So Channel 4 in the UK have a new TV show out called Skins which is about a group of teenagers.  The show has been heavily promoted through the usual channels - loads of trailors, print advertising and outdoor media (there's a massive backlit billboard on Old St).  However, they've also done a bit of social media marketing.

First up there's a myspace profile - which is actually hidden behind a splash screen warning you of adult content.  The splash screen doesn't have the usual myspace navigation, ads and so-on on it - so either they've done some serious hacking to the template or they've made special arrangements with myspace UK.  The profile has been customised nicely and has plenty of embedded myspace videos, a slide show, links to the e4 download site and background images to customise your own profile.  One clever thing they've done is to create profiles for all the characters in the show and put them at the top of their friends list.  The show has 18000 friends already so either they've been using a bot or the profile has got pretty good traction.  Apparently they used people recruited on myspace to film the risque party trailor and they also link to the skins myspace from the main Channel 4 microsite so it's quite possible they've been building friends up organically. 

Secondly, the show has a profile on youtube with some video clips up there.  At the moment the number of views (1225) and subscribers (31) is pretty low - maybe because they've been using myspace video instead of youtube to embed content in their myspace profile.  It would be good if they uploaded previews and episode highlights or something rather than just a single collection of random clips.

The final thing they've done is built a flickr profile for Tony which doesn't work all that well as it mixes a set of photos of the launch party, with a set of photos from the fictional party shown in the trailor which kind of breaks down the logic of this being the character's photos.

It seems like people are pretty clued up about myspace marketing these days but the way the likes of flickr and youtube can be effectively used is less well developed.  Building community and buzz around a TV show using social media is surely going to be standard practice going forward and this is a great early example so props to whoever put this together.