• by Lynn Russo Whylly , January 31, 2008

The Not-Quite-Naked City

Lifetime television set 160 “Naked” women loose in New York City. Okay, well, they weren’t exactly naked. Actually not naked at all. They paraded around the Big Apple by bus and on foot Jan. 3 wearing bathrobes over their seductive winter coats (with hoods, sometimes!) waving their bras and handing out “Happy Nude Year” cards to promote the new reality show How to Look Good Naked hosted by Carson Kressley.

The “March of the Robes” was part of what Lifetime is calling the largest experiential marketing campaign for a reality series in network history. In addition to the shocking spectacle of robed marchers, they set up funhouse mirrors and handed out compacts at strategic locations in New York, Los Angeles and Miami, and passed out their “Nude Year” cards in 11 malls nationwide. Overall, 250,000 cards and 20,000 compacts were distributed.

The campaign also featured partnerships with JetBlue, elf Cosmetics, Macy’s, Maidenform, Redbook, Keri Renewal and Vespa. Mall kiosks, exclusive content — including a cringe-inducing “Feel Good and Flaunt It” photo contest — billboards, cable, TV, radio and print ads in the likes of Entertainment Weekly, Peopleand OK! rounded out the effort.

Their naked ambition seems to have paid off. Lifetime reports that Naked generated the highest ratings of a reality series premiere among adults 18–49 and women 18–34 in the network’s 24-year history.