Mar 31, 2008 6:06 AM, PROMO Xtra, By Richard Tedesco

New Yorkers will be seeing light sabers in a bus shelter heralding Spike TV's Star Wars screenings.

Spike TV has devised a multi-dimensional promotional campaign to plug its upcoming airing of the entire “Stars Wars” saga.

The multi-million dollar campaign with the tag line “There is much to be learned” combines a heavy round of on-air hype with some novel offline marketing stunts.

On-air trailers started trumpeting the April 4 debut of the epic series in February on Spike. Interstitial segments about the origins of the Lightsaber and other Stars Wars back story content will run with the feature films. Spike is also teaming up with LucasArts to provide exclusive peeks at an imminent video game release, “The Force Unleashed.”

A trailer featuring clips from all six Star Wars episodes is featured on the cable network’s Web site, http://www.Spike.com.

“It is all about creating ubiquity,” said Todd Ames, Spike TV vice president of consumer marketing. “The idea behind this is to create a sense of excitement and communicate it on a grand scale.”

Offline marketing includes a bus shelter containing light sabers in New York City’s Herald Square and billboards opposite Madison Square Garden, motion-activated video projections in JFK International and McCarran Airports, over-sized bus posters, taxi-top signs and telephone kiosk posters.

Spike TV plays to a young male demographic. It’s hoping to broaden its overall audience with Star Wars and expand that male demographic as well.

“This is one of the most accessible, appealing franchises in the world,” Ames said. “This is also the ultimate action franchise, so there could be younger male viewers who haven’t seen it.”

Ad banners also will be posted on Star Wars-related Web sites, including Starwars.com, theForce.net, DarkHorizons.com and Mania.com. Maxim.com and SuperDeluxe.com have also created content pages for Spike’s Star Wars promotion effort.

Takeovers also will be staged on some Web sites to further push awareness of Stars Wars on Spike.

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