Diet Coke To Sponsor New Series Of Ugly Betty
'Diet Coke' has announced sponsorship of Series 3 of Ugly Betty, the award-winning comedy, on Channel 4 and E4.
The ABC Studios production, which will broadcast from June, sees Betty Suarez (America Ferrera) returning from her round-the-world trip and making some big decisions about what to do with her life and which man to do it with.
The sponsorship will consist of idents across all transmissions of the show on Channel 4, E4 and Channel 4's PC VOD service, www.channel4.com/catchup. 'Diet Coke' will also have branding on Channel 4's Ugly Betty website which will link through to a bespoke microsite on cokezone.co.uk.
The idents creative, produced by Mother, feature a marionette style puppet called Eleanor who is a stylish, sassy, sophisticated puppet who pulls her own strings. To complement the fashion based setting of Ugly Betty, each ident centres around fashion and how it can be shaped to express individuality. Eleanor is showcased taking control of her own puppet strings, enabling her to turn her back on what society dictates and channel her signature style in her own unique way - from using her jewel-encrusted industrial welding torch to customise an extravagant couture dress to burning a hole in a hat and fashioning it as a scarf.
Cathryn Sleight, Marketing Director for CCGB says: "Linking up with Ugly Betty is a great fit for 'diet Coke'. This partnership is the ideal platform to both target the 'diet Coke' core audience and reach out to a new generation of female drinkers, with the stand-out idents bringing to life the brand's ethos in a unique and inspirational way which perfectly complements the theme of Ugly Betty."
Click here to view the idents.
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For further information, please contact: Jessica Silver, Lexis PR, 020 7908 6545 / jsilver@lexispr.com
'Coca-Cola' remains one of the most successful and innovative brands in the world today. On-going brand and product innovation continues to reinforce this position of leadership in the soft drinks category. In the latest 52 week period 'Coca-Cola' trade mark has had a fantastic year with retail value sales growing by 3.7% to £523.7 million. The My Coke portfolio (which includes 'Coca-Cola', 'diet Coke' and 'Coca-Cola Zero') experienced retail sales of £982.5 million in the same period with growth of 2% in value and 2.9% in volume versus the previous year. 'Diet Coke' sales stand at £400 million with growth of almost 1% versus last year. Meanwhile, 'Coca-Cola Zero', which has been hailed as the biggest NPD launch in over 20 years, is now worth £57.9m. (Nielsen Total Coverage 52 w.e 06.06.09).
Performance in the 'year to date' 2009 is even stronger with 'My Coke' growing at 3.1% in value, 'Coca-Cola' +4.6%, 'diet Coke' +1.6% and 'Coca-Cola Zero' showing a very strong 7.6% value growth versus last year (Nielsen Total Coverage YTD 06.06.09).
