fbpx

Have they got a deal for you: The Shopping Channel brings out the big guns as ACP signs on as partner

There’s
been a lot of hype around the launch of The Shopping Channel this week, and
there’s no question awareness of the channel was boosted significantly by the appearance of Eva Longoria. But by and large, unlike a certain online trading
website that launched this week, the Shopping Channel’s debut seems to have
gone relatively smoothly, and both ACP, which announced its partnership with the
channel at a gala event on Wednesday night, and Ogilvy, have big plans for the
brand.

ACP’s commercial director Paul Gardiner
says that when ACP found out the Shopping Channel wanted to bring Longoria out,
it seemed like a natural move to be part of it.

“Eva is
such a strong brand attached with Woman’s Day, it just made sense for us to be
involved.”

Rumours milling about put the price tag on Longoria’s appearance for Woman’s Day and its sponsor L’Oreal at $180,000, though Gardiner unsurprisingly yielded little by way of confirmation, just that the fee paid was “substantial”.

The price
tag attached to her appearance might take a long time to recuperate, however (unconfirmed numbers we’ve heard put the sales on opening night at $8,000, and we’re still waiting
to hear back from the Shopping Channel to see if that figure is accurate). But Longoria’s
signature coffret did sell out when she made her live appearance on the channel
on Thursday night.

Gardiner views the Shopping Channel as an
opportunity to extend ACP’s offering into the market place, creating another touch
point for its clients. A demonstration on the Shopping Channel, for example, can
then be replicated in its magazines or online extensions. 

“That’s
what advertisers are looking for,” comments Gardiner. “They’re looking for media owners
to come back to them with a holistic offering that is using more than one channel.”

Although
ACP already produces video content for its clients and channels it through
platforms like Taste TV, Gardiner says partnering with the Shopping Channel gives ACP the opportunity to
produce content in a different way that is cost-effective.

“Content is king and if we can produce content on a great platform, at an
efficient cost for our advertisers, and extend that content across different
platforms, then it’s a win-win situation for everyone.”

Extending its offering to
clients is one of the two key elements the partnership will deliver. The other,
comments Gardiner, is the opportunity to provide a platform that ACP can
cross-promote its brand and talent on, “with the view to get our key talent—the
editors of our brands and our beauty editors—onto the Shopping Channel”.

“Our editors and beauty
editors are authorities in their own fields and it gives us the ability to
extend our brand onto another platform and talk to consumers in a different way,” he says.

The Shopping Channel is Greg Partington’s baby and from Ogilvy’s perspective,
executive director Paul Manning says the agency is excited to be a part of something
that is a “genuine start up and hasn’t been tried before in this country”.

Ogilvy and Robber’s Dog’s debut TVC for the Shopping Channel launched last month, and Manning says to his
knowledge it’s been well received.

“Since launch, prompted
awareness of The Shopping Channel has leapt from nothing to 66 percent. For a
start-up business, that’s quite exceptional. The TVC has been on air just two-and-a-half
weeks and 61 percent of women shoppers in New Zealand say they’ve
seen it.”

The TVC is part of an integrated, cross-platform campaign and Manning says one of
the interesting things about having the Shopping Channel as a client is that it’s
using every aspect of the agency’s capability.

Advertisements placed in
publications like the New Zealand Herald put the call out to New Zealand entrepreneurs and wholesalers to sell through the channel. Elsewhere there’s been an ample amount of
work around social media, particularly on building the presence of the
channel’s Facebook page. And of course, there’s the PR machine with Bullet, with its efforts starting
right back with the public casting for channel presenters through to Longoria’s
visit to New Zealand (and its guidance on the type of questions journalists could ask). 

There’s a lot more work
planned in the communications pipeline, but Manning won’t reveal the details of
that just yet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3-rhzDYZcoIn the meantime, for those
yet to catch a glimpse of the channel, Dan News put together a package of the Shopping Channel’s best ‘live on
air’ moments from opening night, complete with awkward sexual innuendos involving bananas and Candy
Lane sharing why she loves a boner. 

About Author

Comments are closed.