Last year’s principal sponsors of Network Ten’s popular reality TV show, Big Brother, are all returning for the seventh series due to return to screens this month.
The program’s tier one sponsors are Yum Restaurants’ KFC – which has been with the show since the first series, Hutchison’s 3 mobile – its fourth time back, Reckitt Benckiser and Masterfoods’ Starburst and Kan Tong brands.
Ten’s GM network sales Shaun James, said the new Big Brother website will lead its digital push.
“Part of what we need to do is ensure we keep raising the bar. You need to keep reinventing the opportunities for advertisers.
“Big Brother is a wonderful environment because it’s over a long period of time and it’s in a regular timeslot. It’s every night of the week and in people’s faces – so from an advertiser’s perspective it’s a great way to communicate with the audience,” James said.
Hutchison 3 mobile chief marketing officer, Scott Taylor, said it sees its relationship with the show as more than just a regular media sponsorship.
“For us it is about the content opportunities of the Big Brother product and the way at 3 we are able to tap into a part of the show that is not seen on TV. We have live, 24-hour access to the Big Brother house, text updates, video highlights, tones and pictures. So it’s complementary to the show, while going deeper than the TV format,” Taylor said.
For more on this story see the latest issue of B&T magazine (March 30).
