ONdigital sponsors LWT for launch
Digital TV provider ONdigital will sponsor ten hours of LWT prog-rammes when it launches this Sunday.
The package includes a James Bond movie which will be chosen by viewers.
Advertisements in the Evening Standard will invite people to vote by telephone for either The Living Daylights with Timothy Dalton in the lead role, From Russia With Love starring Sean Connery, or For Your Eyes Only with Roger Moore.
The interactive element, called “The Battle of the Bonds”, aims to show ONdigital’s commitment to viewer choice. Subscribers to the service, which is received through an ordinary aerial, choose six channels from a total of 11 at a cost of 7.99 a month.
ONdigital sponsorship credits will run before the LWT weather at 12.55pm; An Audience With All Saints; the Bond movie; Park Life, about Battersea park; Dinner Dates, a restaurant review show, and then the LWT weather at 6.45pm and 10.50pm.
The credits will show the ONdigital brand superimposed on an aerial shot of a leafy housing estate. The shot’s frame is out of focus and is supposed to illustrate the clearer pictures given by digital television.
Martin Lowde, commercial controller of Granada Media Commercial Enterprises, says: “People notice the items that are screened around programmes.”
Marc Sands, brand director, ONdigital, says: “We are aiming for saturation coverage this weekend.”
The sponsorship will be supported by advertising on Capital Radio, promotions on LWT and a teletext page. It was negotiated by Drum PHD, part of ONdigital’s media agency, New PHD.
TV spot advertising through BMP DDB for ONdigital breaks this Wednesday in London, and will be followed a week later by ads in the Granada and Yorkshire Tyne Tees regions.
