Campbell Takes Health to Heart

Soup Maker Preps 2nd Campaign With ABC Daytime Shows

By Jon Lafayette

The Campbell Soup Co., in an integrated marketing campaign, will promote women’s heart health in all of ABC’s daytime programming during the month of February.

The campaign, including the programming, advertising and public service announcements, will be repeated on ABC’s SoapNet cable channel and also appear on the Web sites ABC.com and SoapNet.com.

Campbell Soup and ABC ran a similar program last year, and both the network and the marketer said they were eager to do it again because of the concentration of women in the ABC daytime audience, and because of the attention women pay to soap operas.

“We were really pleased to be able to position our heart-health story in an environment where women are fully engaged in a regular basis,” said Colleen Milway, global media director at Campbell Soup. “ABC has really been able to integrate our storylines in a way that it’s an organic part of their programming.”

The campaign also sells soup.

“This is the second year of this partnership with ABC, and I don’t think we’d be doing it if we didn’t feel it had a strong impact on our business,” Ms. Milway said.

Neither Ms. Milway, nor Brian Frons, president of daytime for the Disney-ABC Television Group, would disclose how much Campbell paid for the integration.

“It is something that’s helpful to us financially, but I think it’s something that’s well worth doing,” Mr. Frons said.

Between the special storylines in the shows and the public service announcement featuring ABC talent carrying the heart-health message, “The audience sees that the actors they are watching every day care about them and their health, so it’s a terrific opportunity for us as well,” he said.

Over the course of a month, ABC’s daytime programming delivers nearly 26.6 million women. The network is tied with CBS among women 18 to 49 with a 1.3 rating this season. In primetime, SoapNet registered the biggest audience in its history in terms of total viewers during the fourth quarter, and its second-best with women 18 to 49.

The heart-health theme has been integrated into ABC’s soaps in different ways.

On “All My Children,” the hospital will open a new cardiac wing with a luncheon sponsored on the show by Campbell. Actual Campbell executives will appear in the episodes, Ms. Milway said.

On “One Life to Live,” characters Vicki and Dorian will co-host the second annual Valentine’s Day Go Red Ball, which is sponsored by Campbell. Vicki has a history of heart disease.

“General Hospital” will feature an episode recalling its heart-transplant storyline with an “It’s a Wonderful Life” twist. The character Maxie, who received the transplant, is the editor of a magazine that’s donating a dress to be worn at a Go Red gala.

“Because we own our own shows, we can really directly and quickly sit down with our exec producers and head writers, and because they’ve had some success with it, I think now they actually look at it as an opportunity to sort of outdo each other in terms of being entertaining and informative at the same time,” Mr. Frons said. “We actually enhanced the entertainment value of the shows and we actually had a happy client. We don’t get to have everybody happy at the same time very often in TV.”

During the month, each soap will air interstitials featuring ABC soap actresses, including Kirsten Storms, Julie Marie Berman, Erika Slezak, Robin Strasser, Bobbie Eakes and Chrishell Stause, delivering heart-healthy messages that encourage people to visit Campbell’s or ABC’s Web sites to get health information.

As part of the deal, ABC.com will hold an auction of 10 items used by the casts of the ABC soaps during the month. Proceeds benefit the American Heart Association. A special tote bag is being sold on the site to benefit the AHA.

On Feb 11, “30 Rock” star Jane Krakowski, the spokeswoman for Campbell’s Address Your Heart initiative, will appear on “The View.” She will reveal the winning red dress designed by Nicole Miller that she will wear to a Heart Month gala. The design is being selected by voters on Campbell’s Web site.

Campbell is a major marketer that has done integrations with other networks and in other dayparts. But Ms. Milway said ABC’s commitment made this deal unique.

“The fact that this is something that is leveraged over the course of a month and integrated into the storylines in such a way that it seems natural is definitely something that helps us elevate and showcase our messaging, which is really important to us and makes it that much more impactful,” she said.

Campbell has donated more than $1.8 million to the American Heart Association, and many of its products meet government criteria to qualify as heart-healthy foods.