Greene King Sponsors Ant And Dec In £1 Million Deal

Greene King is to sponsor Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway in a £1 million sponsorship deal, a first for a UK pub company.

The deal centres on Greene King’s sponsorship of the latest series of Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway, with 80 seconds airtime in prime time slots, as well as additional exposure on ITV2 and branding on the ITV website.

The creative for the TV slots will identify a number of Greene King pubs around the UK. Nine screens will appear in the lead-in to the ad-break, each of which with a different image inside. The camera will zoom into one of them where a pub name will be represented by the image. For example, an elephant walking on screen with a castle in the background will identify the Elephant and Castle pub and its location, with the tagline Greene King, the sign of a great pub.

In addition, the company is running a scratchcard promotion in Greene King pubs across the UK. There are over £4 million worth of prizes to be won, including tickets to the show where each week one person wins all the featured products in the ad-breaks during the programme. Other prizes include a car, a flat screen TV, MP3 players, and Greene King’s premium ales.

Rooney Anand, chief executive officer, Greene King said: “We’re delighted to have secured such a great sponsorship opportunity with one of the most popular and appealing entertainment shows on television. Millions of viewers watch the show each Saturday night so this is the ideal platform for us to create awareness and interest in Greene King across the UK.

“Our leading ale and pub brands such as Greene King IPA, Abbot Ale, Old Speckled Hen, Hungry Horse, Old English Inns and Belhaven pubs in Scotland are already well loved. We believe that this new initiative with ITV will further enhance the profile of Greene King and encourage our customers to associate the company with our brands.”

ITV: 020 7843 8000 www.itv.com