A year-long integration deal between Johnson’s and Canwest will see promo segments and branded programming blocks on Slice and Discovery Health — doubling the TV-based advertising of the baby skincare company as it peaks this fall.

The agreement will change Slice’s midday timeslots by adding a ‘Johnson’s Baby Block’ of programming that includes The Mom Show, Birth Stories and Birth Days. Discovery Health will feature shows such as House of Babies, John and Kate Plus 8, Maternity Ward and Desperate Midwives.

Johnson’s is also injecting segments into programming such as The Mom Show on Slice. The deal includes a series of two-minute vignettes called The Baby Diaries that showcase the lives of a new mother and her baby, and will air during the new season of The Mom Show, which launches Sept. 8.

The boost over Johnson’s 2007 TV ad spend also includes a traditional ad buy across HGTV and Food Network. The deal was arranged by J3, M2 Universal’s dedicated division for the Johnson’s account, and runs until the end of 2008.

‘All of the assets that we’re creating out of the partnership are being repurposed on babycenter.ca, which is owned by Johnson’s,’ says Darryl Nicholson, VP managing director on the Johnson’s account with J3. ‘It’s a swap of assets, because on babycenter.ca, we promote The Mom Show. The whole promotion runs across the specialty networks’ sites, and really the anchor of the program is The Mom Show…It’s a totally integrated, 360-degree partnership.’

This month, the series went to shoot in Calgary at a mall, where a few thousand moms showed up to sit through the show, and Johnson’s was integrated into those episodes. Why Calgary? Nicholson says it’s because that city is having one of the larger baby booms in Canada right now. Naturally, a ‘cutest baby in Calgary’ contest was part of the mix.

Since the partnership began, Nicholson says awareness of babycenter.ca has grown 10%.

From Media in Canada