3 Themes-ewm’s Daniele J. Suissa and Donald Martin, executive producer of Women, Lifestyle & Money, launched the television series after a lengthy process of piecing together $350,000 for 13 episodes.

Martin first approached ckvr-tv Barrie (the new vr) because of a previous relationship and found the station receptive to a goods-and-services deal whereby the series’ team was permitted to use the vr studios, equipment and even personnel. From there, Martin struck a deal with Life Network and the Saskatchewan Communications Network.

‘I thought initially we’d get more money from the broadcast sector,’ he says. ‘But the licence fees are going down, and aren’t that high, particularly with specialty networks. I knew then we’d have to look for funding elsewhere.’

Based on the books of author B.J. Wylie, the series is designed to help women deal with the financial realities of today’s economy, get more involved with investments, make sound purchases and build their financial portfolios. Hence, Martin thought the corporate world would be an appropriate source of financing.

First, he approached The Investors Group, a financial services company. In return for funding, ig ‘presents’ the series before its opening credits, and its logo appears on various promotional materials.

With the ig funding in place, Martin says, ‘It wasn’t enough.’

Next he approached car companies, thinking the show might want to do a feature on purchasing a high-end automobile. He knocked on the doors of a number of car manufacturers and found bmw to be the most supportive. The luxury automaker gave them funding and a couple of cars to use. ‘But we still needed more,’ says Martin.

Next up: insurance firms and computer companies. Great-West Life was soon on board. Since the series uses a computer on the set to look up solutions for viewers, a computer company seemed like a perfect fit. However, it was more difficult getting both a hardware and a software company interested. Finally, Intuit Canada (Quicken) jumped on board.

‘For most of these companies, they were experimenting,’ says Martin. ‘It was a new way for them to get involved and the returns are hard to measure. But the amount they laid out was a modest sum in their eyes.’

What are the drawbacks to this type of sponsorship funding? What was delivered in return for funding in most cases was a billboard at the end of each episode. In some instances, though, it was more than that. The car featured in the ‘How to finance a luxury vehicle’ segment was, of course, a bmw. The Quicken accounting software program was featured in another episode, along with a Quicken representative talking about how to use computers.

‘We were very aware of the potential pitfalls,’ says Martin. ‘We were always walking a fine line between editorial and infomercial. But we wanted to attract corporate investors and this worked for us.

‘As government financing lessens, we as producers have to become more innovative. This type of financing works for information programming, but not for many other types. The experience gave us confidence to try to piece together similar financing for other programs.’ LL