TNT Brings LA Underworld to NY Underground

Turner’s marketing team is turning New York’s Grand Central Terminal into the Los Angeles underworld to promote new Jerry Bruckheimer police drama Dark Blue starring Dylan McDermott.

Subway cars will be wrapped in TNT posters for Dark Blue while the station itself will play host to video motion boards and staircase signage. The marketing campaign breaks June 30; the show launches July 15.

Subway car exteriors will be wrapped in posters of the Los Angeles skyline, while the inside of the cars will feature pictures of cops peering through the windows. The month-long marketing campaign will reach an estimated 40 million impressions.

Tricia Melton, senior VP of entertainment marketing at Turner Entertainment Networks, spearheaded the campaign. “When we did consumer insights on the show, the undercover world is fascinating to people,” Melton said. “That the guy pumping gas could be an undercover agent being watched by the guy in the convenience store. How do we bring that to life? We literally go underground in the subway.”

And why promote a show based in Los Angeles in New York? “L.A. is too obvious,” she joked. One piece of signage sure to trip up the tourists: the message on the steps of Grand Central that reads, “You’re entering underground L.A. Watch your step.”

Entertainment marketing firm Crew Creative, based in L.A., worked on the art execution. Turner conducted the buy with CBS Corp. which holds the franchise for advertising at the site.

In Los Angeles, meanwhile, Turner is taking a group of DJs from across the country on a tour of real places where undercover stings have occurred. A former undercover agent will talk the DJs through details that they’ll broadcast on their separate stations.

The network also is launching an online game to promote Dark Blue at TNT.tv. The game asks viewers to take part in a psychological exam to see if they have what it takes to be an undercover agent, with such questions as: “If you were undercover and you saw a crime, would you break cover to stop it?” and “What would you do if your father was embezzling?” Turner is working with Yahoo and Yahoo Games on the digital aspects of the campaign. It declined to disclose the cost of the media buy.