A+E's HISTORY Harnesses the Brand Power of Legendary Corvettes

To tell the wild tale of the new series amp8212 which promises to capture an automotivegeared audience of up to 80 million people amp8212 you have to rewind 30 years Robert Friedman pictured below chief executive officer at Bungalow Media Entertainment was a marketing executive at VH1 during its early days The music network was searching for a way to define its brand while capturing the attention of MTV viewers growing out of their rockvideo teenage yearsFriedman recounts the day in 1989 when a promotional company walked through VH139s doors to talk about a unique collection of 36 pristine Chevrolet Corvettes The remarkable collection had one shining example of the revered American sports car for every year since its unveiling in 1953 The only car left out was the 1983 Corvette since for that one year no Corvette was releasedamp160 HISTORY told the story of the missing 1983 in a onehour special called The Lost Corvette which aired during its 2019 Car Week In the special the 1983 was recreated based on old designs of what the car could or would have looked like combined with modernday horsepower and judged by the original Corvette designersFriedman immediately recognized the potential to associate the VH1 brand with the style speed and sex appeal of the 39Vette quotWe decided to make some noisequot said Friedman quotWe created one of the greatest giveaways of all time where we gave away all 36 of the Corvettes to a single personquotThe promotion was a smashing success amp8212 producing millions of entries significant revenues from the entry fees and a substantial boost to VH139s brand identity In an intriguing plot twist the entire collection was sold to the pop artist Peter Max who put the vehicles in storage Those 36 classics amp8212 with all their historical monetary and brand power amp8212 would collect dust in a few different New York City garages and warehouses for nearly three decadesBranded Content 20Enter Chris Mazzilli a Corvette enthusiast par excellence He understands that fellow car nuts like to ask questions about his Corvettes when he displays them at car shows But Mazzilli took notice in June 2014 when one particular zealot curiously representing a group of real estate investors spent 10 minutes sprawled out under the chassis of one of Mazzilli39s vehicles quotHe asked a million questions about the arcane distinctions between the 3953 3954 and 3955 modelsquot said Mazzilli The gentleman Peter Heller of New York39s Heller Investments was asking a lot of questions because amp8212 lo and behold amp8212he had stumbled upon the lost 36 CorvettesHeller turned to Mazzilli who owns Dream Car Restorations a fullservice restoration shop in Hicksville NY to assess the value of the cars and what it would take to bring them back to pristine shape Mazzilli39s Long Island facility specializes in restoring American muscle carsquotI told Heller that these cars have a significant historyquot Mazzilli said quotI think there39s a TV show herequot Mazzilli explained to Heller who had bought the collection that he had relationships with a few production companies in the cityIn a true story that would be unbelievable as a Hollywood movie Mazzilli has known producer Robert Friedman since the 1980s Mazzilli also owns the Gotham Comedy Club in Manhattan quotIt39s one of the craziest storiesquot said Mazzilli quotIt all came full circle I39ve known Bobby since his early days at MTVquotPromotional HorsepowerIn the decades since Friedman left MTV and VH1 he would go on to senior executive positions at Radical Media New Line Cinema and most recently Bungalow Media Entertainment the company he founded Over the years he perfected the art of promotional media amp8212 especially with matchmaking Past projects connected Austin Powers to Virgin Airlines and The New York Times39s 36 Hours series with the Travel Channel quotTo do branded content well you need to integrate the DNA of a brand into the productquot said FriedmanquotWhen we heard about the collection and the great history around the 36 classic cars we thought there was no better platform than HISTORY39s DRIVE block DRIVE airs on Sunday mornings on HISTORY and Saturday evenings on FYI Network and is a premium destination for automotive enthusiastsquot said Jim Hoffman executive vice president programming partnershipsquotThis is the perfect stormquot said Friedman quotYou apply the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval with the HISTORY brand to this series and there39s a great historical legacy of Corvette You can39t do better than thatquotquotBrands not only have the chance to be integrated into the program but also have an opportunity to take part in a yearlong sweepstakeamp160 Content will direct viewers to register to win driven by ads running across HISTORY and FYI39s DRIVE and digital propertiesamp160 In addition we have taken the show on the road at events like the New York Car Show and SEMAquot Hoffman addedFriedman believes that advertisers have the potential to reach up to 80 million in a coveted targeted demographic of auto buyers and enthusiasts including millions of Corvette owners HISTORY and Bungalow Media Entertainment are now in discussions with several potential brand partnersBut the heart and soul of the project remains America39s muchbeloved fiberglassbody firebreathing and affordable sports car The Corvette39s appeal transcends the primary demographic of middleage highearning males to virtually everybody who drives quotIt39s probably the most iconic sports car everquot said Mazzilli quotThe design is a true work of artquotPhoto credit Nicolas SavignatUnsplashClick the social buttons to share this story with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers

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A+E's HISTORY Harnesses the Brand Power of Legendary Corvettes

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Bradley Berman

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A+E's HISTORY Harnesses the Brand Power of Legendary Corvettes

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Bradley Berman

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