Disney Plugs In With Camp Rock 2 Sponsors

Two years after Disney Channel spawned one of its most-watched original movies in the Jonas Brothers/Demi Lovato musical Camp Rock, the Mouse is set to unleash the sequel. And while it doesn’t carry a full complement of ad inventory, Disney Channel has lined up four marquee cross-platform sponsorships for the premiere, cutting deals with Honda, Verizon FiOS, Best Western International and Sara Lee. On Friday, Sept. 3, Disney will broadcast the world premiere of Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam, kicking off a four-event holiday weekend bash. Driving the action is the emergence of a rival camp across the lake that appears to be poaching some of the Camp Rock talent. A karaoke “Rock Along” edition of Camp Rock 2 will air the following night, allowing viewers to belt out the movie soundtrack along with the cast. (Lyrics will appear on-screen and at DisneyChannel.com.) The 5th brings a Jonas/Lovato curated “Sunday Dance Jam” edition that offers a look at the film’s choreography. Finally, an encore of the film will unspool on Monday night, wrapping the long weekend while giving summer 2010 an official send-off. The four sponsors have a long history with Disney and this particular franchise, and as Mediaweek first reported in March, the deals with Sara Lee and Best Western were secured well ahead of the 2010-11 upfront. Together, those two sponsorships were valued at $7 million. On the basis of dollar volume, the Sara Lee pact is the most lucrative in Disney Channel history. It is the third time the company has entered a promotional agreement with Disney Channel and the Camp Rock 2 deal marks Sara Lee’s second major back-to-school push on the network. In the run-up to the premiere, Sara Lee has stocked supermarket shelves with some 40 million specially marked packages of its Soft & Smooth sliced bread. The brand will also be featured in on-air sponsor messages during breaks in some of the weekend telecasts. This also marks the third consecutive year in which Best Western has placed its summer ad dollars exclusively with Disney Channel. The hotel chain’s buy includes on-air sponsor messages and a 15-second co-branded spot directing viewers to enter a sweepstakes via a Disney.com micro-site. The grand prize winner gets to throw a party at a local Best Western hotel, and Camp Rock hoofer Alyson Stoner will be on hand to teach the kids all the dance moves from the film. Best Western also will be featured in spots on Disney’s online and radio platforms. “Best Western took their commitment one step further this year,” said Rita Ferro, executive vp, Disney media sales and marketing. “Along with placing Camp Rock 2 point-of-purchase displays and key cards in each of their hotels, they gathered together 400 employees in their corporate office in Phoenix for a private premiere screening.” Honda is also going the sweepstakes route, teaming up with the network to offer an all-expenses paid trip to Disneyland and the keys to a 2011 Honda Odyssey minivan. The automaker’s media plan includes a sponsor message culled from a pre-existing Odyssey commercial, a “Rock Your Ride” sweepstakes spot and a heavy digital, mobile and radio schedule. Viewers of the various incarnations of Camp Rock 2 will be driven to a co-branded digital hub where they can enter the sweepstakes. An on-site video player will feature the same spots Honda is running on ad-supported TV. This is the third time Honda has teamed up with Disney for a cross-platform buy. The car manufacturer came onboard in 2006 for the premiere of High School Musical and returned the following summer for an alignment with the sequel. Verizon already had its first encounter with Camp Rock 2 on August 18, sponsoring the movie’s New York premiere at Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center. The telco’s logo was printed on each of the dozens of oversized Camp Rock 2 posters flanking the red carpet and the familiar red checkmark also appeared on the backdrop behind the photographers’ staging area. On-air, Verizon will sponsor the “Sunday Dance Jam” screening and Monday night’s encore presentation. It also has secured placement on the Camp Rock 2 site and Radio Disney. If the hordes of screaming ‘tween girls who greeted the Jonas Brothers in Midtown two weeks ago is any indication, the Camp Rock 2 weekend should put up some big numbers for Disney Channel. The first movie bowed to 8.86 million total viewers in June 2008, and that delivery swelled to 10.1 million upon application of Nielsen live-plus-seven-day ratings data. It was also the year’s No. 1 entertainment telecast among ‘tweens 9-14. “Obviously, people are paying for the association with the brand and since most of our partners are coming back two, three and four times, the cost-benefit analysis seems to be paying off,” Ferro said. “In offering all the various cross-platform opportunities and by speaking to the moms who make the purchasing decisions, we’ve really figured out a formula for continued success.” Disney closed out August ranked second among all basic cable networks, with an average prime time delivery of 2.81 million total viewers. While it showed slight slippage in the core demos, the Mouse continued to dominate the field, doubling its closest competitor’s average draw with 1.55 million kids 2-11, 1.18 million kids 6-11 and 987,000 ‘tweens 9-14. In total day, Nickelodeon topped Disney by a margin of slightly fewer than 400,000 viewers (2.47 million to 2.09 million). Disney Channel’s carriage agreements prevent the network from airing traditional 30-second marketing spots, but the network has done brisk business with its cross-platform deals. At an estimated 89 cents per sub per month, the channel also commands some of the industry’s highest carriage fees. Meanwhile, sibling network Disney XD helps throw money onto the pile, taking in $80.8 million in ad sales revenue last year, per SNL Kagan data. On Sept. 7, Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment will release Camp Rock 2 on Blu-ray and DVD. “Between the DVD and the concert series, there’s a lot of excitement bubbling up in the marketplace,” Ferro said. “This is not just a TV property, it’s a multimedia event. It reaches far beyond the TV.”

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Disney Plugs In With Camp Rock 2 Sponsors

Anthony Crupi

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Anthony Crupi