Matalan inks Sky music deal to target young women

Matalan is widening its sponsorship strategy to target young women after signing a deal with Sky to sponsor two live music shows this summer.

The retailer is to sponsor the first runs and repeats of Madonna and Girls Aloud concerts across several Sky channels.

Matalan advertising manager Fiona Lamming says the sponsorship will help bring the discount chain into the “evening arena”, widening recognition beyond the “housewives with kids” market of its current sponsorship of GMTV’s LK Today, the morning television chat show hosted by Lorraine Kelly.

She adds the clothing retailer hopes to build “greater” awareness of its recently launched Be Beau among 16- to 25-year-old women by sponsoring the broadcasts.

The Be Beau range is billed as “catwalk-inspired styles from boho to feminine florals”.

Matalan recently announced plans to add three stores to its 203 UK outlets, after posting an increase in profit. The value chain reported operating profit rose to £102m for the 12 months to February from £89m a year earlier.

The sponsorship agreement includes Matalan-branded credits as well as 15-second opening and closing credits with five-second break bumpers on both concerts. Five-second branding will also appear on promotional activity that is over 20 seconds in length.

The deal was brokered by Stephen Ladlow at Sky Media, and Lamming at Matalan.