When Jean Smart made an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! to promote the show, Kimmel showed one of the billboards, even commenting about the popularity of Smart’s character.
“You have more billboards around than an actual late-night talk show,” Kimmel joked.
HBO and Max also created a special video featuring real late-night talk show hosts like Chelsea Handler, Andy Cohen, George Lopez, Craig Ferguson, and Roy Wood. Jr. welcoming Deborah Vance to the Late-Night Club.
“Another woman in late-night? Come on,” Handler jokingly says in the video.
Max even worked with entertainment journalist Matt Belloni, known for his podcast The Town, on a fake segment where he mentions Deborah Vance, making a comment on how the comedian is already “facing staffing issues” on her new late-night talk show.
Additionally, there were fictional Late Night with Deborah Vance “sponsored” cocktail happy hours in the offices of top talent and entertainment news agencies across Los Angeles. As part of the bit, the fictional late-night talk show attempted to “poach” some of the top talent in entertainment by sending cocktail kits and DIY-style “resignation letters” to fellow comedians and late-night hosts, encouraging them to call Deborah Vance when they’re ready to “shake things up.”
Regarding activations, HBO debuted the House of Vance pop-up on April 11, timed to Coachella, which took over the Casa Chino Estate in Palm Springs—complete with a pool to surprise fans with exclusive merch like limited-edition tote bags and branded playing cards, activities like tarot reading and portrait stations, and drag performances including a DJ set from Trixie Mattel.
“This was the perfect opportunity to reach out to younger, queer audiences who were there for Lady Gaga,” Flax said.
The network also collaborated with California-based upscale grocery chain Erewhon for a Deborah Vance Juice that was offered at five locations for one day, priced at $4.10 to coincide with the April 10 premiere date of the season, with 100% of profits going toward the LAFD Foundation.
Flax said that within a few hours, the juice was sold out on premiere day, and it resulted in Erewhon restocking the limited-edition juices for two more days.
“We had a colleague go to the Culver City location at 8:30 in the morning on the premiere, and she said she couldn’t find them because they were all gone,” Flax said. “So that was pretty epic and a super fun way to celebrate the show.”