Toronto-based Jamieson Laboratories has launched Slim Down TV last weekend, a combo branded reality TV show and paid program. The show invites fitness, nutrition and food experts such as chefs David Lee of Splendido and J.P. Challet of the Fifth among others to help real Canucks as they aim to live healthier and drop weight. ‘This is reality-based paid content and no one has done it here [in Canada] before,’ claims Kevin Edwards, VP of marketing at Jamieson. He says the project grew out of the company’s in-house marketing department with the objective of the 26-episode, half-hour series tied to the relaunch and rebranding of Jamieson’s holistic weight-loss product, the Slim Down Jump Start Kit. ‘We wanted to give [participants and viewers] all the components to meet their success,’ says Edwards. ‘People need all the components to lose weight so we brought a life coach along, because they need the support.’
Though Sheila Malanchuk, media strategy manager at OMD Vancouver feels there could be a fit between the brand and the reality lifestyle program, she says: ‘Audience education is a big part of [similar reality show] The Biggest Loser. If Jamieson took that and ran with it in a way that hooks the viewer, I can see it working. And to gather an audience, people need to know when and where they will see it.’ Slim Down TV‘s website, slimdown.ca, posts the show’s schedule across Canada. In the markets of Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal, the show airs mainly on Sundays near the lunch hour during community channels’ paid programming blocks.
Slim Down TV‘s launch is supported by a national ad campaign that started Jan. 2 using outdoor, transit, online, radio and print media. Toronto-based AOR Media Management handled the buy. Creative was done in-house.
