JD Williams has a long term partnership with My Mum Your Dad presenter Davina McCall, so the brand’s sponsorship of her new midlife dating show was a no brainer. McCall is certainly a hit with the single dads: one contestant asked whether Davina was “off the table”?
With three ad breaks during the hour, viewers are potentially exposed to eight rounds of House337’s idents. Luckily they are pretty lively, although anything can get tedious after too much exposure. You also have to know what JD Williams even is – apparently it’s a direct home shopping company and its audience is 45-65 year old women.
JD Williams’ idents are a lot better than some of the ads in the show. Predictably, brands like Boots’ hearing aids, Corsodyl active gum repair, Gaviscon double action, Activia gut-friendly yoghurt, No7 Future Renew skincare, Sofology (with midlifer Helena Bonham Carter), and Purina cat food have all bought into the show.
Zara Ineson, ECD at House 337, said: “Society has it all wrong, thinking midlife women are past it and out of touch, but in reality, they’re out there dating, trying new things, swiping right and basically walking Urban Dictionaries when it comes to love lingo. JD Williams sponsorship continues our long-term brand mission to flip the script on midlife, because we owe it to ourselves to make that next chapter an exciting prospect, right?”
Plenty of other advertisers have also seen the light about midlife viewers, including McDonald’s, KFC, Tesco, Dior, Dairylea, and EE Broadband. Overnight viewing figures for the first episode were a modest 1.5m, but the show has been a hit with reviewers and on social media so the numbers may build. The show’s twist – that the young adult kids are doing Big Brother style surveillance on their parents – might help expand the audience.
I founded the online platform for midlife women http://www.lattelounge.co.uk 7 yrs ago and the U.K.s largest free online event for Midlife women that Davina headlined last year http://www.themidlifefestival.com plus I host our Midlife and Menopause Uncovered podcast launched last year. We support thousands of women over 40 who are living life to the full and have money to spend yet advertisers still ignore us or portray us as grey haired old ladies! Thankfully our headline sponsor for our festival and past podcast sponsor Clarins has got the message! As have Yes and Holland and Barrett – present and previous sponsors. Congrats to JD Williams for getting it too – we’d love to have them on board for sure ?