Indiantelevision.com Team

(27 February 2007 6:00 pm)

MUMBAI: Promax/BDA has teamed up with The CW Network and BLiNK to launch a college competition - 'Making the Cut' (title to be confirmed) and calls for undergrads to submit their original multiplatform trailers and commercials promoting The CW's television series Supernatural for the chance to jumpstart their creative careers with a CW internship and invaluable exposure.

"We are delighted to expand our educational program with such a great opportunity," said Rosenblum. "One of Promax/BDA's biggest orders is the outreach and mentoring of students-tomorrow's future marketers and designers-and this innovative college competition is a fantastic way to achieve our goal."

Beginning 1 March, undergraduate students may visit http://www.promax.tv/studentalliance to obtain the official rules and register their multiplatform promotional trailers (up to 90 seconds in length). While participants will be provided with program footage from which to draw, they are encouraged to incorporate imagination and other visual tools available to them.

Promax/BDA and The CW will identify finalists and feature their work this June during a special conference session produced by BLiNK's Seth Berkowitz, who initiated the project after participating in and winning a similar Promax competition called "Battle of the Promo Cutters." Recognizing the opportunity to identify and develop new talent, Berkowitz brought the idea to Promax/BDA when the organization launched its Student Alliance in 2006, and merely needed a network partner to make it work.

""Reaching out to this audience is also extremely important to our network, especially with Nielsen now monitoring college viewership," added The CW Senior creative executive, on-air promotion Anthony Armenise. "To complement that with the opportunity to discover the next great promo maven is a win-win for us."

"The CW was a perfect fit," explained Berkowitz. "Its primary audience is skewed toward the very group that would participate in such a competition, and the network has a number of shows with a strong appeal to that group. Plus, it's a new network, which gives the students an even greater creative opportunity."

The CW's Supernatural takes viewers on a journey into the dark world of the unexplained that delivers the terror of films like The Ring and The Grudge.

Promax/BDA, also recently announced that former president Bill Clinton will be a keynote speaker at its 52nd annual North American conference in 12-14 June in Manhattan. The complete agenda will be announced in the coming weeks.