Viewers’ increasing desire to engage with programme content through their remote control, phone, web or email means that advertisers now have more opportunities than ever to have a two-way dialogue with potential customers and create further cut-through for their brands.

The right on-air sponsorship creative placed next to the right TV programme can deliver powerful effects for a brand. However, most sponsorship campaigns, to one degree or another, take this relationship much further, with a wide range of off-air activities. The programme becomes a hub around which all other promotional tools can spin, including online and mobile applications, events, merchandise, trade hospitality, point of sale licensing and other media promotions. In some cases, TV is just the tip of the iceberg where you are able to leverage a virtual 24/7 relationship with devotees off screen.

It’s a rapidly changing world and wherever consumers go over the coming years to find or pull their favourite TV content, smart advertisers will follow. Each new digital access point for the consumer becomes an additional opportunity for both targeting and direct interaction as well as all the brand objectives that a well made TV sponsorship can deliver.

Consumers will also respond positively to the right off-air association that spins off their programming passions, whether they are on-pack initiatives, in-store promotions, licensing or content-led events.

For the foreseeable future, broadcast TV and powerful TV programme brands will be at the heart of these opportunities.