Ranging a great variety of phobias, Obsessed gives viewers a chance to see first-hand how an obsession can radically affect a person's life. The challenge was to convey the torment and struggle individuals with obsessive-compulsive disorders deal with everyday within a: 30 second radio spot. Through layered sound design and key episodes clips, we were able to build a very visceral audio experience. Always using our A&E brand filter as our creative guide, the creative strategy was to produce a campaign element that was unexpected and distinctive, and most importantly, challenged the viewer.

To maximise the message, the creative was carried into all on and off air spots, radio, news & entertainment print and out of home. On TV, we targeted summertime dramas, placing local spots in key dramas across competitors. Early on, we noticed many viewers were coming from TNT, so as a running change we increased exposure in the top 12 markets with an additional spot run in weeks two and three.

The campaign also included a vast, 5-week partnership with Barnes & Noble offering The Glades script as a free download for e-readers. The digital marketing efforts of the campaign consisted of page takeovers, video units and social applications which ran on entertainment, news and other site categories. Rich media units, including high-impact page takeovers, ran across a multitude of sites on the day of air to provide last minute reminders to tune in.

THE GLADES premiered Sunday, July 11th, garnering a record-breaking 3.6 million viewers, becoming the most-watched original drama series telecast in A&E’s history. Of those 3.6 million, 1.44 million were in our demo 25-54 and 1.6 million of those viewers were "new" to the network (meaning they had not watched programming on the network in the last month). Of our demo, A25-54, 660,000 were "new" to the network. Competitively, we remained close to TNT's new offering, Memphis Beat, which aired to a 1.5 against the demo. We were also close to USA's new offering, Covert Affairs, which scored a 1.72 against the demo.