Sport drives TV campaigns

Commercial networks are using cricket and tennis to spearhead their new television programmes, a tactic that led Seven’s Desperate Housewives to glory in 2005.

“The cricket brings in viewers who don’t normally watch a lot of TV,” Nine’s Melbourne programmer Len Downs said. “There have been half a million people just in Melbourne watching the second Test and, touch wood, there’ll be a lot of interest in the next Test out of Perth.”

Last year while Nine only spent $500,000 on summer marketing, Seven splurged $2.5m.

“So now we’ve gone the other way. We used to do a lot of summer promotion, a lot of outdoor advertising. And this is a return to that,” he told The Age.

Seven’s Tim Worner agreed with the strategy, “The most powerful weapon we have is our own airtime, so our starting point is: what can we do with it we haven’t done before? Then we look elsewhere and when I say elsewhere, I mean everywhere. On footpaths, bus stops, hanging off the back of Vespas, in the sky — you have to cut through, and you go anywhere to achieve that aim.”

Source: The Age