Morrisons to Partner Big Brother

By Laura Elliott.

UK retailer Morrisons has signed a six-figure contract with Channel 5’s ‘Big Brother’ programme to become its official shopping partner. Under the new deal, housemates on the show will be able to buy groceries from Morrisons in their weekly shop.

In this series of the show as well as in the ‘Celebrity’ version which is set to follow, housemates will choose all of their food and household shopping from Morrisons supermarket, and the items will be delivered in the supermarket’s trademarked bags.

In previous series of Big Brother, viewers have not been able to see the brand name on any of the housemates’ shopping products. It is believed that this contract is the first time that a supermarket in the UK has used product placement since Ofcom changed advertising rules in February 2011.

Morrisons’ Marketing Director, Rebecca Singleton, said that “With the housemates’ challenging weekly shopping budget, Morrisons offer a fantastic choice of options for them to be able to eat great food, whilst making the most of every important penny.”

Products purchased from the retailer are expected to be seen in tonight’s show on channel 5 for the first time. The placement has been negotiated by MEC Access, and their head of programming, Chantal Rickards, said that “Being the first-ever supermarket retailer to use product placement is a great opportunity for the brand to get fantastic exposure for its own range of products in front of a targeted audience.”

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Posted by admin on Jun 7 2012. Filed under Events, Latest News, private label, Retail News, Supermarkets. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry