Do you trust Brittanya or Nikki?

Reality TV is about real people doing real stuff, right? I mean, my wife talks about the characters on The Real World and The Hills like she went to high school with them (I would have said college, but I realize that would be stretching it for some of these stars).

The point is, like friends, we learn to trust or distrust characters we see on these programs. That's why we were excited to work with vh1 recently to help promote their show Rock of Love Bus with Bret Michaels.
The show concept is simple (no offense). Bret is a rock star and he needs to find love. Finding love is hard because Bret's always on the road touring. So, it made sense to bring along 20 or so women (they call them girls) on a bus to figure out who would be his life partner. If a girl is not compatible with Bret, she is asked to leave the bus. All very civil.

To help promote this concept and give these characters a stronger connection with their fans, CityVoter worked with the show to develop guides to where these girls live and hang out. The girls created guides to their favorite boutiques, beauty salons, and partying hot spots. These guides certainly give a you a flavor of each hometown. Places like Oxnard in Ventura County, Vegas, Johnson City, and Honolulu.

More and more frequently, television productions are being designed to connect to local audiences and advertisers. Promotions like we did with vh1 can take national concepts and make them very real for the audience -- especially the local businesses. How many times have you been to a restaurant and seen the famous people on the wall who have eaten there? This web promotion should evolve to be similar in its design and intent. For businesses on these guides, it's driving a nice amount of traffic. We're continuing to explore this concept with home improvement, travel, food, and beauty cable shows. There are lot of interesting ways this can develop.