Promotional Campaigns

This page documents the promotional campaigns for Supernatural. You may list commercials, billboard series and other specific campaigns here.

You might also be interested in the Interviews page or Promotion category

SEASON 1

"TV Show To Debut on the Web"

9 September 2005 (StudioBriefing)

Hoping to persuade viewers to sample its new series Supernatural, starring Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles, The WB plans to make the first episode available online without commercials from now until the show airs on Sept. 13. David Katz, head of sports and entertainment for Yahoo!, told the online edition of Advertising Age: "They've given us a unique, exclusive window to premier a television episode before it runs on television. In exchange for that, we are promoting this feature on Yahoo! TV and throughout the network because we think it's compelling to users." Garth Ancier, chairman of The WB, said that he did not believe the stratagem would cost the show viewers. "I think the nature of streaming is such that generally it's more for awareness than actual viewing. There will be some people who will watch it on their small PC screen, but the majority of people will [just] sample it," he told AdAge.

Source

Taglines Season 1

Scary just got sexy

• UK's TV1 promo, released early 2006. Featuring Echo & The Bunnymen's "Killing Time"

View on YouTube. Probably the most popular tagline, as it was happily embraced by Supernatural's fanbase.

• This tagline was also used for marketing Supernatural in Australia, where it aired on Channel 10.

Other taglines used in Season One included:

• Star Wars in Truck Stop America.
• Fear is a luxury
• Wicked... rest uneasy. ("No Rest for the Wicked," was Eric Kripke's original suggestion, but it was refused by the studio)^{S1Com, p. 15}
• One hell of a time for a family reunion.

Tagline on Season 1 DVD blurb:

• The creepy. The demented. The unexplained. The unearthly.

Free To Be Scary billboard off I-635 - in of all places - KANSAS. See Photo - Courtesy of Ineluctability

SEASON 2

Free To Be...

• The CW Network's new seasonal marketing campaign, late 2006.

• "Cut you Down" Promo clip at You Tube

A promo clip set to Johnny Cash's "Cut you Down" using scenes from Hunted, Playthings and Houses of the Holy. It was released over the Christmas hiatus in the lead-up to the screening of Hunted on January 11, 2007.

• June 20, 2007. FREE TO WIN BIG AT THE 2007 PROMAX/BDA AWARDS

The CW Network's marketing team walked away with a grand total of 19 honors during the annual Promax/BDA 2007 Promotion and Marketing Awards, including 13 Gold Promax awards and 2 Gold BDA awards. The Free to Be campaign won a number of awards as did Supernatural for the following:

Drama Program Promotion - "Supernatural" "Tunnel" :30 (GOLD)

Editing - "Supernatural" "Infected" :30 (GOLD)

Sound Design - "Supernatural" "Tunnel" - Sound :30 (GOLD)

Use of Library Music for a Promos - "Supernatural" "Cut You Down" - Music :30 (GOLD)

Drama Program Promotion - "Supernatural" "Cut You Down" :30 (SILVER)

Australian campaigns

In preparation for the premiere of Season 2 on January 15, 2007 on Channel 10:

• Australian music video program 'Video Hits' airs Video Hits Presents: The Music of Supernatural on Sunday 14 January. (source)

• Media release on January 9, 2007 announces: Australian first: Ten premieres Warner Bros, Supernatural, series 2 premier online

Dot Pushing

• In February 2007, Network Ten began promoting the year’s programming (new series usually start airing in Australia in February and are played straight through to June without any significant breaks) with a re-designed website and new promos.

The promos featured stars from shows including Law and Order: SVU and CI, NCIS, and Supernatural, shot in black and white with a white background.

The tagline for the promos were “I believe…” and various versions were made, varying in length and whether they focused on one sho or a mix of shows.

Jensen pushes the Network Ten dot

Jared believes in keeping an open mind. A very open mind

Jensen’s lines included:

I believe in the unknown: monsters, aliens, scary ex-girlfriends.

I believe there are forces you don’t want to mess with… like me.

There’s no better place to be.

Jared’s lines included:

I believe in keeping an open mind. A very open mind

I believe one day my brother will get me killed

I believe there is no better place to be.

I believe. What can I say? I believe

And from both:

Seriously. Ten. Seriously Supernatural.

The footage for the ads was shot against a green curtain while the boys were filming Nightshifter, based on the clothes they are wearing.

The Network logo was a blue dot and a yellow dot. Another series of promos featured the dot in the middle of the screen, and an actor from a show approaching it. When they pushed one of the dots it would explode into a squiggle. This lead to the nickname by fans of the whole campaign as the ‘dot pushing’ ads and lead to various double entendres about the boys pushing dots.

Network Ten has increasingly adopted many cross-media approaches used by the CW, with whom it shares a target demographic. In 2007, for the first time in Australia for any show, Supernatural episodes were available for free download after the episode had aired. It posted clips of the promos as well as a blooper reel of Jensen and Jared’s filming for them. A forum for the show was established although it is not particularly active.

SEASON 3

• The Season premiere was made available through iTunes in the U.S. on October 3, 2007, a day before the airing on the CW.

• In response to the number of viewers downloading popular series, Australian Network Ten airs the season premier on October 15, eleven days after it aired in the States. Major series previously started on Australian TV in February, five months after their US debut.