Seether Rides Along With Chopper Like Any Other Sponsor
Motorcycle Reality Show Integrates Post-Grunge Outfit as a Featured Brand
The producers of the CMT show "Chopper Challenge" have gone outside their traditional brand sponsors and have, for the first time in a TV show, featured the post–grunge band Seether as just another integrated brand on the show.
In addition to having its image and logo appear on the episode's custom bike, the band gained further exposure by having its members appear in the episode talking about bikes and having its songs "Fake It," "Rise Above This" and "Remedy" played during the show. The "Chopper Challenge" website includes a link to Seether's website, and the finished Seether bike will be donated to a charity of the band's choosing.
The deal put was together by leading entertainment marketing firm GMR, Seether's manager, Stu Sobel of The Firm, and the show's producers, V Entertainment.
From a "behind the scenes" report in Billboard: "V Entertainment Group pays CMT an undisclosed fee to air the show and then sells the advertising that appears during each episode. That advertising is sometimes tied to the brands featured in the show, though in this instance Seether ads were not part of the agreement."
As we commented in last week's post, more and more artists will be taking center stage in a number of broader entertainment-based properties, and this area can only be headed for growth. But the Seether promotion does raise a couple of interesting hypothetical questions:
- When are we going to see the first artist-funded show, where costs are offset by sponsors/advertisers? SFS can see quite a few artists building financial equity in shows that are derived from their own brand equity.
- Where are the record labels in all of this? Surely exploiting their artists through TV shows that they have equity in has to be a no-brainer, right?
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