W Network is gearing up for the second half of the second season of Hockey Wives in the early spring of 2016.

And the Corus Entertainment channel has convinced its chief sponsor that its investment in the second season of the show has paid off. After taking a close look at metrics, engagement levels and the show’s rising ratings, the electronics company decided to extend its commitment through the second half of the show.

The sponsorship reflects a truly multi-platform approach to advertising, says Louis Bastien, marketing and media at Promotivate, LG’s media agency,  says the partnership with the show allowed the brand to break through the “category clutter.”

That’s possible, he says, because of the sponsorship truly making the most of an integrated multiplatform approach. “A lot of people talk about 360 integration but not everyone can do it. From our point of view we are integrating into the show, talent is taking part in events, we are activating on social channels; its really multi platform.”

Since it first launched on Oct. 28, the second season of Hockey Wives has been the number one specialty series in its time slot of Wednesday at 10 p.m. The show’s season-two premiere also showed a significant lift in average minute audience over the first season’s premiere, registering a 51% increase.

The sponsorship was developed in partnership with Promotivate, LG’s media agency, with a focus on the electronics company’s Home Appliance Division.

The decision, says Lynn Chambers, VP, client marketing, Corus Entertainment, was based on the successful association of the brand with the hockey wives, who are real women and can connect to the utility of the brand’s home appliance range.  

Integrations for the show were designed to be truly multi-platform. Martine Forget (is the fiancé of Toronto Maple Leafs goalie Jonathan Bernier), Noureen DeWulf (American actress and wife of the Vancouver Canuck’s Ryan Miller) and Maripier Morin (Kin Community star and wife of Vancouver Canucks’s Brandon Prust) have been named the campaign’s brand ambassadors and will develop YouTube content, participate in social media campaigns as well as in-store appearances.

Hockey Wives takes Canadians viewers backstage into the highs and lows of life alongside Canada’s big hockey stars. The show’s subject, says Chambers, as well as the ability to extend messages across platforms, allowed LG to really reach out to the demo it was targeting: 25- to 54-year-old women

The network decided to split the season between fall and winter to extend the show’s life. “We wanted to get new episodes into our fall slate and allow fans to catch up with the wives and what their lives are during the off-season,” says Chambers.

Digital spend on the campaign has increased between season one and two, says Chambers. “The second half of season two will see the digital content content to grow with an investment from LG.”  LG spokesperson Albert Lee says that the company is still working on the content for the campaign.

LG’s sponsorship includes LG products and two co-branded advertising spots featuring Morin and Forget. On-air billboard spots, closed captioning sponsorship spots and LG-tagged tune-in spots will run through the series.

Digital sponsorship for the show includes a microsite called LG off the Ice with the Hockey Wives, which features content created by the Dish team, as well as Kin Community creator Lauren Toyota’s weekly recaps of episodes.

LG has also extended its branding with logos on W Network ‘s creative running on buses and streetcars in Toronto, within the TTC and in Vancouver as well.