LOS ANGELES: Cable network TLC has selected Magnet Communications to manage PR for its popular TV series Trading Spaces and Trading Spaces: Family. Magnet is also expected to ink a one-year agency-of- record contract for TLC itself.
Magnet will perform all media and talent relations for the program, which features a host, two designers, and two carpenters who travel to viewers' homes. On the show, two sets of homeowners redecorate a room in their neighbors' home on a $1,000 budget, sometimes with disastrous results.
The agency's first task, promotion of a two-hour special in which designers were given $50,000 each, was a success, as the show's ratings proved to be TLC's highest ever. The program, Trading Spaces $100 Grand, was the highest-rated program in the 8pm-11pm time slot on Sunday, October 5 among the key female demographic, including broadcast, pay cable, and ad-supported networks.
TLC had used a small Washington, DC-based PR shop since the show's inception, but according to Bronagh Hanely, VP of communications at TLC, the network wanted a firm with a more national scope.
Lou Casale, SVP and GM of Magnet's LA office, will manage the account.
"In general, our job is continuing the excitement and buzz for a show that has become a cultural phenomenon," Casale said.
