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For decades, the logo “As seen on TV” has appeared in advertising to indicate that the product in question is promoted in television commercials. Now the logo is taking on another meaning: The product may be incorporated into the plot line of a show.

Such inclusion, known as branded entertainment or branded integration, is becoming increasingly popular as marketers seek to counter the ability of viewers to zip through or zap commercials. Now, the Spanish-language broadcast network Telemundo is expanding the concept by signing licensing deals with manufacturers to develop products that can be integrated into programming like telenovelas — the over-the-top, prime-time soap operas that are a staple of Hispanic TV.

Telemundo already works with advertisers like Clorox, Ford, Subway, T-Mobile and Toyota on branded-entertainment projects that include their products in telenovelas and other shows. The new deals will create products that would not otherwise exist for viewers to buy.

The first products will be jewelry, made by the Richline Group, a unit of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway holding company, which is to be worn in an episode of the telenovela “El Clon” (“The Clone”) to be broadcast on Telemundo at 8 p.m. on April 22. The jewelry is already available for sale on the Telemundo Web site.

So far, the Richline jewelry has been incorporated into 16 episodes of “El Clon,” which in telenovela fashion is presented in hourlong episodes that appear Mondays through Fridays. The series began on March 8 and is planned to run through the summer.

In September, a second line of licensed merchandise — home decor products made by Arrow Home Fashions, part of BCP Home in New York — is to start appearing in telenovelas as well as during “Levantate,” the Telemundo morning show. Plans call for the bedding, towels, curtains, tablecloths and other items to also be sold in stores.

And there are prepaid calling cards, created in a licensing agreement with IDT, that bear the name of the Telemundo football show “Futbol Estelar” (“Stellar Football” or “Amazing Football”). The cards, now being sold at 7-Eleven stores, feature the “Futbol Estelar” anchors Jessi Losada and Karim Mendiburu, who will mention them during the show.

(And in a cross-media moment, when buyers call to activate the cards they hear greetings prerecorded by Losada and Mendiburu.)

Telemundo, part of NBC Universal, is proceeding carefully in planning the deals and integrations, said Don Browne, president of the Telemundo Communications Group in Hialeah, Florida, to avoid annoying or alienating viewers.

“The first priority is that it has to have integrity,” Browne said, adding: “Let me emphasize, we’re not compromising this in any way. We’re working to make sure everything is authentic.”

Telemundo is able to offer more branded integrations than its larger competitor, Univision Communications, because Telemundo produces more of its own programming.

The Telemundo move is part of a significant trend as more marketers strive to reach Hispanics. For instance, for Richline its deal represents “the first direct targeting of the Hispanic market,” said Dennis Ulrich, chief executive of the company, based in Mount Vernon, New York.

“It gives us the immediate ability to work with a company that has a household name in the market,” he added.

 

The New York Times