• by Paul Gough , June 13, 2003

To promote next week's Third Annual BET Awards, the network is trying to do more with less.

The BET Awards show is important for the cable network. Last year's event delivered a 28.3 rating and 2.6 million African American households. It was the best-rated entertainment special in the networks' 23-year history. The BET Awards regularly outperform all other awards telecasts- including the Grammys and the NAACP Image Awards - among African Americans. This year, BET wants to repeat or beat that rating when the Third Annual BET Awards airs live the evening of June 24.

And it's doing that with a campaign that mixes on- and off-air promotions, employing barter deals with other Viacom networks, radio commercials, print and guerrilla marketing. The "no-frills" look to the campaign is more of a concept than reality. Kelli Lawson, BET's executive vice president of marketing and communication, notes that BET is spending money off-channel. But it's true that BET has less money this year to promote the awards than it did last year, Lawson said. She said the campaign's no-frills focus is meant to convey the impression that BET is going all out on the awards show itself - it features performances by 50 Cent, R.Kelly and Yolanda Adams, among others - that it doesn't have any money left over to promote the thing.

"We want people to focus on the show," Lawson said.

Lawson said the awards ceremony and the hoopla surrounding it does have star power. This year's nominees include many stars in the fields of music, sports and TV/film acting. Two special awards will be handed out as well, a humanitarian honor to former basketball star Magic Johnson and a lifetime achievement award to musician James Brown. Some of the marketing power comes from the red carpet and ceremony itself, which attracts a lot of free press. And at least 35 radio stations will be broadcasting live from the event, which will be held at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, Calif.

The traditional advertising campaign brings back a character used in last year's ads. The character tells viewers of the spot that BET has spared no expense in this year's awards ceremony - no expense but advertising that is, which means that he's got to be creative and energetic to spread the word. Spots show him running after a bus, holding a BET Awards Show placard in place of another on the side while it drives away, and wearing a walking billboard sign with what appears to be nothing else on.

The majority of spots and promotions are running through barter deals with other Viacom networks, including CBS, UPN and TNN. One promotion involves two African American characters on a CBS daytime drama. The sweepstakes offers a chance for viewers to attend the event, entering the contest via a Web site.

"There's a huge amount of Viacom synergistic efforts," Lawson said. There's also a strong out-of-home effort, which is executed completely through Viacom out-of-home properties. But since Viacom's radio subsidiary, Infinity, doesn't have that many stations that target African Americans, BET purchased time on other stations that have an urban audience. Print ads have appeared in Jet, Essence, Savoy and other magazines, including Entertainment Weekly, which Lawson said was because BET wanted to reach people who are interested in entertainment and not a strictly African American audience.

A barbershop and salon promotion is being used to give out smocks and capes in the top 15 African American markets, with a contest to the barbershop or salon that gets the most people to enter a contest. There's a promotion with Magic Johnson's theaters and restaurants in Los Angeles, Houston, Atlanta, New York and Cleveland. And a nightclub promotion begins next week with the clubs doing a BET Awards night where patrons will learn who the nominees are for various awards. A promotion with Jet magazine gave away a trip to the event.

Non-traditional marketing has always been a part of the mix, but Lawson said that in this campaign it's taken on a bigger role. "We've always done some of it but this year we've taken it up a notch," she said.