.
The application offers map of locations featured on three CW dramas: ?Gossip Girl,? ?90210? and ?Melrose Place.? Locations such as restaurants, hotels and spas where characters are seen in the three different shows are plotted in a map view, as are Target retail locations (see story).

Ms. Burgess said that mobile was a good way to reach The CW?s target demographic.

?Our viewers live in an on-the-go, mobile world,? Ms. Burgess said. ?And since virtually all our young adult viewers have mobile devices on them at all times, it?s a perfect opportunity to target that specific audience, wherever they may be and at any time, with a clear, definitive message and drive them to tune into The Vampire Diaries.?