Asda launches ‘Behind the Scenes’ taste test challenge with Sky’s hit show Never Mind the Buzzcocks, to showcase food quality

Asda is continuing its quest for a #foodrevolution to highlight the quality of its food by partnering with popular Sky TV series Never Mind the Buzzcocks.

Asda has tasked celebrity comedians Judi Love and Buzzcocks regular panellist Jamali Maddix, along with the team from Sorted Food (a food community and YouTube channel with over 2 million subscribers) to perform blind taste tests (and give their honest opinion) on Asda products and their Marks & Spencer equivalents. Taking place behind the scenes of Never Mind the Buzzcocks, the ‘Taste Match’ campaign aims to challenge brand perceptions and target secondary shoppers by demonstrating the high quality of Asda products.

As the first-ever branded partnership with Never Mind the Buzzcocks, the campaign will launch primarily as a social content series on Sky social channels, comprising of three long form episodes hosted on YouTube with 60” cutdowns on Instagram and Facebook. The ads will appear across Linear and On Demand Sky Media channels, placed strategically during key show breaks. Each ad will feature a QR code, driving viewers to the longer form content and will run for six weeks, until 5th November.

Spark Foundry, Asda’s media agency, has handled the media planning and buying, with SPP Media managing the partnership, and content production by Sky Media Commercial Production.

Never Mind the Buzzcocks is available Wednesdays at 9pm on Sky Showcase, also on Sky Max and NOW.

With comedian, actor and writer Greg Davies back in the presenting chair, the new series of the much-loved music themed quiz also sees the return of team captains, Noel Fielding and Daisy-May Cooper and regular guest Jamali Maddix for a 9 x 45 series plus a Christmas Special for 2023.

Stephi Brett-Lee, Senior Director of Brand Communications at Asda, said: “We’re incredibly proud to launch our Taste Match campaign and prove that great quality doesn’t have to come at a price. In thousands of blind taste tests, 100s of Asda products were found to be as tasty, or even tastier, than M&S. Never Mind the Buzzcocks gave us the perfect platform to showcase some of these products and conduct Taste Tests in a fun and engaging way with some completely impartial guest celebrities.”

Sarah Jones, Director of Planning at Sky Media, said: “We’re thrilled to work with Asda on such a fun, engaging campaign. Through a first of its kind partnership with Never Mind the Buzzcocks, Asda are brilliantly harnessing the power of TV with social to put a spotlight on the quality of their products.”

Kat Broomhead, Managing Partner at Spark Foundry UK, said: “This campaign aligns quality video content – harnessing one of Sky’s leading shows and talent – with quality food, putting it to the test. The taste test is a brilliant way to leverage the power of TV and brand socials, and help shift key perceptions of the brand amongst a wide audience.”

To learn more, visit Asda.com/TasteMatch.

Audi and Sky Sports drive golfing innovation following success of
cricket ‘Power Meter’

Audi renews as Official Innovation Partner of Sky Sports

Audi and Sky Media have created two new golfing innovations, providing insight into golf techniques of the professionals to help viewers improve their own performance.

Part of Audi’s renewal as the Official Innovation Partner for Sky Sports – a deal brokered between Sky Media and Omnicom Media Group’s PHD – the continued partnership swings back into action from the 23rd of February and runs until October 2023.

The two new innovations, ‘Force Plates’ and ‘Zen Eye’, will be showcased as part of PGA Tour coverage in the ‘Audi Performance Zone’ part of the Sky Sports Golf studio, with the aim of showing casual viewers how to improve their own game:

• ‘Force Plates’ will measure the force that a golfer uses to create their unique swing. Through the analysis of weight transfer and ground force, the analytics will demonstrate club head speed, ball strike and power of the swing.
• ‘Zen Eye’ will bring the art of putting to life by showing audiences the perfect pace and line for any type of putt with a display on the green.

The campaign will air on Linear TV, Sky Sports’ On Demand and Sky Go as well as YouTube and Sky’s social channels. Audi is also co-sponsoring the PGA Tour coverage, which will see the creation of unique idents produced by Sky Media Commercial Productions.

The innovations will be integrated into the programming as two- to three-minute editorial pieces and will form part of a 20” TV commercial to promote the partnership. Starting in April, the innovations will also be available on SkySports.com and through Sky’s On Demand collection, accessed via voice search, where viewers can review the tips and tricks, at their leisure, to perfect their swing.

Later in 2023, there will be two additional co-branded social content pieces produced, further bringing the innovations to life for sports fans.

The 20” TVC and PGA Tour sponsorship idents feature voiceovers from Sky Sports’ commentator Iona Stephen. Additional Sky Sports talent will be used within the ‘Audi Performance Zone’ and across the tournament coverage.

