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.
Seth Meyers hopped a stool at the spon-con bar Tuesday night on NBC’s Late Night in a new brand activation for Maker’s Mark—part of a larger ad campaign that will extend to both of Meyers’ podcasts.
The sponsored content for the bourbon brand came in a standalone segment that began with Meyers faux-introducing his first guest, only to be interrupted by writer John Lutz. “I wanted to pitch a couple sketches,” Lutz explains to Meyers before displaying pages of his best sketch ideas, each dipped in red wax.
“I got the idea from this bottle of Maker’s Mark you got me for my birthday last year,” he tells Meyers before launching into the formal product-pitching. “Maker’s Mark has hand-dipped their bottles in red wax for almost 70 years. They also rotate every barrel by hand.”
Lutz ties these selling points back to the premise by reasoning “We’re all unreasonable about the things we’re passionate about,” explaining that he writes his sketch ideas with a quill and rotates them weekly in an oak barrel “to keep them topical.”
The writer goes on to reveal what other items have fallen prey to his wax-dipping addiction, including the backstage side of Meyers’ sliding-door guest entrance. The piece ends with an obligatory ‘cheers’ between Meyers and Lutz as the Maker’s Mark logo appears on screen.
The segment is part of Maker’s Mark’s new “Perfectly Unreasonable” campaign, which launched with an ad that premiered in primetime on NBC several weeks ago. At the time, the brand announced that the campaign would also include integrations with Meyers’ two podcasts, The Lonely Island and Seth Meyers Podcast and Family Trips with the Meyers Brothers.
Lutz appeared in another Late Night brand integration last December, which took both him and Meyers out of the studio in a pre-taped piece for Starbucks.
