Coda
by Staff -- Multichannel News, 9/28/2009 2:00:00 AM
Sundance 'Globe’ Trots Sponsors
New York — High-end brewer Stella Artois and confectioner Ferrero Rocher have secured significant multimedia sponsor packages for Sundance Channel’s new series Man Shops Globe.
The eight-part show, which bows Oct. 7, follows Keith Johnson, the buyer-at-large for specialty retailer Anthropologie, as he scours the globe in search of unusual decorative objects, furniture and textiles.
Sarah Barnett, executive vice president and general manager of Sundance, said the positioning of the upscale beer and chocolatier exemplifies the service’s 360-degree marketing integration with its partners.
“Like Sundance Channel, Stella Artois and Ferrero Rocher each have a distinctive, creative brand,” she said. “This campaign, we believe, elegantly reflects the passions of those brands and their consumers.”
The campaign includes print, on-air, online and outdoor ad elements, in addition to in-store events at select Anthropologie locations throughout the U.S and a national consumer sweepstakes.
As the presenting sponsor of the series, Stella Artois’ marketing centerpiece is a series of eight co-branded vignettes, titled One of a Kind, which showcases artists that Johnson meets on his travels.
Stella Artois will also be featured in custom show opens and closes, tagged tune-in spots, animated “You’re Watching” billboards, and in on-air factoids that give linear and VOD viewers more information about each country that’s visited.
As a participating sponsor, Ferrero Rocher will be featured in a trio of co-branded 60-second vignettes called Man Shops Globe Unwrapped. Intended to illustrate the confectioner’s “Everyday Indulgences” tagline, they depict exclusive footage of Johnson’s travels to uncover treasures that Anthropologie can sell.
The Italian company will also be the topic of a specially produced Sundance Channel SUNCovered news segment that will be featured on-air and online.
During each half-hour episode, viewers accompany Johnson on buying trips to countries including France, Turkey, Tunisia, India, The Netherlands, Belgium and Argentina.
In each location he hits the ground with a different team of local experts and artists who help him seek, acquire and then imagine a new life for objects he discovers.
In the fourth episode, for example, Johnson’s keen eye helps recreate history, so to speak.
“He finds [a royal’s] headboard, but then takes it to a local graffiti artist,” Barnett said. “At first, viewers might think Keith’s a renegade, but then they see what he does is really transformative. That’s what our viewers want.”
— Mike Reynolds
Blockbuster Signs Pacts With Cable Operators
Dallas — Blockbuster has formed strategic alliances with Suddenlink Communications and Mediacom Communications, under which the two cable operators will offer video-on-demand services under the “Blockbuster” brand and promote their services in the movie-rental chain’s outlets.
Financial terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.
The moves to bolster its brand follow word that Blockbuster may close as many as 960 stores by the end of 2010, which would leave the chain with about 20% fewer U.S. outlets.
The marketing alliances are scheduled to roll out in phases, beginning this month in Suddenlink’s Charleston, W. Va., and Mediacom’s Des Moines, Iowa, service areas.
Both cable companies will promote their suite of services to Blockbuster’s customer base via in-store kiosks and promotions. Suddenlink and Mediacom will further promote this cooperation with local broadcast advertising, direct mail and other marketing support.
In a later phase, Blockbuster, Suddenlink and Mediacom — in conjunction with the cable companies’ VOD provider, Avail-TVN — intend to add other Blockbuster-specific features to their video-on-demand services.
According to the companies, this is likely to include cooperation with Blockbuster’s DVD-by-mail, vending, in-store and digital channels so that customers looking for a movie that may not be available on VOD can instead search among Blockbuster’s entire Blu-ray and DVD library.
“Our consumers are asking us to help them make access to their entertainment more convenient, and our relationship with Suddenlink and Mediacom is designed to do just that,” Blockbuster senior vice president of digital entertainment Kevin Lewis said in a statement.
Suddenlink chief marketing and sales officer Jerry Dow said, “The Blockbuster brand should help them understand quickly that VOD offers them new entertainment options accessed easily and immediately with no new cost, equipment or hassles.”
— Todd Spangler
'Tennis’ Match Ends
Santa Monica, Calif. — Tennis Channel issued a statement last week indicating that it will make the service available to Cablevision Systems’ sports tier, ending a carriage stalemate that cost the operator’s subscribers a chance to see Tennis’ comprehensive coverage of the U.S. Open tennis championships.
On Aug. 26, Cablevision, which became a member of the National Cable Television Cooperative, declared it was opting for the co-op’s contract with the network to position Tennis on its sports tier, the iO Sports Pak, for its New York City-area subscribers. The network said it had legal issues with Cablevision unilaterally putting out a press release about its wont to launch the service.
In last week’s statement, the network said: “Effective September 24, 2009, Tennis Channel has elected for now to grant signal access to Cablevision pursuant to its request under Tennis Channel’s agreement with the [NCTC].”
Cablevision volleyed this reply: “It is unfortunate that the leadership of the Tennis Channel decided to withhold its programming until now, denying our customers the ability to receive its U.S. Open coverage, but we look forward to now making it available to any Cablevision customer who wants to receive it.”
— Mike Reynolds
Comcast’s Fancast Push
Philadelphia — Comcast is pouring some marketing bucks into Fancast.com with a national ad campaign with the tagline “See It for Yourself,” designed to drive Internet users to watch free TV episodes at the video and entertainment portal.
The cable company is not disclosing the total spend of the campaign, which is set to run for 13 weeks.
Spots featuring CBS shows will air on that network, while the whole series of spots will air on targeted national cable networks, including Bravo, TBS, TNT, MTV, VH1, SoapNet, Lifetime and A&E Network, said Comcast spokeswoman Charlene Fitzgibbon.
— Todd Spangler
