March 31st, 2002
Coming: Jay Leno and the Lincolns --- In Return for Big Ad Dollars, Talk Show Will Work Cars From Fo
By Suzanne Vrancia
Wall Street Journal
Ford Motor Co.’s Lincoln and the NBC network’s "The Tonight Show With
Jay Leno" have struck a deal that’s the latest example of how big-spending
advertisers are gaining greater sway over programming.
The agreement calls for the country’s top-rated late-night talk show to feature
Lincolns. In exchange, NBC gets Ford advertising valued at about $9 million,
which will be spent across the network.
As part of its media investment, Lincoln will build a concert stage adjacent
to the soundstage used by Mr. Leno’s show. The new stage will hold a variety
of Lincoln models, including the luxury Navigator SUV.
During the summer, popular music groups will perform on the stage. Segments
of those performances, dubbed "The Lincoln Garage Concert Series,"
will air each Friday as the musical feature of "The Tonight Show."
Lincoln also would like to have the musical performers be driven onto the stage
in Lincoln vehicles, or have Jay Leno, an avid car buff, mention the brand on
air. That hasn’t been agreed on, but NBC will air network promotions hyping
the Lincoln concert series.
NBC, a unit of General Electric Co., confirms that is has entered into a sponsorship
deal with Lincoln but declines to comment about its details.
Such product placement on TV has been a hot trend since the May 2000 debut
of "Survivor" on Viacom Inc.’s CBS, which prominently featured products
and logos from advertisers such as Target Corp. and Schering-Plough Corp.’s
Dr. Scholl’s. "Murder in Small Town X," a reality-show series that
appeared on News Corp.’s Fox last summer, included product placements by Taco
Bell, a unit of Tricon Global Restaurants Inc., and DaimlerChrysler AG’s Jeep.
Both advertisers received the product-placement sweeteners in return for their
ad buys.
Last year, OMD, the big ad-placement firm owned by Omnicom Group Inc., negotiated
a package with Viacom’s UPN network that included having State Farm Mutual Automobile
Insurance Co. worked into a plot line of "The Hughleys," a sitcom
about an African-American suburban family starring comic D.L. Hughley. (Another
part of the deal, calling for McDonald’s Corp. to play a part in the Hughleys’
life, didn’t work out.)
The moves reflect how anxious the major networks are to sew up lucrative marketers
in the ongoing ad drought. "Networks are looking to find different ways
to latch on to advertisers for long periods of time in order to get a bigger
share of the market," says Jack Valente, executive vice president at WPP
Group’s Mediadge:CIA, Lincoln’s ad-buying agency.
The Leno deal in particular is reminiscent of the early days of TV, when advertisers
unsubtly sponsored entire shows such as "Colgate Theatre" and "Texaco
Star Theater." Today, consumer watchdog groups worry not so much about
sponsorship but about the blurring of the line between content and advertising.
"Product placement is another violation of the advertising and editorial
line," says Gary Ruskin, executive director of Commercial Alert, a nonprofit
organization founded four years ago by consumer activist Ralph Nader. "That
line used to be sacred and is now crumbling."
Even some advertising executives worry about the growing number of product
plugs embedded in TV shows. "If product placement is overdone, it devalues
the programming," says Ellis Verdi, president of DeVito/Verdi Inc., a New
York ad agency. "You cheapen the product."
For the networks, however, getting the accounts of big advertisers such as
car makers is a top priority. Lincoln spent about $263 million on ads last year,
while Ford’s entire media spending surpassed $1.2 billion, according to Taylor
Nelson Sofres’s CMR.
The marketing concept also shows how advertisers are looking to stretch their
ad dollars during negotiations. Mediaedge:CIA went to several networks last
June on behalf of Lincoln, saying the car maker was willing to spend heavily
in return for more than traditional ad time. During robust periods of ad spending,
such overtures might be been swatted away. This time, most networks were willing
to listen.
"It was like a little contest," says Anne Belec, vice president of
marketing for Ford’s Lincoln-Mercury vehicles. "It was a very good year
in terms of the willingness of everybody to want to be accommodating."
Lincoln had a variety of riches to chose from before finally picking NBC. One
media concern offered up movie product placements, while a magazine-publishing
house considered opening up its archives of photography to create a museum exhibit
that Lincoln could sponsor.
One magazine deal did materialize. In return for purchasing about $10 million
of ads in Hearst Corp. magazines such as Harper’s Bazaar and O, The Oprah Magazine,
Hearst agreed to create a custom 44-page magazine dubbed "New Cultural
Icons," which will be shipped along with some Hearst subscriptions. Lincoln
will be the sole advertiser.
Even as the ad market begins to see signs of a recovery, Michael Clinton, executive
vice president and chief marketing officer at Hearst, believes advertisers will
continue to demand these types of deals. Hearst will produce about 15 ad packages
this year that go beyond traditional media buying.
For Lincoln, "The Tonight Show" deal and the alliance with Hearst
are an attempt at shaking up its stodgy image, which has been mostly associated
with the affluent older adults who have traditionally purchased Lincoln Town
Cars and Lincoln Continentals. The average Lincoln buyer is 51 years old, according
to J.D. Power & Associates.
"From a media standpoint and creative standpoint, we need to disrupt people’s
preconceived notions of Lincoln," says David Murphy, chief executive of
Lincoln’s ad agency, WPP’s Young & Rubicam in Irvine, Calif. He says the
Lincoln Navigator and new Aviator sport-utility vehicles are beginning to attract
younger customers, but adds, "There is still more work to be done."