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A Premiere Platform

An exclusive primetime sponsorship on TNT puts Pfizer brands in an unusually bright spotlight.

For advertising giants, the best campaigns are often the most unusual. This is part of what drew Pfizer Inc. to "The Investigation So Far."

The 30-second vignette, which appears halfway through primetime episodes of "Law & Order" on TNT, brings viewers up to speed on what's happened so far in the storyline. Fast paced and slickly produced, the little segment is a natural addition to a show that devotes its first half-hour to investigating a crime, and its second to trying to bring the perpetrator to justice. Best of all, from an advertiser's point of view, is that the entire time "The Investigation So Far" is on the air, a classy-looking identifying graphic stretches across the lower third of the TV screen, carrying the sponsoring advertiser's logo.

The vignette is so eye-catching that Kaki Hinton, vice president of advertising for Pfizer's over-the-counter healthcare products, often gets stopped in the hall by colleagues asking how their brands managed to snare such a prominent platform. Hinton tells them it just made sense.

Pfizer's "Law & Order" sponsorship includes branded "The Investigation So Far" vignettes appearing halfway through each episode

Pfizer has had a relationship with "Law & Order" since it began appearing on NBC 14 years ago, Hinton says, and its relationship with Turner Broadcasting dates back even further. "We've been partners with TNT and TBS since they went on the air," she says.

What's more, "Law & Order's" demographics fit perfectly with the target audience for Pfizer's participating brands. "The show does excellent numbers against the brands involved," Hinton says. "We know through our internal tracking studies the kinds of people using these brands. We know who our primary demo is and the ratings and composition of those demos, and they're being delivered by 'Law & Order.'"

With more than $45 billion in sales last year, Pfizer ranks as one of the largest pharmaceutical and over-the-counter healthcare product companies in the U.S. The company's 39 non-prescription brands include such big names as Benadryl, Listerine, BenGay, Rolaids, Rogaine, Lubriderm, Neosporin and Visine. On the pharmaceutical side, 14 of the company's prescription drugs, including Celebrex, Viagra, Zoloft and Lipitor, are the top sellers in their therapeutic categories.

For Hinton, what separates a great TV campaign from an ordinary one is its ability to

stand out. "There's a lot of advertising on television," she says. "Each year, we ask our media partners to come back to us with innovative ways to break through."

"The Investigation So Far," the centerpiece of an exclusive sponsorship of episodes of "Law & Order" on TNT, fit the bill.

During first quarter of this year, four of Pfizer's over-the-counter healthcare brands took advantage of the platform. Listerine Citrus owned the relationship in January, Rolaids took the spotlight in February and Sudafed and Zantac 75 shared the sponsorship in March. During second quarter, three of Pfizer's prescription drugs, most likely Celebrex, Zyrtec and Zoloft, are taking over the exclusive sponsorship role.

As part of the sponsorship, Pfizer brands air commercials in six of 12 primetime episodes of "Law & Order" appearing each week on TNT. They also get prominent display at the beginning and end of tune-in spots, which promote the show, for example, as "Brought to you by TNT and Listerine." The brand's sponsorship gets more exposure during a spot opening the show, in closing billboards and in "You are watching" spots aired during the episode.

And then there's "The Investigation So Far," which announces its sponsor and carries its logo on-screen. Pfizer got to determine the tone of the vignettes, which can take a serious or light-hearted tone.

"This isn't something in the bag," says Linda Yaccarino, executive vice president of Turner Entertainment Networks. "The vignettes are customized for each advertiser, depending on the tone they want to communicate."

Pfizer chose a lighter approach, so vignettes highlight the sardonic humor of detectives in the series. The advertiser also got to screen "Law & Order" episodes in advance and choose which ones its brands would sponsor.

"What we accomplished are an implied endorsement and associated branding with a program that we feel is best of breed."

— Kaki Hinton, vice president of advertising, Pfizer Inc.

Because Pfizer's brands are exclusive sponsors of their episodes, they own "The Investigation So Far" during their relationship with the series. This means that on the nights when Pfizer's brands aren't sponsoring, the little vignette doesn't air. "One of the big reasons our promotions are so popular is that the client who owns them has promotional exclusivity," Yaccarino says. "They're the only ones who appear in the vignette during their sponsorship."

Pfizer's efforts to break through with its advertising have led to other media partnerships. Its Lubriderm brand took advantage of the limelight offered by TNT's Sunday morning "Movie and a Makeover," in which sponsoring products can play a role in a personal or home makeover chronicled during program breaks. In January, Listerine Citrus, a new product, was the category exclusive sponsor of TNT's original film, "The Goodbye Girl," and in February, Listerine PocketPaks sponsored TNT's telecast of the Screen Actors Guild Awards. Meanwhile, Efferdent, BenGay and Benadryl sponsored the Country Music Awards on CMT.

Listerine is one of several Pfizer brands that have been sponsoring primetime episodes of "Law & Order" on TNT during the first half of this year

In addition to TV, Pfizer uses magazines, radio and non-traditional outlets such as in-store kiosks and waiting room TV to promote its brands. "We're everywhere," Hinton says.

Last year, the company spent $219 million on cable television, according to Nielsen AdViews, which ranked it 11th among all advertisers using the medium. Pfizer uses a lot of cable "because of its targetability," Hinton says, "and because there are great shows on cable."

Its sponsorship of TNT's primetime telecasts of "Law & Order" brought it more than commercial pods in one of cable television's highest rated primetime programs, Hinton says. "What we accomplished are an implied endorsement and associated branding with a program that we feel is best of breed, wonderfully written and highly-rated," she says. "Commercials are great, but whenever possible, we look for innovative ways to set our brands apart from our competitors."

Reprinted with the permission of Adweek Magazines.

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