Sony, General Mills Partner on King Promotion

Sony Pictures Television and General Mills are teaming up to promote the DVD release and the syndicated run of TheKing of Queens, which entered national syndication at the beginning of this TV season. The promotion, valued at some $9 million, also will highlight three classic Sony TV shows—Mad About You, Barney Miller and The Donna Reed Show.

All four shows will be promoted on boxes of General Mills cereals Total, Total Brown Sugar & Oats, Total Raisin Bran, Oatmeal Crisp Almond and Oatmeal Crisp Raisin, with copies of a single episode DVD of one of the four shows included on the cereal boxes.

"The General Mills partnership provides us with valuable visibility and sampling opportunities for The King of Queens as February sweeps approaches, and showcases other classic SPT titles to a new generation of viewers," said Sony Executive VP of Marketing Robert Oswaks. "At a time when it is increasingly difficult to reach consumers directly, out-of-home marketing and promotional partnerships take on increased importance for our business, we could not have asked for a stronger ally than General Mills in this effort."

The promotion with General Mills marks the fourth time Sony has worked with an outside company to promote King of Queens. Sony partnered with Hungry Man TV dinners, Kellogg’s Pop-Tarts Pastry Swirls and Days Inn to market the show when it launched in syndication last September.

Paige Albiniak

Contributing editor Paige Albiniak has been covering the business of television for more than 25 years. She is a longtime contributor to Next TV, Broadcasting + Cable and Multichannel News. She concurrently serves as editorial director for The Global Entertainment Marketing Academy of Arts & Sciences (G.E.M.A.). She has written for such publications as TVNewsCheck, The New York Post, Variety, CBS Watch and more. Albiniak was B+C’s Los Angeles bureau chief from September 2002 to 2004, and an associate editor covering Congress and lobbying for the magazine in Washington, D.C., from January 1997 - September 2002.