Carrigstown SPAR Marks High Profile Product Placement for RTÉ

The agreement, which is part of an overall marketing investment of €900,000 over three years, will see Christy Phelan's corner shop transformed into a SPAR store over the coming weeks.

Speaking at the announcement, Gerry McGuinness of RTE Sponsorship said, "This is the first high profile product placement agreement for RTÉ and the biggest to date in this territory. It is a perfect example of how creativity and commerce can work harmoniously together to benefit the production process and the brand.

“When Fair City planned that Christy would renovate the shop and reinvent his life it was a natural opportunity to talk to appropriate retailers about becoming the shop on the Fair City Street. Of course there was huge interest in this proposal as Fair City is the most popular soap on Irish television, attracting over half a million viewers on average per episode this year.”

Christy’s new SPAR store is set to be unveiled as part of the series on 6 December. Willie O’Byrne, Managing Director BWG Foods, said "We're delighted to have reached agreement with RTÉ on what is an innovative and pioneering sponsorship for Irish television - one that will bring the SPAR brand directly to over 500,000 viewers across Ireland four times every week. We look forward to welcoming Christy to under the tree at SPAR."

The Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) gave the all clear for paid product placement on Irish television earlier this year, and rival commercial broadcaster TV3 announced their first paid placement deal with Kraft Foods last August, which sees the ‘Morning Show’ presenters drinking Kenco coffee. UK soap ‘Coronation Street’ also recently announced its first paid product placement, with a Nationwide cash point to sit in the local Corrie shop.

Free Industry Newsletter

Subscribe to IFTN's industry newsletter - it's free and e-mailed directly to your inbox every week.
Click here to sign up.