A vamped-up me!

It seemed very important that to truly conduct vampire research I should 'vamp myself up' over at the True Blood site. Much fun...

Calling all vampire-loving, synthetic blood drinking bloggers!

Err, a slightly bizarre, but very clever campaign that takes product placement to a whole new level. A new show soon to air on HBO in the U.S sees vampires living among humans thanks to the creation of a synthetic blood substitute in Japan. And at the same time a new drink is to launch in the real world called True Blood..you guessed it, a blood substitute from Japan!

Entertainment agency, Campfire discovered that vampire enthusiasts (yes they do exist!) are no strangers to the internet + are in fact keen bloggers. So they shared sneak previews of the script with them to encourage comment + discussion in the various forums + blogs that they frequent - resulting in huge buzz online around the show. The next phase saw a second website launch, along with TV, online + print ads plus experiential activity communicating TruBeverage.com – making the explicit link between the show + the drink. The campaign was a huge success with stores + vending machines across New York + L.A selling out of True Blood. And now this week sees a full True Blood website launch containing episode guides + making the link between show + drink crystal clear. The show itself premiers on HBO on 7th September.