MEDIA & MARKETING:IS THE essence of your brand "vengeance"? Do tales of slavery, murder and lost honour sound like a perfect fit for your company's wares? If so, then Spartacus: Vengeance, which begins on TV3 shortly, may be the sponsorship opportunity for you.
The sequel to the swords-and- sandals series Spartacus: Blood and Sandis just one of several shows in the market for a sponsor.
Also in the TV3 stable, the hopefully less bloody Family Fortunesand 3e's acquisition The Only Way is Essexare up for grabs.
Over at RTÉ, Fair City, the satire Savage Eye, "cheeky banter" half-hour The Socialand RTÉ One's regular Saturday teatime movie slot are also available – as is The Voice of Ireland,despite the fact that the "real talent" show has already begun its run.
The deals are being done, too. This week, TV3 launched one of its biggest sponsorship deals as Unilever's Knorr Season and Shake product became the sponsor of Coronation Street in a deal worth "in excess of €500,000", according to TV3 commercial director Pat Kiely.
Fruice has also come on board to sponsor its Friday night dating show Take Me Out.
Meanwhile, RTÉ has secured sponsors for two of its acquired dramas – Desperate Housewivesand Home and Away– and has also signed up Betfair to sponsor its cross-media racing coverage.
Alongside high-profile sponsorships such as Quinn-direct's association with the Late Late Showand Domino's tie-in with the X Factor,such deals point to a healthy market.
Television sponsorship is still a relatively nascent activity in Ireland, however, and the untested nature of some programme sponsorships means it can be a risky strategy for companies to pursue.
Television sponsorship is “an educated gamble”, says Aidan Greene, managing director of MediaVest Ireland. If the known unknowns are too great or too many, clients will shy away from what is often a hefty commitment.
Greene, who negotiated Spar's landmark product-placement deal with Fair City, expects it will find a new player to replace departing sponsor Kellogg's, given its status as RTÉ's flagship home-grown soap, with an average audience of 764,000 in 2011.
Greene, however, is critical of RTÉ for not learning from mistakes it made during a failed attempt to secure a sponsor for MasterChef Ireland. The broadcaster also, according to Greene, had "a completely unrealistic expectation on price" when it first opened The Voice of Irelandfor sponsorship.
As with MasterChef,clients balked at the multi-layered nature of its offer, which was seen as too far and too fast for the current market. Among the opportunities advertised by RTÉ Media Sales were "branded backstage area", "official car" and – in a charmingly Irish touch – "official mineral".
Ratings for The Voicehave been strong. Some 708,000 people watched the launch show, according to AGB Nielsen, with the number falling to an average of 625,000 from the second week.
But with no takers at the outset, the broadcaster’s negotiating hand was weakened. “It would have to be ridiculous money for one of my clients to go for it now,” Greene says, adding that many cash-constrained clients will be more likely to target short-term tactical sales through advertising than the longer-term brand- building that sponsorship is best at providing
" Spartacusis a tough one," says Greene of TV3's import, which had an average viewership of 167,000 during its last series.
The death of original lead actor Andy Whitfield and recasting of the main role may result in some degree of viewer-shedding.
But the real issue is that, as with many other acquired US dramas, Spartacusairs on a subscription channel (Starz) in its home market. This means it tends to make a virtue of the kind of sex and violence that the advertiser- dependent US networks can't show.
Most of the companies that can afford to shell out for sponsorships now are the mass-market brands, he points out, “but if you have a family brand and you associate it with an adult drama, you run the risk of an irate response from customers.”
There are technological reasons as to why sponsorships will remain on marketing directors’ wishlists, however.
As consumers adopt time- shifted viewing with increasing glee, a good sponsorship deal is more resilient to the fast-forward button, notes John Trainor, managing director of Onside Sponsorship.
This week the research firm published an industry survey highlighting television deals as one of the key areas for future growth.
“Most people skip the ads but choose the moment of the sponsorship sting to pause and resume watching,” he says.
Such habits turn television sponsorships into a potential brand awareness bonanza.
