Here!-Say Blitz Hits N.Y.

Gay community-targeted Here! is funding a nearly quarter-million-dollar, multimedia campaign to inform New Yorkers that it is, well, here.

The premium service was launched on Time Warner Cable in New York and New Jersey, among other Time Warner markets, on June 5. Now Here! is initiating its largest target-market push.

The creative takes the same strategic tack as networks like Home Box Office, which saturate a target market with images of a hit show, such as Entourage. Here!’s creative will center on images from Dante’s Cove, now entering its second season and described as a “gay-themed supernatural soap opera.”

The campaign was launched Aug. 11, with a media buy split between outdoor advertising in key neighborhoods and local cable and broadcast air time.

Time Warner has placed signs in phone kiosks in such target areas as Chelsea, the West and East Village, Hell’s Kitchen, the Lower East Side and Midtown.

The network has taken out ads in prominent gay publications such as H/X, Next, and The Blade; as well as in such mainstream publications as Time Out New York and New York magazine.

Local broadcast ads will begin airing Aug. 21, and the network has also bought weekend ad slots on select cable networks such as Bravo.

Direct mail will target Time Warner Cable’s key neighborhoods by ZIP code, providing subscription information.

The media blitz will last through Sept. 14.