Tony Moore, Head of Marketing, Audi UK said: “Audi has established a reputation for redefining premium mobility through progressive technology, and partnering with Sky Sports is a natural fit for the Audi brand as we look to our partners to emulate our values. We’re excited to be launching our second year as Sky Sports’ Official Innovation Partner and to see the response from golf fans to the new ‘Force Plates’ and ‘Zen Eye’ innovations featured in the ‘Audi Performance Zone’.”

Sarah Jones, Director of Planning at Sky Media said: “We’re immensely proud to have Audi as the Official Innovation Partner of Sky Sports for the second year. Audi’s use of progressive technology and innovation to redefine the future of premium mobility aligns perfectly with Sky Sports’ own approach to delivering an unparalleled viewing experience for sports fans.

After the success of last year’s Power Meter, this year our innovation will get golf enthusiasts closer to the green. We’re delighted to be working together to develop new, ground-breaking technology to enrich fans’ viewing experience of the sports they love.”

Tom Rovery, Partnerships Account Director at PHD commented: “As the first-ever Official Innovation Partner of Sky Sports, the innovations developed through this collaboration are designed to enhance the enjoyment of live sports coverage, providing a relevant, immersive and attention-grabbing way to engage with fans by bringing Audi’s innovation stories to life in a sports context. The renewal of the partnership marks an important milestone for Audi and Sky Sports in further establishing their commitment to driving progress through technology.”

The partnership renewal and golf tech development comes off the back of a successful campaign in 2022 when Audi’s “Vorsprung durch Technik” fuelled Sky Sports’ most innovative Cricket format, The Hundred, with the Power Meter. The involvement of an Electric Audi, alongside top talent from football and cricket, connected Audi with Sky Sports’ huge audience and increased perceptions of Audi as an innovative brand.

Sky partners with TVSquared to show true picture of TV effectiveness

Innovative tech helps advertisers directly track linear, on demand and addressable TV campaigns to online visits and performance

Sky Media, the advertising sales arm of Sky, has announced its partnership with TVSquared, a global leader in TV attribution, to launch a market-leading direct web attribution tool across linear, on-demand and addressable TV advertising campaigns.

Bringing together TV viewing and web tracking data, Sky Media provides its advertisers and brands with an unprecedented picture of how TV drives interest, consideration, and sales performance. Advertisers and brands with Sky Media can measure the exact impact a TV campaign has in generating interest and subsequent traffic to a brand’s website and apps, answering longstanding questions from marketers.

Sky Media’s unrivalled viewing panel will link to an advertiser’s online analytics to track with complete certainty where audiences have come from. Brands will have full assurance who has visited an app or website after seeing a TV advert, which marks a clear improvement on existing methods that focus only on correlating increases in website traffic to TV spots. This enables brands to measure mid-funnel consideration and intent goals, link TV exposure to online response and directly understand the customer journey. All of this will be available to view via Sky Analytics, Sky Media’s self-serve reporting tool, allowing brands to plan and reactively adapt in real time.

Dev Sangani, Director of Strategy and Capability, Sky Media said“TV continues to remain the most trusted and impactful way for brands to engage current and future customers, illustrated by the growing number of digital native brands turning to TV. Being able to directly measure the impact TV has on driving web traffic and the resulting sales will be an immensely powerful tool. It’s really exciting to see the results for these campaigns come through. Our emerging insights show that there is a 50-100% increase in web visits attributed to TV versus traditional models. Clearly that means TV’s impact on advertising performance has been wildly underestimated”.

Powered by TVSquared, Direct Web Attribution will be available across linear, on-demand, and addressable TV campaigns via AdSmart, with sponsorship being added in the coming months. Using TVSquared’s platform, Sky Media advertisers can easily access attribution, reach, frequency and reach extension analytics for their TV campaigns.

“Sky Media has always been at the forefront of providing advanced technology offerings to its advertisers, and this partnership continues that path of innovation,” said Calum Smeaton, CEO and Founder, TVSquared. “TV can be measured and optimised with a focus on business outcomes – and Sky Media and TVSquared are enabling that for thousands of advertisers at scale today. This is an impactful and transformative change that is moving the TV ad market forward, not only in the UK, but worldwide.”

With access to this new capability, advertisers with Sky Media can:

• Quantify TV’s impact on the full-funnel outcomes that matter most to them — from website traffic, to intent, consideration and even sales
• See performance and cost-effectiveness for addressable and linear TV – including media dimensions such as audience and creative, days, dayparts, networks, programmes and genres
• Reveal insights to inform ROI-positive optimisations, planning and more targeted buys.