In-show advertising is as old as late-night itself, but as shows face declining ratings and shrinking budgets, sponsored content (or “brand activations,” as they’re called in marketing circles) has become increasingly common and, at times, more elaborate than ever before. In this recurring feature, we keep tabs on how late-night shows are working to wed commerce with comedy.
Jimmy Kimmel Live!’s latest brand partnership will be paying off for weeks to come.
Jimmy Kimmel debuted an in-show ad for JCPenney last Thursday—the first in an eight-week multi-platform series of spots designed to promote the store’s ongoing “Really Big Deal” sales.
Sidekick Guillermo Rodriguez previewed the promotion on his Instagram account Wednesday, sharing a video of himself as a newscaster announcing JCPenney’s plan to unveil “really big deals” every weekend through Memorial Day.
“Watch Jimmy Kimmel Live! Thursday nights for the Really Big Deal reveal,” he teased.
The first of those reveals came on Thursday night’s broadcast in JKL‘s usual spon-con spot: a standalone segment between Kimmel’s first and second guests. “We have some really big news about a really big deal,” Kimmel announced to cue up the pretape: another newscast anchored by Rodriguez. After a bit about aliens, Rodriguez goes to announcer Lou Wilson for an on-scene report.
Wilson reports JCPenney’s deal for the weekend: any dress under $100 has been marked down to just $29. The announcement is complemented by a passerby modeling one of the dresses, prompting another onlooker to abandon her baby and make a beeline to the department store.
But, like any good deal, this product placement offered even more: Rodriguez doubled down on the JCPenney promotion after the show, posting another original newscast skit to his Instagram. That one—which served to formally announce the weekly campaign as a whole—found him delivering his “Big News” report with a curiously identical co-anchor, named Rodrigo Guillermez.
Jimmy Kimmel Live! will announce the specifics of JCPenney’s surprise weekend deals on the show in similar fashion Thursday nights for the next seven weeks.
