The Score and Gillette are turning last season’s eight-minute interstitial-style Gillette Drafted reality show into a weekly hour-long event this season.
Gillette Drafted 2 premieres Sept. 14 at 10 p.m. and is slated for 10 episodes. Each week, the contestants battle one another in a series of challenges for the prize of becoming ‘Canada’s Next Sportscaster.’
The show was expanded to an hour in order to allow for more complex storytelling and profile of the contestants, Greg Sansone, VP of television, The Score, tells MiC.
‘By adding judges and eliminations we found that each episode told its own story,’ he explains. ‘The stories also went beyond the individual challenges and were driven by the personalities of the finalists. In order for the audience to follow each story, we felt we had to go with a more traditional hour-long episodic format.’
Gillette products, including razors and personal care, will be featured through customized promos, content integrated into the show and a ticker sponsorship. Online, Gillette will be advertising throughout the site, there will be a custom microsite, Facebook and Twitter engagement, and mobile banners.
The Gillette integrations were carefully crafted this year, Sansone explains, and will feature several new elements this season.
‘It is extremely important that we avoid any sort of overt or even cringe-worthy moments as it relates to forcing integration into the show that may take away from the viewers’ experience,’ he explains. ‘There is product placement but only when it is a necessary component of the storyline.’
New integrations include an appearance by Gillette spokesperson and WWE star John Cena as a feature character in one of the show’s episodes – ‘our audience relates to Cena,’ Sansone says – and a style coach armed with Gillette products, who helps the contestants transform from sports fans to Score talent.
‘The Gillette brand is all about helping men build confidence through their products and our style coach will help the finalists understand that,’ Sansone adds.
