Looking to strengthen its connection with tough-to-reach millennial audiences, Oxygen is taking the digital route to offer early access to the first episode of season two of Sisterhood of Hip Hop about a week before its scheduled debut on regular TV on June 9.
In a first for Oxygen, the network’s pre-linear, digital premiere of the docu-series' new season will hit the Internet on Wednesday (June 3) on Oxygen.com, via Oxygen’s TV Everywhere apps, and will also give viewers a chance to access it without pay TV credentials at Bossip.com. The episode will also be available in the early digital window on set-top VOD and via Hulu.
A big aim of the digital access campaign is to broaden access to the premiere of season two and to cultivate interest in future episodes.
“We’re really trying for a wide sampling opportunity for the millennials,” Ellen Stone, executive vice president of marketing at Oxygen and Bravo, said.
Bossip.com, a site dedicated to African American pop culture and entertainment, will be the only external Web site to post the season two premiere in the early digital window. The site will also provide clips and other editorial coverage around the series.
“We have had a lot of success with them [Bossip.com] in terms of engaging their audience with our content and our programming,” Stone said, noting that the site has an audience of about 3.5 million. “While we wanted it to be a good sampling opportunity, we also wanted to make sure that we'd hit it right, and Bossip was hands-down the place to go."
For the pre-linear premiere, Oxygen will be inserting ads promoting its own shows rather than selling a separate ad inventory. “It’s really all Oxygen, all the time,” Stone said.
Oxygen is also pairing the season two TV premiere with a Watch & Win sweepstakes, whereby the network will post a special hashtag during the show. Viewers who see it and share it on Twitter will automatically be entered to win $25,000.
Season two of Sisterhood of Hip Hop is scheduled to premiere on Oxygen on Tuesday, June 9 at 9 p.m. ET/PT.
Additional information about Oxygen’s pre-linear digital campaign, and how it blends with a broader TV trends, will be featured in the Next TV section of the June 8 issue of Multichannel News and Broadcasting & Cable.
