Philips Electronics is getting serious about branded entertainment. Last Saturday, during the Oklahoma State v. Texas game the company bought all the national ad time available from TBS.
Philips paid $2.5 million, the going rate, for the 33-minute block of national ad time and network promotions. Phillips ran four 90-second videos during the broadcast. The bulk of the time was made available to TBS to expand its sports coverage with more analysis of the game.
According to The Wall Street Journal:
The ad deal is a reprise of one Philips undertook in October 2005 with CBS’s “60 Minutes,” when the consumer-electronics and medical-devices concern bought all the national ad time and let the program use most of it to air longer news segments. Both deals show the lengths Philips is going to in order to stand out from what marketers see as an overload of commercials on television.
By limiting the amount of ad interruptions, Philips hopes to reinforce its broader marketing message that its products make life easier for people.
[via Fresh Glue]
