• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, September 7, 2005

Yahoo! debuted The WB's premiere fall series, "Supernatural," on Tuesday night at 9:00 p.m., a full week before it is scheduled to air on The WB Television Network.

The promotional exploit is the highlight of a larger effort combining online, television, and guerrilla advertising, to promote the tale of two brothers who face evil forces as they search for their missing father--a program The WB's Chairman Garth Ancier called "The number one priority for us this fall."

The move is part of a general trend toward previewing television shows online before they debut on the air, in order to generate buzz and word-of-mouth. In March, the social networking site MySpace.com--which has since been acquired by News Corp.--Webcast the complete premiere episode of NBC's comedy "The Office," more than a week ahead of its scheduled broadcast pilot. That same month, Yahoo! streamed the first episode of Showtime Networks' series "Fat Actress" simultaneously with the cable television debut. Before that, in August 2004, Warner Bros. let America Online stream the first episode of its teen drama, "Jack & Bobby," before it aired on TV.

Yahoo!, currently led by former Warner Bros. honcho Terry Semel, has never before streamed Warner Bros. content, nor has it streamed a television series before it first aired on TV. Ancier said the network tapped Yahoo! rather than fellow Time Warner company AOL to stream the show, because Yahoo! promised better exposure for the new program. "We naturally went with the partner who showed the most interest in this project and the partner who promised us the greatest exposure, and that happened to be Yahoo!," he said. Ancier added that Yahoo! promised to display online impressions promoting the show before the pilot episode airs on Monday.

Yahoo! users can stream the pilot episode of "Supernatural," on demand until next Monday, one day before it airs on The WB. Some of the more creative guerrilla elements of The WB's promotion include coffee cup sleeves inscribed with images drawn in thermal ink that appear when a hot beverage heats up the cup. They'll be available at 500 cafes in New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago. The network is also planning "Supernatural" messages on bar mirrors, in video game stores, and in movie theaters, as well as "Supernatural" napkins and coasters in hundreds of bars in the top 10 TV markets. Rubber glow-in-the-dark bracelets are also being distributed in front of movie theaters in New York and Los Angeles.