Channel 5 has negotiated an unusual sales deal with Bass, in which
the advertiser’s Hooper’s Hooch brand will fund the production of a
series of 20 short films.
The deal was brokered by Channel 5 business manager Jon Lewis and
Richard Brinkman, head of sponsorship at BBJ, Bass’s media agency.
Bass has paid pounds 150,000, which will pay for the production of the
90-second films, called Sharp Shorts, aimed at ’inspiring viewers in
their late 20s and 30s’. The Hooch branding will appear in the
sponsorship bumpers around each film.
Although the deal looks similar to other programme sponsorship deals,
Lewis stressed that the whole initiative was conceived ’hand-in-hand’
with Bass. ’They came to us with a brief and we came up with the perfect
programme. This is not just about sticking the sponsor’s logo on an
existing programme.’
Bass is currently trying to re-position Hooper’s Hooch as a more
fashionable brand, suited to twenty- and thirtysomethings.
