Oxygen Lands Ikea for 'Tori & Dean'

Oxygen Media has assembled what may be its most ambitious multiplatform advertising deal to date, securing Swedish furniture brand Ikea as a fully integrated sponsor of Tori & Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood.Designed to make a contextual link between the series’ start-up family vibe and Ikea’s homey line of flat-pack furnishings, the deal includes product integration in two episodes of Tori & Dean, which begins its fifth season on April 5. Over the course of the twin installments, the titular couple will renovate their kitchen with Ikea cabinets, countertops and fixtures.The pact marks Ikea’s first integrated sponsorship and extends through all 10 episodes this season. In addition to placement in the show’s narrative, Ikea will be featured in branded weekly vignettes, on-air billboards, tagged tune-ins and standard 30-second spots. Ikea has also nailed down an exclusive sponsorship of the network’s social media site, OxygenLive, which lets viewers interact with each other and series regulars as each episode unfolds. Billing the service as a “real-time viewing party,” Oxygen today plans to introduce live video and mobile chat functionality to the site.Oxygen execs declined to say what the deal is worth. Excluding online spend, Ikea invested $85 million in measured media a year ago, down 8 percent from $92 million in 2008. If Tori & Dean isn’t the net’s biggest ratings draw––that honor goes to the bibulous Bad Girls Club, which regularly draws around 2 million viewers––it may be Oxygen’s most ad-friendly original series. Ikea USA media manager Alia Kemet said the collaboration “just made sense,” given the show’s focus on home and family. None of which is to say that integrations are necessarily off-limits for more, um, spirited fare like Bad Girls Club. “Nothing is 100 percent radioactive,” said one TV buyer who declined to speak for attribution. “Sure, when you have a client that gets fully immersed in a series, you’re going to be wary of content issues. But when you’re targeting younger viewers, you’re working with a different set of parameters.” (With a median age of 24, Bad Girls Club draws a decidedly greener crowd.)Susan Malfa, svp of ad sales at Oxygen Media, said she’s been kicking the tires on a few different BGC integrations, although it’s too early to say with whom. And while the net is easing itself into the multiplatform pool—its first such deal closed a year ago, when Crunch Fitness joined forces with the cheekily named competition series Dance Your Ass Off—these specialized executions will become more commonplace from here on out.“It’s an evolution. As our shows start bringing in a dedicated audience, we’re also creating new ways for viewers to engage with our brand,” said Malfa. “The more defined our brand becomes, the more effectively we can align content with our clients’ brands.”As Malfa works to grow Oxygen’s integrations, the core business is growing too. According to SNL Kagan, Oxygen in 2009 notched $134.3 million in net ad revenue, up 4 percent versus the previous year.On the eve of Oxygen’s April 6 upfront presentation, the network is presenting itself as the Ms. Right to its rivals’ Miss Havisham. In a new ad targeting media buyers, a sparkly blonde accessorized with an iPhone is meant to represent Oxygen’s younger, richer viewers. In the background, a somewhat dowdy middle-aged woman is offered up as a stand-in for the Lifetime crowd.

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Oxygen Lands Ikea for 'Tori & Dean'

Anthony Crupi

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