General Mills Sponsors Oxygen Dance-Competition Series

Setting the stage for the return of its signature dance-competition series Dance Your Ass Off, Oxygen is prepping a second five-city tour designed to pump up deliveries while slimming down viewers. And this time around, the network has landed a sponsor. Oxygen on Tuesday announced it has signed on the General Mills yogurt imprint Yoplait as the sponsor of a five-city tour in support of season two of Dance Your Ass Off. Kicking off June 6 in St. Paul, Minn.; the DYAO tour will touch down in New Orleans, New York, Washington and Orlando, Fla.Along with the obvious promotional angle, the tour carries with it a certain charitable touch. Exhorting attendees to “Dance Off a Million [Calories],” the events will benefit the American Heart Association. (Oxygen will make a $3,000 donation to local chapters of the AHA in each city the tour visits.)“After last year’s success for both the show and the tour, we are eager to once again reach out to fans and have them experience the fun and healthy benefits of Dance Your Ass Off,” said Jane Olson, senior vp marketing & brand strategy, Oxygen Media, by way of announcing the partnership. “We are fortunate to have our dance partner, Yoplait, as the sponsor and we look forward to contributing to the American Heart Association with the ‘Dance Off a Million’ pledge campaign.”New DYAO host Melanie Brown, (aka Mel B. of Spice Girls renown) will make an appearance at tour’s June 14 New York. The Gotham visit will come a week after the series has its season two premiere on Oxygen (Monday, June 7 at 11 p.m.). Oxygen’s aggressive promotion of DYAO paid off last year, as the show debuted to 1.27 million total viewers on June 29, 2009. At the time, it was the most-watched premiere in the network’s history. The 90-minute season opener also set high-water marks for two key demos, averaging 614,000 adults 18-49 and 432,000 women 18-49, per Nielsen live-plus-same-day ratings data.A hybrid of NBC’s The Biggest Loser and ABC’s Dancing With the Stars, DYAO features plus-size contestants who try to dance their way to a healthier lifestyle ... And a $100,000 grand prize. Last season was sponsored by the New York-based fitness chain Crunch.Oxygen averaged 524,000 viewers in prime time during the first quarter of 2010, up 17 percent versus a year ago. The network also showed growth among its two largest demos, gaining 6 percent among women 18-49 (200,000) and improving 11 percent among adults 18-49 (271,000).

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General Mills Sponsors Oxygen Dance-Competition Series

Anthony Crupi

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