Liberty Mutual buys king-size TV position
Insurer is latest to seek primary role on a show
Liberty Mutual Group isn't the nation's largest spender on TV advertising. And yet, one of the Boston insurance company's coming efforts could help it make a bigger splash among potential customers than some of its freer-spending competitors.
When new TV shows pop up, they usually come along with dozens of commercials from a range of advertisers. But Liberty Mutual has struck a deal with NBC to be the most prominent sponsor of a two-hour movie premiere of "Kings," one of the Peacock network's new shows. What's more, the program's themes match those of Liberty's current ad campaign.
Liberty expects the show will be identified as being presented by Liberty Mutual, said Steve Sullivan, the company's senior vice president of communications. Liberty is still mulling the kinds of ads it will run during the program.
Like Liberty, more marketers are looking for places where they can best reach people, and then shove other marketers aside. Others have found the strategy generates buzz: Philips Electronics purchased all the ad time during an NBC evening newscast of "60 Minutes" on CBS, while Nissan Motor has had its cars woven into the plots - and dialogue - on NBC's "Heroes."
"The idea of dominating a single piece of content" where story lines "resonate with the brand strategy is very desirable," said Teddy Lynn, senior vice president and director of branded content at Boston's Arnold agency.
Sounds easy enough, but running a more intense promotion tied to a particular program also brings with it hidden complexities. Marketers will have to gain other kinds of expertise as the technique gains traction, Lynn added. "Networks still want to retain editorial control. They don't want to be told what to run, and brands, if they are going to put serious money and pay for underwriting or owning programming, they want to define what's going to run," he said.
Liberty and its ad agency, Boston's Hill Holliday, started pursuing the idea early last fall, according to executives involved. About 3,000 consumers sent e-mails praising a group of commercials Liberty had been running in which everyday people see someone do a good deed and then choose to do something nice for someone else; good turns spread almost virally. In one ad, for example, a woman stops a messenger from careening into traffic. The company has even launched a website, ResponsibilityProject.com, that offers short films burnishing the same theme.
TV still makes the biggest splash, and executives considered an attention-getting TV promotion part of the strategy. Liberty's ad-buying and creative teams approached a few networks with a project description, "just like we would with a creative team," said Kerry Benson, a Hill Holliday senior vice president who oversees the Liberty account. Several broadcast TV outlets were asked, "What can you do to help us build a program or a movie that gets people thinking about what they would do, a story line where people do the right thing?" she recalled. "The idea is the consumer takes away some provocative messaging about doing the right thing and links that to Liberty Mutual."
NBC was most willing to cooperate, according to Benson and Sullivan, Liberty Mutual's senior vice president of communications. The network had already green-lit "Kings," a drama that stars Christopher Egan as a brave soldier who saves the daughter of a king and is thrust into a new life where he must continually make the right choices among enemies and allies. Matching Liberty to the show was "a no-brainer," said Teri Weinberg, executive vice president of NBC Entertainment. TV rivals suggest NBC has become more welcoming of nontraditional marketing partnerships in recent months, but also note that the network has faced tougher times since it hasn't been able to launch a hit on the order of "Friends" or "Frasier."
Now, the network and Liberty are in what sounds like a near-constant dialogue about the production of the "Kings" show. NBC kept Liberty and its firms informed about casting, said Weinberg, and Liberty has been able to see scripts and dialogue. "They will not have approval, so to speak," said Weinberg, but "we are being very honest and very transparent about everything that we are doing."
Liberty isn't backing off regular TV ads, said Sullivan, but realizes it must experiment when it's regularly outspent by ad giants like AllState and Geico. Liberty spent about $46.1 million to run TV ads in 2007, according to TNS Media Intelligence, while Geico spent around $337.8 million and Allstate spent about $236.6 million. Last month, Liberty disclosed plans to acquire Safeco Corp. for about $6.2 billion.
"With the fragmentation of media and the ascendancy of the Internet, you have to pick your sites and pick your messages and pick your audiences," he said.
As part of the NBC deal, Liberty will sponsor another original movie set to air on NBC and its sister cable channel USA during the 2008-09 season. Should "Kings" fare well and continue on NBC's schedule, Liberty has an opportunity to stay involved with the show, said NBC's Weinberg.
In the past, the insurer has tried to "take sponsorship positions and hold them for a long time," said Sullivan. If associating the company with particular programs works "the way we think and hope it will, I think we'll keep doing it."
Brian Steinberg is the television editor of Advertising Age.
rising
falling 