Nine’s upcoming season of Australian Ninja Warrior has locked in big brands Sanofi, Aldi and Nutri-Grain as new sponsors.
The competition show returns for its fourth season on Sunday, July 26. The show has been a ratings hit for Nine, closing off its previous season last year with 1.87 million national viewers.
Tapping into this success, the new sponsors Aldi, Sanofi and Nutri-Grain join returning brands including Energizer and KFC, as well as REA, AAMi and Ahm.
“Australian Ninja Warrior is a powerhouse format that dominates the demographics and has a real influence to bring families around the television,” says Nine’s director of Powered, Liana Dubois.
“This makes it a brilliant format for our clients. We are very excited to be partnering with our returning brands and thrilled to have new brands join us on board another action-charged season of Australian Ninja Warrior.”
Powered will work with Sanofi Consumer Healthcare to help design integrated TV ads for its winter brands Cenovis, Nature’s Own, Betadine, Bisolvon and Mersynofen, positioning them as ‘The Winter Superheroes’. Sanofi will also leverage the Australian Ninja Warrior brand through logo association across POS, digital and print.
Meanwhile, Aldi will have branded logos on digital perimeter screens alongside the obstacle course and also across the on-screen leader and hero boards.
Nutri-grain will have an integrated back story in-program featuring footage of Ironman and Ironwoman competitors with a Nutri-Grain-branded logo appearing on the digital perimeter screens alongside the obstacle course and during the Ninja runs.
Returning for the second year, Energizer will have on-ground branding with The Power Tower occurring at the end of each heat and semi-final, where it will be Ninja vs Ninja for the first time.
The battery manufacturer will also receive a branded logo associated with an on-screen timer shown during Ninja runs, a bespoke, integrated billboard featuring their famous animated Mr Energizer and an interactive digital fireplace game.
“Ninja Warrior is one of Australia’s most loved TV shows and perfectly encapsulates Energizer’s values of power, performance and endurance,” says Shivani Maharaj, Wavemaker’s national head of content and partnerships.
“We are thrilled to see the brand new obstacle, The Power Tower, come to life and believe that 2020 is set to be an amazing year for Ninja Warrior.
“Completing production during the pandemic was challenging, but Nine, Powered and Endemol Shine have demonstrated agility and flexibility. The production community deserves a medal for how they are adapting shows, especially those that rely on a live audience.
“We’ve seen what has successfully been done on The Voice and now we will see it on Australian Ninja Warrior. We couldn’t have asked for better partners to work with at this time and we are delighted for Wavemaker and Energizer to be a part of it.”
Returning for its fourth year, KFC will also have branded logos on digital perimeter screens and crowd incidentals with branded foam fingers. KFC has also commissioned Powered Studios to create a new digital content series called ‘Thrill and Spills’ on the official Australian Ninja Warrior website, with branded playout in-program to drive the series.
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