{"id":1985,"date":"2001-06-10T19:04:00","date_gmt":"2001-06-10T17:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/crashdown.com\/news\/2001\/06\/roswell-mention-in-imarketing-news\/"},"modified":"2001-06-10T19:04:00","modified_gmt":"2001-06-10T17:04:00","slug":"roswell-mention-in-imarketing-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crashdown.com\/news\/2001\/06\/roswell-mention-in-imarketing-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Roswell mention in iMarketing News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thanks to Kivarita for this :)<\/p>\n

Trek Fan Relationships Guide UPN Series Promo Efforts
\nJune 07, 2001<\/p>\n

By: Scott Hovanyetz
\nSenior Reporter<\/p>\n

Putting a new spin on customer relationship management, television network
\nUPN is allowing feedback from fans of the Star Trek franchise to guide its
\nmarketing efforts.
\nFan furor over a television promotion for the upcoming Star Trek series
\n“Enterprise” recently led the network to change the advertisement in mid
\nrun.<\/p>\n

The ad for the series — slated to debut in the fall starring Scott Bakula
\nas captain of the predecessor to the starship Enterprise — ran during the
\nfinal episode of “Star Trek: Voyager” on May 23. The ad copy mentioned
\nseveral well-known characters from the franchise’s storied history,
\nincluding Kirk, Spock, Picard and Janeway.<\/p>\n

But the ad failed to mention Sisko, a character from the Star Trek
\nsyndicated series “Deep Space Nine” who is played by Avery Brooks as captain
\nof a frontier space station. Fans of the show, which ran from 1993 to 1999,
\nfelt snubbed, and they expressed their opinions on a Star Trek fan-forum
\nmessage board, TrekBBS.com.<\/p>\n

As it turned out, a UPN executive was watching.<\/p>\n

The following week, Bob Bouknight, UPN’s senior vice president for creative
\nadvertising, sent a message to TrekToday.com, a TrekBBS sister site
\nfeaturing news and rumors about the franchise. Bouknight told TrekToday.com
\nthat he had heard the concerns of die-hard fans and would take action.<\/p>\n

“Some of your members objected that Sisko should have been mentioned as well
\nsince he was a captain, but as another one of your members rightly guessed,
\nthe more well-known characters in the Star Trek saga were named,” Bouknight
\nsaid.<\/p>\n

He added that the characters mentioned in the promo were picked because UPN
\nmarketers believed they were more recognizable to viewers and not “as a snub
\nto DS9 or Avery Brooks.”<\/p>\n

On May 30, a new version of the “Enterprise” promo premiered — this time
\nwith a mention of Sisko — to the delight of fans, who praised Bouknight in
\nfollow-up messages on the forum.<\/p>\n

In the spirit of maintaining personal contact with hard-core Star Trek fans,
\na group noted both for their fanaticism and for being hard to please,
\nBouknight is taking questions directly from viewers.<\/p>\n

Fans can submit questions about UPN’s marketing of the Star Trek franchise
\nthrough a form on TrekToday.com. Bouknight will post responses depending on
\nhis availability, according to TrekToday.com.<\/p>\n

“Obviously, this is a property that is very near and dear to the hearts of
\nthe fans,” a UPN spokesman said. “We need to be respectful of how they feel.
\nThey let us know, and we responded.”<\/p>\n

While this is the first time online fan feedback has directly affected a UPN
\nmarketing campaign, it is not the first time fan crusades have changed
\nnetwork behavior. Fans have rescued the sci-fi show “Roswell” from oblivion
\ntwice.<\/p>\n

The show, which debuted on the WB in 1999, was rumored to face cancellation
\nafter its first season. In response, fans sent bottles of hot sauce to the
\nnetwork — the aliens featured on the show favor the condiment — and
\nconvinced WB executives that “Roswell” was worth a second shot.<\/p>\n

In its second season, “Roswell” faced cancellation again. This time fans
\nsent hot sauce to UPN, believing that because the network had picked up
\nanother WB fan favorite, “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” it was a logical choice
\nto rescue “Roswell.”<\/p>\n

UPN picked up “Roswell” for another season in May. As a thank-you to UPN,
\nfans have set up a page on the fan site Crashdown.com to encourage fellow
\nfans to donate money to the Pediatric Cancer Foundation in the network’s
\nname. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thanks to Kivarita for this :) Trek Fan Relationships Guide UPN Series Promo Efforts June 07, 2001 By: Scott Hovanyetz<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-1985","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-roswell"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crashdown.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1985","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crashdown.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crashdown.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crashdown.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crashdown.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1985"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/crashdown.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1985\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crashdown.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crashdown.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crashdown.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1985"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crashdown.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=1985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}