• Ad Age, Wednesday, May 10, 2006 11:46 AM

Once again, Procter & Gamble is breaking new ground in marketing. In what is believed the first of its kind, the giant consumer products company that invented the soap opera back in the 1950s is spinning off a branded Internet loyalty program into a cable television show on the Discovery Network. The show, "Home Made Simple," will become a weekly TV reality show featuring an organizing maven, a carpenter and other experts. Maurice Coffey, P&G marketing director for "Home Made Simple," said P&G brands like Mr. Clean, Swiffer and Dawn that have appeared in the online version of "Home Made Simple" will show up in product integrations in the cable show. However, he said the company's goal is to engage the consumer with the brands, not sell to them. "A lot of the stuff out there I would call branded interruption and not really brand integration," he said. "This is about starting with the consumer and trying to put entertainment in front of her that she's looking for." In "Home Made Simple," the product integrations should flow more naturally and more often in the middle of the show rather than the end, Mr. Coffey said. But not every show will have P&G product placements. The series starts June 4 and has an initial run of 13 weeks on Sundays at 1 p.m.

Read the whole story at Ad Age »