Television shows generally launch in one country and, if they find success, another country might license the shows from the get-go. Or it might even be totally rethought and remade the way The Office was after it was decided that the UK hit was too good to not have a version of it in the States, but needed an American setting.

Fox is planning on a whole new way of doing things when it launches the debut season of Touch, starring Kiefer Sutherland, in March (with a sneak peek on Wednesday night). With the help of Unilever’s marketing dollars, Fox will launch the new show in more than one hundred countries.

Focused on a man and his emotionally challenged 11-year-old son, who happens to be able to predict world events, the show will feature scenes and characters from around the globe who will speak in their native languages, according to Marketing Week.

And while the show sounds like it will be a little unpredictable, there is one thing viewers can bank on: There will be commercials for Unilever products on the opening episodes. According to Marketing Week, Unilever is looking to have “one culturally relevant content platform” and Touch should serve that need worldwide.Continue reading...

When a company the size of Procter & Gamble divests itself of a brand, it's a given that all of the brand assets go along with it. Rarely if ever is there any kind of agreement to retain control over some of the intellectual property. Rarer still is the notion that the seller will structure the sale in such a way that it can keep one of the brand assest for altruistic purposes.

This is what makes P&G's sale of the PUR brand so unusual. While Helen of Troy Limited announced an agreement to acquire the well-known PUR water purification brand from P&G, along with the deal was the unusual provision that P&G could retain the rights to a powder it developed with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The reason? So P&G could maintain its philanthropic commitment to the Children's Safe Drinking Program.

The novel arrangement turns out to be a win-win in the classic business sense.

The win for Helen of Troy: The acquisition of PUR puts Helen of Troy into water purification, a nice expansion into a new growing market. PUR leads the market in U.S. faucet mount and refrigerator filters and is a top brand in water pitcher filtration systems. Helen of Troy, while it is dwarfed by P&G's portfolio of brands, is no minor player in the consumer packaged goods space and it gets another strong brand to add to the family.

The company owns Ammens, Braun, Brut, Dr. Scholl's, Pert, Vidal Sassoon, and Vicks, among others. According to Jack Neff at Ad Age, Helen of Troy has been "a serial acquirer of P&G orphan brands, including Pert Plus, Sure and Infusium23." The Braun, Vicks, and Vidal Sassoon brands are licensed from P&G.Continue reading...

The average ad buy at Super Bowl XLV is said to be a cool $3 million for a 30-second spot. Will it be worth it? Returning Super Bowl advertisers — including Audi, BMW, Go Daddy, Pepsi and Pizza Hut — certainly hope so.

They will be joined on February 6th by a slew of newbies, many fresh from pitching their wares at CES in Las Vegas, as the TV event's audience continues its inevitable shift to a younger demo of digital aficionados.Continue reading...