Bestfoods seals ITV sponsor deal

Bestfoods-owned dessert brand Ambrosia Splat! Custard is to feature in the company’s first television sponsorship deal.

The &£1m one-year deal with Children’s ITV programme SM:TV Live was brokered by BMP OMD sponsorship arm BMP Optimum View. It was negotiated by Martin Lowde, commercial controller at ITV saleshouse Granada Media, on behalf of SM:TV Live producer London Weekend Television.

David Lowes, strategic business manager at Bestfoods, says: “The sponsorship of SM:TV Live is an important first for the Ambrosia brand. Through this association, we will build on our cheeky and fun brand values to become a more talked about brand in the playground.”

Bestfoods aims to develop what it calls a “real personality” for the brand.

The sponsorship will consist of break bumpers at the beginning and end of the TV show, together with credits either side of the central ad breaks.

The US multinational also owns the Hellmann’s mayonnaise and Knorr brands.

Between the late Eighties and mid-Nineties, it spent almost $1bn (&£620m) acquiring 50 companies.