How Huffington Post is promoting 'Political Animals' on social

By Natan Edelsburg 

We recently wrote about USA’s Political Animals social TV strategy. In addition to a fake news site to generate social buzz, the network is also partnering with a real news site to capture the zeitgeist of the timely, limited-series drama. The Huffington Post, which will be launching a live video network of its own soon, has partnered with the show to allow its users to vote on real-life political animals. We interviewed Lauren Kapp, senior vice president, global strategy, marketing and communications at the Huffington Post Media Group.

This marketing partnership between the two is clever and highlights the Huffington Post as not just a news blog, but a social platform that’s capable of selling social TV to networks. While the activation lives on their website similar to how a news article would, it clearly states at the bottom that it’s a sponsored post.

Lost Remote: How will Huffington Post be marketing the show and how will social be used?

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Lauren Kapp: We were aware of POLITICAL ANIMALS via the pre-premiere buzz, including mention of it in Maureen Dowd’s “State of Cool” piece, and discussed with USA the idea to create a list of America’s biggest “political animals” of all time. With Huffington Post’s highly engaged community for opinion and conversation, and USA’s tremendous reach, we felt this partnership would provide a great opportunity to start a dialogue about power and leadership. As we prepare to decide on the next chapter in America’s future, there’s a lot to be learned from those who defined our political past, so we felt that it was a unique platform from which to reflect on what it means to be a “political animal” at a time when leadership is on the minds of all Americans.

LR: How will Huffington Post be marketing the show and how will social be used?
Kapp: We were aggressive in marketing the show and promoting the list via Facebook and Twitter. We felt that the subject matter would be of tremendous interest with our audience and that they could have fun with it and learn from it at the same time. Social media was a natural means to engage our audience with the list, segueing nicely to very interactive content.

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