TurboTax, NBC team to promote each other's products
NEW YORK -- NBC is trying to juice up revenue by making custom commercials for marketers.
In an estimated $20 million campaign running throughout February, software brand TurboTax commercials mention nine NBC shows by name, including Heroes and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. NBC wrote, produced and shot the commercials that are themed to its shows and will run in ad breaks in those shows. The campaign is one of at least 20 planned in 2009 for NBC.
"We want to be the media company that pushes the envelope and tries things differently," says Mike Pilot, NBC's president of advertising sales.
In tough times, marketers are especially eager to experiment with innovative ways to offset the sharp drop in ad revenue. The move is also an attempt to offset the ongoing decline in ad viewing because of audience fragmentation and the growing use of recording devices such as TiVo.
The major broadcast networks — including Fox, CBS and ABC — all have tried similar moves, but NBC is moving more aggressively than most to make custom ads for marketers. By using its own team of writers and producers for the TurboTax campaign, NBC collects revenue for making the ads, media time for running the ads and gets to plug its own shows. By doing the work in-house, NBC cuts out the middleman: the traditional Madison Avenue advertising agency.
"We met with a bunch of different folks, and NBC came to the table with the ability to work all across their properties," says David Kirven, director of brand strategy for TurboTax. "Other folks could not come up with the breadth of operations and doing it in a very coordinated fashion."
The ads are set in a TV viewer's home when NFL Network host Rich Eisen pops into the house. He pitches TurboTax and TV shows in the same breath.
For instance, in the ad that runs during Sci Fi's Ghost Hunters, he asks a couple: "Watching Ghost Hunters International?" He then goes on to tell them that their ghost-hunting equipment "would all be a write-off" and that TurboTax can help.
