Research

Unique Selling Proposition

What makes a product sell?
Sponsorship can help a product to sell. For example sponsoring a programme which is shown on a popular channel such as ITV can really help to get the product moving. It allows the product to then become known to the people who may be watching the programme. The audience will then also associate this product with the programme and allow them to grow closer to it. Sponsoring a show with a product allows you to have a certain amount of short pieces to place around the programme. It can feature a message and most importantly the logo of the product. These sponsorships can just be for a single programme shown or as part of a package with an ongoing programme. An example of this was Iceland sponsoring I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here with help from Peter Andre starring in the adverts. This helped Iceland’s sales increase and some of the products they were selling sold out while the show was still on air. Iceland has also made products based on the programme due to the attention the company was getting from it and the close relationship it then had. The Bushtucker Trial Game and Exotic Meat Feast they created sold out nationwide and combined generating nearly £500,000 in sales. With how popular Iceland was getting from sponsoring I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here they branched out even further creating online games and they created celebrity signed photos to give away with over one thousand entries which made their twitter followers and Facebook likes increase by thousands.

Another way a product might sell is through product placement; this is when a product or company is used within a programme which the characters may be using or be at. It’s a unique marketing opportunity. It shows the product in a more natural setting which could then be more relatable to the audience. It could also make the audience think that the product is reliable id they’re using it in the programme. For example during ITVs X Factor the judges were using Samsung devices which then advertised that phone. The programme then gets an advantage from this as the company will play for their product to be in the programme.

Teleshopping also helps a product to sell as they have more time to show/explain the product. ITV gives 30-minute slots for advertisers to sell their product and sell exactly to the audience with a large time frame. These slots are on early morning from 2:30am to 6am daily and are very cost-effective. Viewers can then find out a lot more about what they’re trying to sell and how the product may work.

What are Airtime Break Innovations?
An airtime break innovation is an advert which is different to the rest and stands out. The advert uses a ‘break the mould’ style and is then remembered for being unique. This can be done in many different ways for example Nintendo joined with E4 to create a competition through their advert. This then allowed views to get involved, targeting superfans to win a ‘many can’t buy prize.’ Another example is the use of using celebrities such as Sam Smith. However, channel 4 didn’t just use his face; they streamed a live performance from the singer’s biggest performance to date in London. This resulted in 5 companies merging once for it to happen, these companies were Channel 4, Google Play, MediaCom, The Outfit and Universal Music label Capital. This was then promotion for Sam Smith and Google Play as this is the company which is shown at the end of the advert.

How does sponsorship boost sales?

Sponsorship boosts sales because if a product is associated to a certain company it is easier to remember and audiences may be more likely to try that product if it sponsors a programme that they like. Also if it’s the type of audience who don’t like to watch adverts so skip them or change the channel when the adverts are on then they’ll most probably catch the advert which sponsors the programme.