Broadcast push for Marian Keyes brand
THE BOOKSELLER.COM 16.01.2007
Penguin Books has signed a landmark sponsorship deal to promote its author Marian Keyes and her latest title, Anybody Out There. The publisher has agreed with Viacom Brand Solutions to sponsor a special weekend of programming on its Paramount and E! television channels—the first time Penguin has entered into a sponsorship agreement of this kind with a television channel.
The "Funny Side of Love" weekend airs on 17th and 18th February, targeting women between 16 and 44, and programmes aired, such as channel favourites "Ally McBeal" and "Sex and The City", will feature five and ten-second 'sponsor bumpers' with Keyes supplying the voiceover. The weekend will also be promoted in its lead-up week, and VBS has created a 30-second promotional spot featuring the author, details of Anybody Out There and a competition to win a trip to New York, to run across both channels for two weeks from 12th February.
In addition, Paramount and E! websites will feature a micro-site, www.anybodyoutthere.co.uk, which will include a video clip of Keyes reading from the book, a Q & A with the author and profiles of the book's characters.
Elizabeth Smith, Penguin marketing director of commercial fiction, said: "We approached VBS with the brief of wanting to work beyond straightforward ad spots to introduce the Marian Keyes brand to one of their core demographics...Marian is a premium brand author and the aim of the campaign is to launch the new paperback and make it the biggest bestseller of 2007."
The deal was negotiated by Smith, VBS partnership director Elizabeth Anyaegbuna and Katharine Summers from Total Media. Anybody Out There is released in paperback on 8th February. |
