National Geographic needed not only to reach African American women over 25 for “Genius: Aretha” to succeed, but it needed music fans, baby boomers, and the LGBTQ community. Enter an integrated marketing campaign that included TV placements on shows like “Soul of a Nation” as well as paid social media, advertising on the Grammys and events at historically black colleges. In the end, the network showed the Queen of Soul plenty of R-E-S-P-E-C-T. The first episode was the network’s top-watched telecast in two years and the series was one of the year’s Top 10 most watched cable scripted series.
