Charles Sykes/Bravo, via NBCU Photo Bank Anderson Davis, star of a new advertising campaign for Kraft dressings, appeared as the guest bartender on the Monday night episode of “Watch What Happens Live” with Andy Cohen on Bravo, an example of the network’s new focus on branded-entertainment deals.
Anderson Davis is not among the stars of Bravo series that the channel likes to call “Bravolebrities.” Nonetheless, he was treated like one on Monday night during an episode of “Watch What Happens Live”: he served as the bartender; joked with the host, Andy Cohen; and even took off his shirt to reveal a toned upper body that would not be out of place on one of Bravo’s “Real Housewives” shows.
Mr. Davis is an actor and model hired by the Kraft Foods Group and its advertising agency, TBWA/Chiat/Day Los Angeles, to play a character named the Zesty Guy in a new humorous campaign for Kraft dressings. As part of a sponsorship deal with Bravo, Mr. Davis appeared on “Watch What Happens Live” as well as in commercials that ran during the show and during other series on Bravo earlier on Monday night.
Such sponsorship agreements — known as branded entertainment, content marketing and native advertising — are becoming common on Bravo, part of the NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment division of NBCUniversal. And as the channel plans its programming lineup for 2013-14 during what is called the upfront season, more sponsorships that integrate advertising into shows are planned.
Bravo was one of three cable channels that made upfront presentations in New York on Tuesday. It was a coincidence that the other two, Aspire and Up, also had inspirational, affirmative names. (Or was it part of a pattern? After all, upfront presentations are intended to persuade marketers and agencies to consider buying commercial time.)
“We do like what we’re seeing and hearing from our advertiser partners,” Dan Lovinger, executive vice president for cable ad sales at NBCUniversal, said in an interview after the Bravo presentation. “Content development is exciting to a lot of brands,” he added, “because they’re trying to find ways to populate social media sites and do social media outreach.”
Content marketing deals “require a lot of commitment from both sides,” Mr. Lovinger said, because of the additional work needed to integrate brands or products into shows in ways “that make sense.”
“What’s most important is that the content flows, and makes sense, for the viewer,” he said, “helping to tell the story of the episode.”
Asked if it was easier to incorporate products or brands into Bravo shows because they are unscripted, Mr. Lovinger said it was, adding that the shows benefited from “dealing with a passion” among viewers like food or fashion.
As a result, he said, “we typically know whether a brand would resonate with a viewer” if it was to be interwoven into the plot of an episode of a show.
For the 2013-14 season, according to Bravo executives at the presentations — including Mr. Cohen, who is also the channel’s executive vice president for development and talent — Bravo intends to increase significantly the amount of original programming being offered viewers, joining many other channels in beefing up their schedules to generate higher ratings from viewers and ad revenue from marketers.
There will be 15 percent more original programming on the channel in the coming season than there has been during the 2012-13 season. Last year, Mr. Lovinger said, Bravo added 126 new marketers to its list of advertisers on cable and 34 new marketers to its list of advertisers online at bravotv.com.
Bravo is adding 17 series to its lineup, all in the unscripted or reality genre, joining 18 unscripted series that will return for the coming season. There are three additional unscripted series that are in development.
Of the new and potential unscripted shows at Bravo, there were plenty of larger-than-life real people who appeared to be candidates for Bravolebrity status. Among the clips that were shown during the presentation were residents of Charleston, S.C., who display, as one put it, “a certain high regard to leisure”; a divorce mediator; parents who follow “extreme” styles of raising their children; and residents of Long Island who go by the nickname “princesses.”
Also in development, said Jerry Leo, executive vice president for program strategy and production, are three scripted series; one of them, called “High and Low,” is set during the 1980s. A pilot for a fourth possible scripted series — a drama, “Rita,” featuring Anna Gunn of the AMC series “Breaking Bad” — is to be filmed next week.
Bravo plans an upfront party on Wednesday night for Madison Avenue that will include as guests more than 75 Bravolebrities, said Frances Berwick, president of the Bravo and Style Media division of NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment.
In addition to Mr. Cohen, they will include Jeff Lewis, a star of two Bravo series, “Flipping Out” and “Interior Therapy With Jeff Lewis.” Mr. Lewis was also on hand at the presentation on Tuesday morning, introducing Ms. Berwick and taking pokes at two stars from the “Real Housewives” franchise, Adrienne Maloof and Jill Zarin.
The two other cable channels that presented on Monday night, Aspire and Up (known until June 1 as GMC TV, and previously the Gospel Music Channel), do not plan an upfront party.
Instead, executives are in New York through Thursday to meet with agency executives and reporters on an Upfront Bus, which is decorated with the two channels’ logos and stars of their shows.
On Tuesday, the bus was parked on 40th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues, next to Bryant Park. The next stops for the bus include Cincinnati, Detroit, Minneapolis and St. Louis.
For 2013-14, Up and Aspire plan to add unscripted reality series to their schedules. The programs will have an uplifting, family-friendly vibe decidedly different from the frank, adult attitude of the unscripted fare on Bravo.
The unscripted reality genre “doesn’t have to be salacious, doesn’t have to be a freak show, doesn’t have to be a train wreck,” said Brad Siegel, vice chairman at Aspire and Up.
There are two unscripted series planned for Up. One is “Family Addition With Leigh Anne Tuohy,” the woman who was played by Sandra Bullock in the film “The Blind Side.” It will focus on helping expand the homes of families who are adopting foster children.
The other new unscripted series on Up will be “Bulloch Family Ranch,” about a family in Florida that offers troubled teenagers what is described as a “last second chance.”
Aspire has an unscripted series planned for 2013-14 titled “U.N.C.F.: The Next Generation,” about students assisted by the United Negro College Fund.
Like Bravo, Up and Aspire are expecting to sign additional content marketing deals with advertisers, said Mr. Siegel and Mary Jeanne Cavanagh, executive vice president for advertising sales at the channels.
For instance, they played a clip from “Bulloch Family Ranch” in which Rusty Bulloch delivers some nice words about a sponsor, Angel Soft bathroom tissue.
The busy week for upfront presentations continues on Wednesday with a presentation by the Weather Company, owner of the Weather Channel. On Thursday, Discovery Communications will host its presentation.
Those scheduled for next week include GSN, IFC and Syfy.
Article source: http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/02/bravo-discusses-mixing-advertising-with-its-shows/?partner=rss&emc=rss