ITV Commercial in sponsorship double win with Standard Life and Uncle Ben's Rice

ITV Commercial has announced two new programme sponsorship deals, one with Standard Life and the other with Uncle Ben's Rice. Standard Life is to sponsor ITV1's celebrity travel package, whilst Uncle Ben's has signed up to sponsor a strand of cookery programming on ITV1.

The travel package features Billy Connolly, who turns explorer in Billy Connolly: Journey To The Edge Of The World, as he embarks on a rare and remote journey - attempted and failed by hundreds before him - through the treacherous Northwest Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Martin Clunes: Islands of Britain sees him embarking on an epic journey around a remarkably varied range of islands that just happen to be in our own backyard, for a landmark documentary series for ITV1. Affair In another of the shows, Trevor McDonald's Secret Caribbean involves Sir Trevor sampling the luxury, beauty and hidden, darker secrets of paradise for a brand new series for ITV1. He will travel across the islands from the Bahamas in the north to his birth place, Trinidad, in the south. And Stephen Tompkinson's African Balloon Adventure features the Wild at Heart actor taking his love affair with Africa one step further. He will travel around the continent of Africa in a Victorian hot-air balloon. The package, which was negotiated by Yan Li at ITV and Mediacom, includes broadcast and online sponsorship. Re-invigorated Rhona Cameron, head of brand strategy at Standard Life, was upbeat about the new deal: "We are delighted to be sponsoring the celebrity travel package with the Standard Life Active Money SIPP. These programmes illustrate why people aren't growing old like they used to and seek more active lives and active futures." Gary Knight, sponsorship, content partnerships and interactive sales director, said: "We are delighted to have attracted such a prestigious client as Standard Life to be the sponsor of our Celebrity Travel Series. It is also extremely gratifying that the client has re-invigorated their faith in the television medium as a core component of their brand building & brand activation plans". The sponsorship credits will be produced by VCCP.     Taste the Nation aims to spice up the usual TV cook-off format, pitting thirty-two British counties against each other in a knock out competition, in a bid to decide which county has the finest cooks in the land. Britain's Best Dish: Celebrity Special will unearth the real unsung heroes of cookery from the celebrity world. The show will be a celebration of food and cooking from across the country, with each celebrity preparing their favourite dish. Interactive Daily Cooks Challenge returns to ITV1, hosted by one of the UK's favourite celebrity chefs, Antony Worrall Thompson. Over the course of a week, two leading chefs will battle it out in a series of daily challenges to win the heart, mind and taste buds of a different celebrity guest judge each day. The package, arranged by Andrea Ridout at ITV and Danusia Michalik at ZenithOptimedia, includes broadcast sponsorship on ITV1, online, interactive and mobile interactive bumpers. The ITV package allows Uncle Ben's to have a presence in the homes of its target consumers at an optimum time of day, say the company, when they are thinking about preparing the evening meal, whilst aligning Uncle Ben's with some of ITV's best loved cookery programmes. Portfolio Andrea Ridout, Sponsorship Manager at ITV, underlined the advantages for the brand: "We are delighted to have Uncle Ben's on board with this sponsorship. The programmes fit perfectly with the Uncle Ben's brand, and it will be a great way for them to showcase their range of products to our viewers." Sponsorship idents will be produced by Proximity London and feature both rice and sauce products in a portfolio of twenty-five different executions. Through giving the products within the range character and personality, the different scenarios are intended to show well Uncle Ben's rice and sauce products work together to create a delicious meal. The sponsorship, says the company, has allowed Uncle Ben's to pull their product portfolio together under the light-hearted simplicity of the overall brand.