Month of July Features Hollywood Icon Jack Nicholson
New York, NY, July 11, 2007 – AMC announced today that General Mills has signed on to sponsor the network's recently launched Hollywood Icon franchise for the month of July to promote their Honey Nut Cheerios brand cereal. Hollywood Icon is a month-long programming event that showcases one of Hollywood's most acclaimed actors through their movies, factoids, celebrity quotes and special vignettes about the star. By contextualizing the network's movie broadcasts it continues to fully leverage the value of its vast catalog, provides a viewing atmosphere and destination unique to basic cable, drives appointment television viewing for its movies, and creatively connects iconic titles to various key demographics.
General Mills' sponsorship incorporates visual exposure on-air leveraging the AMC brand for them to target their primary 25-54 demographic. July's Hollywood Icon is featuring famed actor Jack Nicholson in movies including Batman, Easy Rider, Hoffa and the network premiere of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. August's Hollywood Icon is Marilyn Monroe. Future months feature John Wayne, Al Pacino, Jimmy Stewart and Kevin Costner.
"Hollywood Icon signifies our approach to showcase our library more strategically which is not only creating new opportunities for our advertisers but also clearly yielding results for the network," stated Arlene Manos, president of Rainbow national network advertising sales. "We look forward to continuing to build a unique viewing experience that caters to the demands of our targeted viewers by curating the highest quality of movie programming and delivering it in a more thoughtful and engaging way."
As part of the sponsorship agreement, AMC and General Mills have created an initiative which will incorporate the brand into AMC Hollywood Icons on-air throughout the month of July. Included in the integration will be tagged tune-ins prior to the first airing of the movies that premiere under the Icon block, image spots, commercial units, and billboards.
General Mills' previous ad buy on AMC was for a customized movie package entitled, Stars We're Nuts About, highlighting the brand messaging of Honey Nut Cheerios in spots that focus on why we are "nuts" about celebrities, and also integrating Honey Nut Cheerios' "Bee Happy. Bee Healthy" tagline. The initiative featured four films premiering on AMC, throughout the months of October and November, including NATIONAL LAMPOON'S VACATION (1983), SPEED 2: CRUISE CONTROL (1997) BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID (1969) and 3 MEN AND A LITTLE LADY.
AMC has delivered record performance in 2007 among key demographics, garnering its strongest 1Q in network history. AMC ranked Top 10 in prime Men 25-54 delivery among all ad-supported networks for the quarter, an increase of 31% year to year for the network. Available to over 91 million homes, AMC also ranked #1 in impression growth in all of cable for Men 25-54 (up 76,000), #3 for Men 18-49 (up 63,000), and #3 for A25-54 (up 120,000) for the quarter. The success continued in May, with the network once again ranking Top 10 in Men 25-54 delivery (up 24% year to year), as well as Top 5 in audience growth with Adult 25-54, Men 25-54 and Men 18-49 among all ad-supported cable networks.
Source: Nielsen Media Research. 1/1/07-4/1/07. Prime M-Su 8-11p. Growth based on impression delivery growth vs 1Q06 (12/26/05-4/2/06). May 2007 (4/30/07-5/27/07). Prime M-Su 8-11p. M25- 54 (000) delivery rank among all ad-supported cable networks broadcasting more than 51% of the daypart; Growth based on May 2007 primetime raw impression (000) growth among A25-54, M25-54, M18-49 vs May 06 (5/1/06-5/28/06).
About General Mills
General Mills, with annual net sales of $12.5 billion, is a leading global manufacturer and marketer of consumer foods products. Based in Minneapolis, Minn., General Mills' mission is to innovate to make people's lives healthier, easier and richer around the world. Its global brand portfolio includes Betty Crocker, Pillsbury, Green Giant, Haagen-Dazs, Old El Paso and more. It also has more than 100 U.S. consumer brands, more than 30 of which generate annual retail sales in excess of $100 million. General Mills also is a leading supplier of baking and other food products to the foodservice and commercial baking industries.
About AMC
AMC, a division of Rainbow Media's Entertainment Services, which also includes WE tv and IFC Companies, is a 24-hour, movie-based network, dedicated to the American movie fan. The network, which reaches over 91,000,000 homes, offers a comprehensive library of popular movies and a critically-acclaimed slate of original programming that is a diverse, movie-based mix of original series, documentaries and specials. AMC has garnered many of the industry's highest honors, including 14 Emmy awards, and three Golden Globe® nominations for its first original movie, "Broken Trail."
About Rainbow Media Holdings LLC
Rainbow Media Holdings LLC is a subsidiary of Cablevision Systems Corporation (NYSE: CVC). Rainbow Media is a leading producer of targeted, multi-platform content for global distribution, creating and managing some of the world's most compelling and dynamic entertainment brands, including AMC, IFC, WE tv, Rainbow Sports Networks managed FSN Bay Area and FSN New England, LIFESKOOL, SPORTSKOOL, and VOOM HD Networks. Through its IFC Entertainment division, Rainbow Media also owns and manages the following: IFC Films, a theatrical feature film distribution company; IFC First Take/IFC in Theaters, a day and date theatrical feature film/VOD initiative; the IFC Center in New York City; IFC Productions, a feature film production company; and IFC Entertainment, which owns and operates a film library. Rainbow Media also operates Rainbow Advertising Sales Corporation, its advertising sales division, and Rainbow Network Communications, its full service network programming origination and distribution company.