Sky Launches "Flexible Sponsorship Packages" for Sky Active

--Packages Blur the Lines between Programming and Advertising
--Captain Birds Eye-Sponsored Content Debuts on "Health & Lifestyle" Section

Sky has launched what it terms "flexible sponsorship packages" for its interactive TV portal, Sky Active. The packages allow advertisers to associate their brand or product with relevant editorial content and promotions within the portal, which late last year was redesigned to provide viewers with what Sky describes as a "magazine-style"--i.e. editorially driven and video-rich--experience. The first advertiser to take advantage of the new packages is frozen food brand, Captain Birds Eye, which has become the first-ever sponsor of one of Sky Active's feature sections: for four weeks, the brand will sponsor Sky Active's Health & Lifestyle section as part of its ongoing "Nutrition Mission" advertising campaign. During the term of the sponsorship, Sky Active will publish a series of editorial features that are thematically linked to the Nutrition Mission campaign: the features, which will be targeted at Sky Active's daytime audience (a significant part of which is made up of mothers with young children), will include tips on healthy eating and explanations of why the various food groups are important to a child's health. In addition to these editorial tie-ins, Captain Birds Eye's brand and strap line will be displayed throughout the Health & Lifestyle section for the duration of the sponsorship, and its linear TV commercials will appear regularly on Sky Active's video-based front page and on its contents page: viewers will be able to jump directly to the Health & Lifestyle section via dedicated links on both pages. In addition to offering sponsorship of its existing features pages, Sky says it plans to work with advertisers to develop sponsored programming on Sky Active that is "fully integrated with their campaign objectives and target audience." In a prepared statement, Sky Active director, Alasdair Wright, said that "last year's redesign of Sky Active as a magazine- style channel has created unprecedented opportunities for advertisers to get more closely involved in interactive content. Clients," the statement continued, "can choose either to extend existing interactive campaigns with supporting editorial content or to pursue standalone opportunities within Sky Active. Captain Birds Eye's Nutrition Mission is an excellent illustration of how Sky Active can engage consumers in content that supports advertisers' commercial objectives. We look forward to exploring the exciting potential of branded interactive content still further in the future."

The new advertising packages build on a Sky Active advertising campaign that Sky Interactive developed earlier this year for the Chemical Brothers' album, "Push the Button," and that also blurred the distinction between programming and advertising. The campaign featured Chemical Brothers music videos running on the Sky Active front page, and made a promotional "jukebox" app available 24/7 on Sky Active. While hybrid content that merges programming and advertising is prohibited on linear TV in the UK, that prohibition does not extend--for now at least--to interactive TV.

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