12/9/2014 The New York Times By
SATIRE is what closes on Saturday night, George S. Kaufman said of the theater in the 1930s, but on television these days an automaker is eagerly stepping up its involvement with a series that spoofs its target audience.
Subaru of America is returning for a fifth season of “Portlandia,” the comedy series on the IFC cable channel that pokes fun at the fads and foibles of residents of Portland, Ore., and the Pacific Northwest, with humorous exaggerations like a “feminist carwash.”
Subaru decided to run commercials during the first season of “Portlandia” because Oregon and the Pacific states are such an important market for the company. In each subsequent season, the company — buoyed by what was deemed the positive response from consumers — has become a larger part of “Portlandia,” spending additional sums on steps like integrating its cars into scenes, sponsoring online video and offering viewers a chance to watch favorite sketches of the show’s stars, Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein.
Now, for the fifth season, which begins on Jan. 8, Subaru and IFC are taking the partnership to a higher level. For instance, Subaru will sponsor an online teaser campaign for the new season, “Come Along for the Ride to Season Five,” that IFC is to start on Wednesday. There will be three integrations of Subarus into sketches during the 10 episodes of the new season, among them a bit involving Ms. Brownstein’s character seeking to share a ride with Mr. Armisen’s character. Subaru will also be the season’s exclusive automotive sponsor.
The relationship between IFC and Subaru is an example of a growing trend in the marketing and television industries as they grapple with declining ratings and the ease with which viewers can avoid or ignore traditional commercials. The trend, which goes by names like branded content, content marketing or branded entertainment, is a contemporary version of the way business was done during the early days of television, when the names of sponsors appeared in the titles of shows — “Bell Telephone Hour,” “Camel News Caravan” — and cast members delivered commercials or sang jingles.
“We’re always looking for different ways to reach people,” said Brian Cavallucci, national advertising manager at Subaru of America in Cherry Hill, N.J., and it has become “a cool thing to be that much involved” with “Portlandia.”
Mr. Cavallucci acknowledged the potential pitfalls of such partnerships. “There are times when you have to take calculated risk as a brand,” he said, like when a Subaru appeared in a sketch titled “Feminist Carwash” or was featured in another sketch, “Fifteen Minutes,” in which Mr. Armisen and Ms. Brownstein got physical in the back seat of a Subaru.
“It can be a big headache if the right people aren’t involved,” Mr. Cavallucci said. “We know the writers know our brand.”
Another possible problem is when viewers perceive product placement as forced and unnatural. The goal is to be “authentic and organic,” Mr. Cavallucci said, so that the cars seem “part of the story.”
It helped that Subarus sell so well in the region in which “Portlandia” is set, he added, and that metrics showing “engagement with and shareability of web extensions” indicate the partnership is a good fit.
Subaru negotiates the partnership in the so-called upfront market before the start of each television season. The Subaru media buying agency is BPN, part of the IPG Mediabrands division of the Interpublic Group of Companies, and its creative agency is another Interpublic agency, Carmichael Lynch, which also handles tasks like media planning, partnerships and integrations.
“Those agencies, Subaru, IFC and the creators of ‘Portlandia’ have an enormous amount of trust in each other that has benefited the show,” said Jennifer Caserta, president for the IFC division of AMC Networks in New York.
“Integrations that work well in an ad-skipping world are more important than ever,” she added, and “the great deal of creative freedom” provided by Subaru and the agencies enables the “Portlandia” creators to produce content that is “playful and fun” while portraying Subaru as “a distinct character in the show.”
Asked if IFC one day might schedule a sponsored series with a title like “The Subaru Show,” Ms. Caserta replied that the cost of such a billing to a single advertiser “is a big leap” and that other advertisers might take that to mean they were being “shut out” of buying commercials. (In television’s early days, a marketer with its name in a series title usually bought all or almost all of the commercials in every episode — an expensive proposition given contemporary television rates.)
Although IFC and Subaru declined to discuss financial details of the partnership, Ms. Caserta said the company had doubled its ad spending on IFC since Season 1. That could amount to a significant, seven-figure sum because, according to data from Kantar Media, a division of WPP that tracks ad spending, Subaru spends much more each year on commercials that run on cable channels than on those on broadcast networks.
For example, of the $97.4 million that Subaru spent on television in the first six months of this year, Kantar Media reported, cable accounted for $58 million and broadcast for $39.5 million. And of the $161.4 million that Subaru spent on TV for all of 2013, according to Kantar Media, cable accounted for $94.7 million and broadcast for $66.7 million.
Correction: December 12, 2014
The Advertising column on Wednesday, about Subaru’s partnerships with the “Portlandia” series on IFC, misstated the duties of Subaru of America’s agencies. BPN handles media buying, not all media tasks. Carmichael Lynch, the creative agency, also handles tasks like media planning, partnerships and integrations.
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