McCain unveiled as the new sponsor of Emmerdale

ITV Commercial has announced that McCain Foods Limited, an international leader in the frozen food industry, has entered a two-year partnership with ITV's much loved soap, Emmerdale.

The integrated partnership, negotiated with ITV Commercial by Omnicom Media Group's content agency, Drum, and media agency, PHD, on behalf of McCain, incorporates sponsorship across ITV's broadcast, online and mobile platforms, as well as a product placement agreement and licensing activity. The partnership will launch on-air on 7th April, 2014.

The product placement arrangement will see select McCain's products and branding seamlessly integrated into contextually relevant environments within the village. A comprehensive multiplatform and in-store licensing campaign will be utilised to activate the partnership.

Emmerdale, produced by ITV Studios, is ITV's long-running soap opera set in a fictional village in the Yorkshire Dales. The show was created by Kevin Laffan and was first broadcast in 1972. Emmerdale averaged 7.3 million viewers and a 34% share of the audience throughout 2013, and peaked with 10 million viewers and a 43% share of the audience on 16th October, 2013.

Like the soap, McCain is a family favourite based in Yorkshire and has long established links to farming, having worked with some of its 250 British growers for three generations.

Gary Knight, Commercial Content Director at ITV, said: "Emmerdale is one of ITV's most iconic programmes and we are delighted to welcome a brand with the stature and heritage of McCain as the new sponsor of the show for the next 24 months. We look forward to working with them to make this truly integrated partnership a great success".

Mark Hodge, McCain Foods Marketing Director, said: "Emmerdale is modern, family focused and set in the heart of the Yorkshire countryside, providing lots of positive associations with farming and natural, British produce. It is a perfect fit for the McCain brand and provides us with a fantastic opportunity to connect with our core target consumer and set ourselves apart from our competitors by communicating the key values of the brand".

The sponsorship idents will be produced by BMB.