14 Jan 2008


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Chicago Town to sponsor American Idol again

Chicago Town

frozen food

Source : Schwan's
Following the huge success of Chicago Town's sponsorship of American Idol in 2007, the UK's fastest growing pizza brand signed a six-figure deal with ITV Customer Relations, formerly ITV Sales, to become the official broadcast sponsor of 'American Idol' in the UK for the second year running.

American Idol

Last year’s sponsorship was successful in building brand perceptions and increased awareness. This was supported by an integrated below-the-line campaign which included an on-pack which generated over 100,000 entries.

Research undertaken by IPSOS MORI showed the brand linkage for this sponsorship as 72% smashing the 67% average. Furthermore, 92% of people thought that the brand was appropriate for the show way above the average of 62%, and 33% of our target audience were aware of the sponsorship, delivering 28% extra reach for the Chicago Town brand message. This year’s activity forms an integral part of a £5m investment by Schwan’s in its Chicago Town brand.

This year’s creative sees contestants audition using a similar format to the programme, following a series of people throughout their journey from first auditions to the live final, and will see its very own ‘winner’ as the American Idol winner is announced. Contestants and judges are distracted by the tastiness of the pizzas, driving its new proposition of Big Pizza Taste…Anytime.

A series of 10-second idents will appear at the beginning, middle and end of each programme which will run from January 17 for five months and will be aired on Thursday and Friday evenings on ITV2 with repeats over the weekend on and ITV2. And this year, the sponsorship will solely support Chicago Town’s 13cm Deep Dish and Thin Dish ranges, to really promote its new brand message.

Lisa Stoneley, Brand Manager for Chicago Town, said: "We are delighted to be sponsoring this season's 'American Idol' on ITV2 as we found it to be a very successful and highly marketable opportunity for Chicago Town in 2007.

"The high energy, big entertainment synergy between the two brands is perfect and the profile of 'American Idol' viewers matches exactly with our core audience. Plus, we know from research that people will be enjoying Chicago Town while watching the show, which sits perfectly with our new brand proposition of ‘Big Pizza Taste…Anytime.’

The sponsorship was brokered through the agency Mediaedge:cia, with creative by TWBA\ Manchester.

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