New York -- Oxygen Media's fledgling cable network
received $70 million-plus in ad buys from four "strategic sponsors" and from
various other charter advertisers, including Kraft Foods Inc.
The sponsors -- which have multiyear co-marketing
agreements and have made ad buys -- are Procter & Gamble Co., Hewlett-Packard Co.,
Johnson & Johnson and The Right Start, Oxygen president of sales and marketing C.J.
Kettler said.
P&G's multiyear buy alone tops $20 million,
Kettler said. The Web phase of these clients' buys is due to break shortly, she
added.
Oxygen also added new terms to the advertising lexicon --
namely, "television stripe" and "partner utility bar."
The former describes the bar that always occupies the
bottom 12 percent of the TV screen -- a la Cable News Network's sports scoreboard.
Oxygen's stripe stays on even during commercials. The
stripe's contents will relate to the programming or advertising, displaying URLs
(uniform resource locators) or plugging Sunday coupon offers, Kettler said.
In a prepared statement, Oxygen CEO Geraldine Laybourne
referred to "expanding the boundaries of traditional advertising relationships."
Kettler later explained that this meant the sponsors' involvement would be "more
than just a media buy."
Kettler spelled out some details in the strategic
sponsors' buys:
P&G will advertise Oil of Olay, Pampers, Cover
Girl, Secret and some home-care products on cable and the Web site, plus co-develop Web
tools.
J&J will be the sole sponsor of special
multipart primetime TV programs for women, starting with On Being a Woman, focusing
on "various life stages," in the second half.
H-P will be the technology sponsor of Oxygen's Oprah
Goes Online cable series and of Oprah.com.
Right Start will promote child-development and
educational products as a sponsor on Moms Online and other areas within Oxygen's Web
site. The 50-store retailer will also plug Oxygen via in-store and in-package promo
materials in its 15 states.
