Kia signs deal to sponsor Five’s US crime dramas

Kia has signed a £1m deal with Five to sponsor all of its US crime drama series. The move is part of new managing director Paul Philpott’s strategy to build the Korean marque’s brand awareness in the UK.

From this week, Kia will sponsor CSI, CSI Miami, CSI NY, Law and Order, The Shield, NCIS and Criminal Minds. Each programme will start with a 15-second ident and end with a ten-second ident, with five-second idents either side of each commercial break. Kia’s logo will also feature on all Five’s trailers for the shows.

The sponsorship will initially promote the new Kia cee’d, with further models featuring throughout the year-long deal. Kia estimates the sponsorship will help the company reach 30 million adults, or 64% of the UK’s adult population.

Philpott, who was previously Toyota GB’s commercial director, joined Kia in February and is currently building a new senior management team to help build the brand.

Philpott says: “TV sponsorship is an excellent way of raising long-term awareness for our brand and because of the sheer scale of it, will ensure that both our brand and our key models will be more easily recognised by the general public as the sponsorship builds.”

Toyota signed several high-profile sponsorships during Philpott’s time as commercial director, including a deal where its Aygo model sponsored Channel 4’s T4.

Earlier this year, Kia signed a deal with UEFA to become one of the sponsors of Euro 2008. Kia said at the time that the sponsorship formed part of its expansion strategy in Europe.