VBS scheme to lure TV advertisers

Viacom Brand Solutions (VBS) – the sales house for MTV, VH1, Nickelodeon and Paramount Comedy – is to attract new advertisers to television and encourage lapsed clients back through a new initiative.

Force for Enterprise, the sister scheme to its Force for Good programme, aims to launch ten campaigns in 2009 to help start-up businesses and brands with no TV advertising budget.

VBS says it will match the media investment “pound for pound” that it put into its former initiative, but this time it will also consider a revenue-sharing scheme to help bring these campaigns to air.

The Force for Enterprise initiative follows research looking into the success of TV campaigns.

VBS managing director Nick Bampton says: “Allthe research shows us that, time and time again, television advertising works. Current economic conditions should not stop brands from investing in a medium that delivers results.”

Bampton adds that Force for Enterprise will “help generate business for us all”.

Trends Insight, page 28