• by Karl Greenberg , June 2, 2015

Toyota, along with Comcast and Samsung, will be the launch sponsors for Season Two of USA’s comedy, “Playing House.” The program was developed for the sponsors with NBCU's Custom Solutions Group, which has done similar campaigns for the likes of Ford around its Mustang GT with “The Blacklist”; and Honda just last month, with “Saturday Night Line.” As part of that, sponsors’ advertising during the show won't just be ads, they will be a hybrid of advertising and custom content directly related to the show and created with heavy lifting from the group. 

The sponsorships also involves a new distribution model that, per the network, will allow viewers to watch the following week’s episode on Video-On-Demand (VOD) before it airs on USA. And the custom ads will run there, as the network says there will be limited commercial breaks with only “Playing House”-themed custom creative and brand spots from the sponsors airing during VOD episodes.

“As VOD viewing is expected to experience significant growth this year, we are excited to partner with Comcast, Samsung and Toyota to tap into this uncluttered, rich viewing environment,” said Alison Tarrant, EVP of the Client Solutions Group, NBCUniversal, in a statement. “We are bringing our advertising partners with us as we move our content seamlessly across every platform with custom creative, especially in the highly engaged VOD space.”

The sponsored custom creative, featuring and developed by “Playing House” stars/creators Jessica St. Clair and Lennon Parham, will also run on air, per NBCU. The custom units will “thematically relate to the relevant ‘Playing House’ episode, and will air across USA and VOD,” says the network, which adds that on-air, co-branded promotional spots will drive awareness around the partnerships and availability of future episodes on VOD.  

Said Dionne Colvin Lovely, director, traditional and emerging media, Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., “This sponsorship not only allows us to create custom content, but also gives us the flexibility to customize the messages we deliver on different platforms.”