Equitable Life in £4m Frasier deal

Equitable Life is to sponsor television sitcom Frasier in a deal worth £4m a year.

The deal means Equitable sponsorship credits will appear around episodes of Frasier shown on Channel 4, the Paramount Comedy Channel and British Airway’s inflight TV service. It includes a merchandising arrangement with Paramount Pictures – Comedy Channel parent and owner of the Frasier TV rights.

New PHD is working on both elements of the deal, which will run initially for six months and is expected to continue for at least a year.

Mark Boyd, account manager for Equitable at New PHD, says: “Final details of the merchandising element are to be confirmed, but we are likely to see Equitable policy holders given merchandise such as Frasier videos, as well as the Equitable logo appearing on Frasier videos and T-shirts in stores selling Paramount products.”

“Frasier is fair, intelligent, professional and upmarket, just like Equitable’s customer base,” adds Boyd.

Paramount will include some Equitable material on its Website.

The first sponsorship credits will be broadcast on C4 tomorrow (Friday) and feature a redesigned corporate identity, created by Euro RSCG Direct Marketing.

Equitable recently won a High Court case that allows it to renege on its pension income guarantees. It had lost a lot of credibility when it decided not to honour the guaranteed annuity rates it promised on some of its pensions. These offered policy holders a guaranteed income from the pot of money they had built up during the course of their policy.