The Blacklist Magazine Covers Trade Campaign 2016

NBC created a comprehensive marketing campaign to ensure the continued awareness for its No. 1 drama series, “The Blacklist,” for the kick off of its second season.

The network used extensive on-air, print, outdoor and digital platforms to increase momentum and anticipation for the series and cement Raymond “Red” Reddington (Emmy Award-winning actor James Spader) as a national icon and the ultimate anti-hero.

For on-air purposes, a round-up of Red’s favorite one-liners were set to AC/DC’s classic rock song “Back in Black” and were in heavy rotation on all of NBC’s dayparts — daytime, prime time and late night — as well as the cable networks of NBCUniversal.

On the print side, some of the top magazine titles in the world had a faux facelift as a specially created “Blacklist” cover “take over” for such publications as Entertainment Weekly, TV Guide, Us Weekly, Rolling Stone, the New Yorker, Vanity Fair and Playboy.

There was a national outdoor presence, New York and Los Angeles being the focal points of the outdoor campaign. In New York, there was a heavy bus and subway presence, as well as billboards in Times Square, Penn Station and outside the Lincoln Tunnel. There was also heavy bus exposure in Los Angeles as well as high-profile wallscapes on Sunset Boulevard, the 101 Freeway and the busy intersection of Highland and Franklin avenues.

Several digital and social media partners promoted the show’s “cover campaigns” on their respective sites and social handles.

I acted as Lead Art Director managing the project and production as well as designing several of the covers. The campaign went on to win a Gold Promax BDA Award.