Bravo and BuzzFeed Are Creating Valentine's Day-Themed Content for New Con-Artist Series

NBCUniversal is continuing to make the most of its $400 million investment in BuzzFeed, as Bravo and BuzzFeed are creating a series of Valentine's Day-themed content to promote the launch of Bravo's new scripted series, Imposters. Bravo's third scripted series, about a female con artist (Inbar Lavi) who is being hunted by some of her former marks, "is a show that we feel is going to appeal to a broader audience, possibly a younger audience, and also a more gender-neutral audience. And when we look at who BuzzFeed is reaching, it aligns really well with their audience," said Maria Laino DeLuca, svp of consumer marketing for Bravo Media. The partnership includes a custom 360 video experience—Are You Dating an Imposter?—marking the first time BuzzFeed has created content in that space for a brand. In that video, users will answer a series of questions and determine whether their partner is an imposter. The content will debut Feb. 7, the same day that Imposters premieres, on BuzzFeed's Facebook and YouTube platforms. "One of the ways we're positioning this show is all about, do you know the person you're with? We thought this would be the perfect test for the 360, so it's all about, is your significant other an imposter? It's an interactive quiz that allows fans to take the choose-your-adventure-style quiz in a 360 way," said DeLuca. Since Imposters debuts one week before Valentine's Day, "Another big, appealing thing as a part of this was being able to hijack content around Valentine's Day. Thematically, that also played a huge role in how we developed some of this content," said DeLuca. "It really taps into relationships." The collaboration also includes a BuzzFeed post, "I Lived as My Alter Ego Character for a Week," which goes live today. On Thursday, the site will post an interactive quiz, "How Well Does Your Significant Other Really Know You?," in which users can send a link to their significant other so that both of them can complete it. Next Thursday, Feb. 2, BuzzFeed will launch a short comedy video, "Married People Take a Lie Detector Test." And on Feb. 6, the site will post "10 Kick Ass Valentine's Day Cards for Your Ex," a custom post spotlighting digital ecards. "The show has all these different layers to it. So by partnering with BuzzFeed and creating all of these different points of reaching our viewers or engagement, it gives us a lot of different ways in and helps us further explain what this show is all about," said DeLuca. "As part of BuzzFeed's ongoing work with Bravo we are creating new and innovative ways to tell stories that engage our audiences and have the ability to launch new programming like never before," said Lee Brown, BuzzFeed's chief revenue officer, in a statement. Since NBCUniversal's $400 million investment in BuzzFeed ($200 million in August 2015; another $200 million last November), BuzzFeed has worked with NBC and American Express on a Leap Day partnership in which NBC replaced 30 minutes of national ad spots during prime time with sponsored content, with BuzzFeed creating shareable content as part of the deal. During the Summer Olympics in Rio, BuzzFeed populated NBCOlympics' dedicated Snapchat Discover channel with behind-the-scenes content and short clips. And DeLuca said Bravo had noticed "great success" coming out of BuzzFeed's collaborations with NBCUniversal's other companies, like USA for Mr. Robot and Universal Pictures for the Tina Fey-Amy Poehler comedy Sisters.

Convergent TV

Bravo and BuzzFeed Are Creating Valentine's Day-Themed Content for New Con-Artist Series

Partnership for Imposters includes 360 video

Jason Lynch

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Jason Lynch