Werewolves Hit New York City to Plug ABC Halloween Programming

ABC Family is going guerrilla with werewolves and a bus to promote its Halloween programming

Werewolves will soon be invading New York. It’s not the making of a new horror movie, but part of an ABC Family stunt to promote the network’s annual Halloween programming event.

People dressed as grisly werewolves will ride atop a double-decker New York City sightseeing bus from Oct. 17-21 to create excitement around ABC Family’s 13 Nights of Halloween, which airs Oct. 19-31, and an original movie, “Nature of the Beast,” showing at 8 p.m. ET on Oct. 21.

Street teams riding the bus wrapped in Halloween-themed artwork will hand out 50,000 plastic fangs and postcards with tune-in information to passengers and to passersby. Stops include high traffic locations such as Times Square, Union Square and Columbus Circle, John Rood, senior vice president of marketing of ABC Family, said.

“We wanted to make a presence in New York,” he said.

ABC Family is also using the tour to promote Time Warner Cable’s recent channel change, which moved the network to channel 38. It is also building off its new tagline, “A New Kind of Family,” developed to show that it has appeal to a wide audience.

“As a family channel, we can open up our audience to all ages,” Rood said. “So [targeting] all ages allows us to do these kinds of high profile, outdoor street events because we are interested in all of those folks.”

“Often when you are trying to come into a cluttered marketplace, it’s good to give people something to talk about,” added Matt Britton, chief of brand development for Mr. Youth, whose agency is handling the promotion. “We think this will really raise awareness.”

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