A Google Home Mini Integration Helps Jimmy Kimmel's Family Settle a Decades-Long Argument

Jimmy Kimmel Live’s weeklong return to Brooklyn was going to be one of the show’s highest-profile events this year even before its recent ratings gains, and Disney-ABC has assembled some unprecedented partnerships for this week’s shows. Every night of Kimmel’s broadcast from the Brooklyn Academy of Music will feature a major integration with a different brand. Last night’s episode showcased Bank of America, and Kimmel assembled his entire family for the spot in tonight’s show, featuring Google Home Mini. The spot, which was filmed on Sept. 28, features Kimmel and his family eating dinner together, and arguing. The host says, "This is what our family dinner was like before Google Home Mini,” and it flashes back to 1978, as younger versions of themselves quarrel over which subway line to take from their home in Flatbush to Coney Island. Back in the present day, Kimmel says, “There’s no point in fighting; we can just ask an expert,” and enlists Google Home Mini to help them out. In addition to the spot, Google is running a Google Home Mini ad during tonight's episode. Adweek has an early look at a clip from tonight’s Google Home Mini integration: [kickout id="1"] The weeklong integration is one of the first major efforts from Disney-ABC’s integrated marketing team since the company reorganized in February, creating a portfolio-wide ad sales division. Kimmel has long embraced brand partnerships, but this is the first time he and the show have attempted something this ambitious. “It’s very customized to each brand,” said Debra O’Connell, evp, sales and marketing for Disney-ABC Television Group. Each night’s spot “is very different, depending on the brand goals and directives, and what we wanted to focus on together to creatively make it fun.” Last night’s Bank of America integration, promoting its app and its “Pay Back a Friend Day” campaign, featured sidekick Guillermo Rodriguez. [kickout id="2"] Creating each spot was “a very collaborative process” between the brands and the show, said O’Connell. Kimmel and his team “want to make sure it is something that works for our clients, but also keeps Jimmy’s authenticity.” The family dinner setting was ideal for Google Home Mini, which is “a product that can be used and shared inside the home,” said O’Connell. “What’s more fun and authentic than that dining room conversation, that family dinner, and having someone settle those arguments?” This is Kimmel's second integration this year with Google, which has been partnering with Disney-ABC on integrations across its brands for the past two years. "There's no doubt Jimmy is on fire at the moment. He's one of the most talked about people on TV and he's using his platform in a positive way," said Cameron Luby, head of consumer marketing for Google Home. "It also makes sense for Google Home Mini to be a part of Jimmy coming home to Brooklyn to see his family. We’re a shared family device, after all." O’Connell said her team had been focused on Kimmel’s Brooklyn shows almost since the ad sales reorganization in February. “It’s a very big event for us,” said O’Connell. And the event has become even bigger given Kimmel’s recent ratings surge in the wake of his speaking out about current events like the Oct. 1 mass shooting in Las Vegas—his hometown—and the latest effort to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, a subject that has been very personal to Kimmel since last spring, when his newborn son required emergency open-heart surgery at just three days old. On Sept. 13, Jimmy Kimmel Live was the most-watched late night show in total viewers, topping both The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Then on Monday, Sept. 25, the show was No. 1 in the 18-49 demo. Disney-ABC had locked in its integration partners for the show’s Brooklyn visit over the summer, before the recent ratings victories.