Shopping For Talent

Home-Shopping Nets, Cable Programmers Partner to Broaden Audiences

By Linda Moss -- Multichannel News, 9/26/2011 12:01:00 AM

ShopNBC is a relatively new member of the NBCUniversal “orchestra” of assets, but it is already playing Steve Burke’s “symphony.”

NBCU CEO Burke, following Comcast’s purchase of the Peacock Network media conglomerate, directed the merged properties to work together and support each other’s initiatives. He labeled it “symphony,” not “synergy.”

And ShopNBC is in sync, already teaming up with several NBCU networks. In the latest initiative, on Oct. 8 the No. 3 home-shopping network will debut makeup from Olivia Blois Sharpe, part of the cast of Style Network’s hit reality show, Jerseylicious. Style is part of NBCU’s cable stable.

Sharpe, a ringer for Snooki on MTV’s Jersey Shore, will talk about NYX Cosmetics’ new “Jerseylicious” palette, Haute Jersey Leopard Couture. Sharpe will also promote the season finale on Oct. 16, and the two-part reunion special, airing on Style Oct. 23 and 30.

CABLE STARS FIND OUTLET

ShopNBC isn’t the only shopping network that is forging varied alliances with traditional cable and broadcast networks — and their talent. The vendor rosters of both QVC and HSN include literally dozens of personalities with hit cable shows.

“They all have other outlets where they’re telling their story,” Bill Brand, HSN executive vice president of programming, marketing and business development, said. “The difference here is that we are able to bring together amazing content, amazing stories, with the commerce experience. It certainly pays off for us.”

In addit ion, the major home-shopping networks are increasingly crafting innovative partnerships with programmers to draw new shoppers and boost sales. For example, last fall, HSN partnered with TLC and Kelly Ripa for Homemade Millionaire. Each week, women entrepreneurs competed with their inventions, with the winner getting her product on HSN.

Earlier this year, HSN launched Jabot, a makeup line that sold out, based on a fictional cosmetics company in the CBS soap The Young and the Restless. And Sundance Channel just taped a show on product-development outfit Quirky and its 24-year-old founder, Ben Kaufman, also an HSN vendor, at the home-shopping channel.

Today, the major homeshopping networks have deep cable penetration, powerful product- distribution systems, billions of dollars in sales and a lifestyle-entertainment slant. That’s the marketing muscle that QVC, HSN and ShopNBC claim they can bring to the table for cable programmers.

It’s a two-way street.

“We have now had promotions on some of the NBCU property websites, as well, which is nice,” Carol Steinberg, ShopNBC’s executive vice president of Internet, marketing and human resources, said.

When the Kardashian sisters and their mother Kris Jenner, of E!’s Keeping Up With the Kardashians, or Heidi Klum, of Lifetime’s Project Runway, sell their own lines on QVC, it’s a promotional boost for both the home-shopping channel and the cable networks they appear on.

Earlier this month, QVC originated live from New York’s SoHo on Fashion’s Night Out. Klum and Jenner each launched new collections for the home-shopping network.

QVC designer Isaac Mizrahi, who appears on Bravo’s Fashion Show, was in the house. QVC jewelry from Joan Rivers, of E!’s Fashion Police and WE tv’s Joan & Melissa: Joan Knows Best?, was on display. Later that week, Rachel Zoe of Bravo’s The Rachel Zoe Project appeared with her new Luxe line on QVC.

SEEKING ‘HALO EFFECT’

QVC CEO Mike George attended the network’s event and, as loud house music pounded, he discussed the alliances between his network and cable TV-show stars, including Klum.

“It’s really a nice mutual benefit,” George said. “For us, those kinds of draws, personalities, bring us viewership from their other programs. And they’re often engaged with their fans on Facebook or Twitter, and draw attention to our shows and our programming. At the same time, we help introduce them to a broader audience. We hopefully have a halo effect back on their programming. So it’s a win-win, because the cable programs benefit and QVC benefits.”

HSN’s long list of cable- show vendors includes Vern Yip of HGTV’s Design Star; Travel Channel veteran Samantha Brown; Padma Lakshmi of Bravo’s Top Chef; and, most recently, Louise Roe of E! and MTV’s Plain Jane.

“What’s in it for the cable network?” Brand said. “We’re a new way to market their programming, and I think the entire entertainment community has woken up to the power of our direct-to-consumer reach.”

HSN developed product lines with both Yip and Lakshmi. Lakshmi offers items such as flowering teas and next year she’ll debut some small appliances, according to Brand.

Brown’s luggage line sold out when it debuted on HSN.

“There’s credibility that she has from having a background on the Travel Channel, working in that space,” Brand said.

Zoe, a celebrity stylist with a large following, has been a big success for QVC. When she debuted on the channel last year, she had one item that did $200,000 a minute in sales, according to Doug Rose, QVC’s senior vice president of programming and marketing.

“We hear a lot of numbers around here, but even QVC’s kind of impressed when we hear numbers like that,” he said. “So she has been very effective in bringing more eyeballs to QVC, both onair and online.”

The impact of socialmedia sites such as Twitter, according to both Rose and Brand, is an important factor when they choose TV-star vendors.

“That’s where we’re seeing perhaps the biggest change in our business in the last couple of years, that social media is now having a material effect on our viewership,” Rose said. “When you can have people like the Kardashians who have millions and millions of followers … [and] let them know that they’re going to be on QVC tonight at 8 o’clock, it has a very significant, profound effect on our viewership.”

Data about crossover viewership between QVC and other cable networks from Simmons Market Research and Kantar Media helps guide QVC’s choice of vendors such as Klum, Rose said.

Comcast/NBCU acquired a 14% stake in ShopNBC through the merger with NBCUniversal, and the home-shopping network this spring began participating in the NBCU Marketing Council, where every other week all the NBCU properties discuss the “symphony” priorities of the company as a whole, according to Steinberg.

ShopNBC began promoting NBC shows such as The Voice and America’s Got Talent on its website, its Facebook page and with TV spots. In addition to Jerseylicious star Sharpe coming to Shop- NBC next month, the home-shopping network is also in talks to help cross-promote a new show, Most Eligible Dallas, on NBCU’s Bravo.

Right now, ShopNBC is running TV spots for NBC’s new comedy Up All Night with Christina Applegate, as well as promoting the show with an online boutique on ShopNBC.com.

 “We play some video clips and there are also some video clips that they created that incorporate our product and our brand into the messaging of their show,” Steinberg said.

Applegate is shown having a fight with her husband, and the clip shows ShopNBC items the spouse could buy her to make up.

ShopNBC’s long-term strategy is to build awareness by being associated with such high-profile shows as the much-publicized Up All Night, according to Steinberg.

“The benefit to NBC is all the exposure we give them to an existing audience and a new audience,” she said.