Reality Bites

Idol brands make lite TV work

What?: You can hang up your karaoke microphone for another year, but what’s next for marketing’s primetime friend?

Ford, one of the show’s major sponsors, debuted its 2009 Focus coupe in a 45-second music video within the show. The Ford Music Video Challenge also ran throughout May whereby visitors to the American Idol site could answer questions on Ford music videos to win tickets to the show. The grand prizewinner was to net $5,000 in cash, two tickets to the American Idol finale, and a 2008 Focus equipped with Microsoft’s SYNC voice-activated technology. To add to the promotion, both winner David Cook and runner-up David Archuleta were given Ford Escape Hybrids.

There was no escaping American Idol inthe commercial interludes either. During the ad breaks of the final, the two Davids appeared in separate Guitar Hero ads (aping Tom Cruise’s dance in the 1983 film Risky Business). The two singers lip-synched to Bob Seger’s ‘Old Time Rock ‘N’ Roll’ under the tagline of “Unleash your inner rock star”.

Sanjaya Malakar, who featured in AmericanIdol season six (and became infamous mainlyfor his hair), features in the latest Nationwide ad in India. The ad sees him visiting a monastery to seek advice, whereby he is told to both work on his hair and arrange a retirement plan. He also sings at a closed door. Very apt.

So what?: First John Logie Baird invented the TV. Then MTV went one better and invented music TV. Then reality TV reared its ‘all-too-real’ headand the American Idol franchise was born. The show, despite its painful repetition, has triggered some high-earning stars (Kelly Clarkson, with 18.9M album and digitaldownload sales; and Carrie Underwood with 15.7M), and also some disasters (Jordin Sparks’s album sold only 119,000). That aside, the realmoney comes from brand alignments, and this is a franchise that leaves no licensing stone unturned. The show had scaled back its sponsors a few years ago (reducing them from five to three), only to add Apple into its fold this year. In the first three months of the show it secured 3,291 product placements and a string of licensing deals. On-screen product, be it Simon Cowell sipping from a Coke cup or prominent Ford placement, skyrocketed 19% – to a total of 545 minutes in 2008.The network, despite ratings concerns, is happy – as insiders suggest Fox nets $700,000 from a 30- second ad spot on Idol.

“It’s very positive when brands support creative career development (in whatever guise this may manifest itself). There are many initiatives which wouldn’t be possible without the support of these ‘partners’. The benefit to them is the combination of perceived altruism, and a message that they care and are involved in the creative development of young people. In this instance, with so many partners, it feels like maybe the value of the supporter role has been diluted”
Jack Horner, Creative Director, FRUKT

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