An Investigation with Investigation Discovery Offers Clues

New Discovery Networks Channel Uses Interactive Appeal

By Anne Becker -- Broadcasting & Cable, 2/9/2008 11:28:00 AM

Investigation Discovery, the channel that launched Jan. 27 using Discovery Times Channel’s bandwidth, started a consumer marketing campaign that invites viewers to solve a crime through deciphering clues on TV, online and on their phones.

The campaign centers on a missing-person case being solved by fictional homicide detective John Brannan.

On-air clues will ask viewers to get voicemail messages, visit microsites such as www.detectivebrannan.com and go to Investigation Discovery’s Web site to find more facts on the story line and eventually solve the case.

Three 60-second on-air spots are scheduled to run through February, followed by five more that will debut this spring. Online, the network created a fictional blog for Brannan and posted virtual tours of his office and documents from the investigation.

The campaign was created by Los Angeles-based Stun Creative’s design studio, Buster Design, for Investigation Discovery. The company retained Mike Bonvillain, director of photography for ABC’s Lost and box-office hit Cloverfield, to lend the spots the feel of having been shot with a handheld camera. Cliff Martinez, who composed soundtracks for Traffic and Solaris, was brought on to create mysterious music for the spots.

"To excite our viewers about the channel’s new brand, we wanted to draw them in through an activity emblematic of Investigation Discovery," senior vice president of marketing Derek Koenig said.

The campaign recalls one that Court TV (now renamed truTV) launched in 2006 to promote its show, Parco PI. The network created a fictional blog and fake billboard ads written as Dear John letters from a woman spurned, and it placed calls to morning news shows about the woman in an effort to create buzz for the show.