With summer in the rearview mirror, and a slate of new and returning-favorite shows rolling out during CBS Premiere Week (beginning Oct. 13), the network has been on the road encouraging consumers to cozy up to its programming, and lean into the simple joy of watching fall TV from the comfort of their couch. Enter: The Comfy Blue Sofa Tour. The nationwide trek, activated in partnership with furniture brand Lovesac, has been rolling into fairs, festivals, sporting events and landmarks—and stopping traffic in between with a 20-foot-long by 8-foot-high blue sofa installation.
“Our team was looking for: What’s our pumpkin spice latte? What’s our signal of fall? What’s our version of, when you see it, you think, ‘Oh, OK. Fall’s here,’” says Ariel Parker, evp-marketing at CBS. “Fall TV matters to us so much, and it’s a big event that we’re trying to build toward. Then came the notion of CBS becoming a ‘Comfy Blue Sofa.’”
The Comfy Blue Sofa (aka “CBS”) Tour kicked off in September with a “sit-and-repeat” press line at the “You’re Laughing at CBS: A Night of Sit-Down Comedy” event at NeueHouse in L.A., where celebs had their photos snapped on the oversized couch.
From there, CBS and Lovesac stopped at a range of family-oriented events leading up to CBS Premiere Week, all hosted in U.S. locales where some of the network’s most loyal viewers live. Among them: Missouri’s Great Forest Park Balloon Race; the Michigan vs. USC football game; Casey, IL, (a town known for its oversized roadside attractions); the Albuquerque Hot Air Balloon Festival; and the State Fair of Texas, the last stop, which wraps Oct. 17.
Each location prompted a slightly different activation strategy, but the gigantic sofa installation, as well as regular-sized blue Lovesac sectional couches (referred to by the brand as “Sactionals”), were always core to the experience. At some events, just the opportunity to sit down on a plush sofa was enough to keep people hanging around, including the Albuquerque festival, where seating is a premium. Accordingly, CBS selected activation locations based on where its viewers live and where its presence would be welcomed.
“It was both opportunistically where we were going to be anyway as a brand, and also just these stops that made a whole bunch of sense,” says Parker.
Beyond the Comfy Blue Sofas, CBS and Lovesac treated attendees to sneak peeks of upcoming shows; meet-and-greets with stars at select locations; photo ops, including with talent standees; live music performances; balloon art; and branded giveaways, like tees and mini Comfy Blue Sofas.
Other tour highlights included blue ice cream dished out in Casey, an overnight “Tracker”-themed glamping event hosted for influencers in Joshua Tree, CA, and a special, giant inflatable Comfy Blue Sofa that took a dip in Lake Erie along the coastline in Cleveland.
In addition to the tour, Lovesac has been bringing the Comfy Blue Sofa experience to its showrooms, where shoppers can sample CBS’s fall lineup while enjoying the comfort and embedded technology of the brand’s Sactionals.
“Lovesac is such a family-friendly brand, and it just felt like a perfect match of our brand values, and some relevance as well,” Parker says. “CBS is almost a 100-year-old brand. So we’re trying to find brand partners that allow us to get to different demos than we would be normally hitting through our own channels and really get to different audiences and placements.”
Parker says earned media, social impressions and on-the-ground sentiments from attendees will all be analyzed to gauge the impact of the campaign, but early results already point to high viewership ratings.
Couch potatoes for the win.
Spin Through the Comfy Blue Sofa Tour:
Photos: Courtesy of CBS and CNC Agency
