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Is I’m a Celebrity a good springboard for brands?

Posted in Advertising, Media, Nikki Preston, Latest reporters' blogs November 14th, 2007 by Nikki Preston

Iceland may be sponsoring ITV’s I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here for a second time, but it seems Tesco, Marks & Spencer and Boots have also followed suit and were also competing for the show’s 8.7 million viewers (38 per cent of all viewers) with their latest Christmas campaigns.

Although the Spice Girls, who star in the Tesco ad, and Antonio Banderas, who has a small cameo in M&S’s 104’s Hollywood film style campaign, are arguably far more famous than former has-been singers Kerry Katona and Jason Donovan, Iceland’s linking of them with the show appears to be quite clever marketing.

Loyal viewers of the show will remember Donovan as last year’s participant and Katona as the show’s first queen of the jungle and will therefore already have an interest in their appearance in the slot - I know I did.

By using celebrities that are relevant to the show and also incorporating jungle connotations in various executions of the ads, I think Iceland has done more than their fellow advertisers by holding audience attention right into the commercial breaks.

ITV must be patting themselves on the back so far, but might also be praying that the celebrities, namely lippy Janice Dickinson, don’t do or say anything to scare them away. Need I remind you of events earlier this year when Carphone Warehouse axed its sponsorship of Channel 4’s Celebrity Big Brother after Jade Goody made some unforgettable racist remarks.

So should Donovan and Katona continue playing silly buggers for Iceland or do you think Posh pushing a trolley round Tesco in high heels is a far more successful marketing ploy?