• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, June 28, 2013

Showtime is taking over The New York Times, or at least its digital ad inventory, to promote its forthcoming series, “Ray Donovan,” set to debut July 3. The campaign, developed by Medialets and placed by OMD, includes a full takeover of the NYT iPad app on June 30, as well as interactive banner ads which are already live on the NYT Web site.
 
Showtime’s NYT iPad app takeover includes full-page interstitial ad units that appear whenever the user navigates between pages. Expandable interactive video banners allow the user to view a trailer for “Ray Donovan.” Users can tap the video at any time to pause it and bring up informational hotspots about the series and characters. As the trailer concludes, viewers are invited to download the entire first episode for free, download the trailer’s soundtrack from iTunes, and download the Showtime Anytime app from the iTunes stores.
 
Viewers can also click on a link to “Meet Ray,” which leads them to a video character sketch of the main character, a Hollywood fixer played with stolid menace by Liev Schreiber. His father, a charismatic, volatile psychopath, is played by Jon Voight. The series centers on events which unfold after Voight’s character is unexpectedly released from prison and returns to settle some old scores in Los Angeles’ capacious seedy underbelly.
 
The New York Times has unveiled a number of creative digital advertising placements for TV launches in recent months. In February, the NYT Web site helped promote National Geographic’s “Killing Lincoln” with a custom advertising unit that incorporates historic content drawn from the NYT’s own archives, available digitally via its TimesMachine platform.

The "Lincoln" custom unit consisted of a half-page with overlay showing the front page of The New York Times from April 15, 1865, with the historic headline “President Lincoln Shot by an Assassin.” Readers who interacted with the ad unit could explore other NYT front pages from the era via TimesMachine, as well as view a trailer and watch behind-the-scenes footage from the film.

advertisement

advertisement