• by Wayne Friedman , August 16, 2005

IFC doesn't take any regular advertising commercials--but that's not stopping it from doing other sponsoring deals with advertisers. Launching a new department called Integrated Partnerships, IFC is formalizing many of its activities--in which sponsors can buy a title program sponsorship and participate in on-air show promos or other marketing efforts. Program deals like this have already been inked with Heineken, Target, Volkswagen, and Acura.

Some of those efforts include Acura sponsoring the "At The IFC Center," formerly the Angelika theater in New York City. Heineken does the same for IFC's "Film Fanatic Fridays." Target's name is attached to "Cinema Red Mondays." And Volkswagen backs the "Escape from Hollywood" block on Wednesday nights.

Moving deeper into IFC's airwaves is a new sponsor--[yellow tail]--which is an Australian-based wine. Beginning October 11, a new Tuesday night series will be promoted on that night, with movie clips that will be customized for the winery. At the end of the film, another promo will do the same for a title to air the following week. In addition, IFC will create weekly episodic tune-in for the Tuesday night show. IFC also airs what it says are short films, which are also linked up with marketers' messages. Like many media sellers, IFC says its new marketing efforts are a way to help advertisers who fear fast-forwarding of commercials by digital video recorders.