Finally, Vizio is continuing to partner with advertisers in the creation of sponsored content. This holiday season, the smart TV maker will debut a Christmas-themed makeover show called Merry & Bright with Grammy-nominated singer Jordin Sparks, sponsored by Home Depot. The three ten-minute episodes will appear in the WatchFree+ built-in FAST service on Vizio TVs.

Electronics company Vizio and The Home Depot have developed a shoppable content series to highlight the many ways consumers can use the retailer’s products to decorate their homes, per details shared with Marketing Dive.

All episodes of Merry & Bright will drop on November 1, 2023, exclusively on VIZIO. The content will be available until December 31, 2023, and can be found on VIZIO’s Home Screen Hero, which will spotlight different episodes of the heart-warming show each week.

Merry & Bright, Home Depot’s shoppable content series, drops its three 10-minute episodes on Nov. 1, 2023 on Vizio, where they will be accessible through the end of the year. The series is hosted by Grammy-nominated American Idol winner Jordin Sparks, with each episode focused on holiday makeovers for a different family.

“It’s exciting to partner with such an established and innovative brand like The Home Depot, who is taking advantage of these opportunities to deliver emotion-led storytelling, centered around Vizio’s audience interests like holiday content and DIY.”

“It’s exciting to partner with such an established and innovative brand like The Home Depot, who is taking advantage of these opportunities to deliver emotion-led storytelling, centered around VIZIO’s audience interests like holiday content and DIY.”

Merry & Bright is produced by Turn Card Content with Audra Smith, Courtney Smith, Jake Haelen, and Amy Hurt serving as Executive Producers. The Vizio Merry & Bright partnership was negotiated by The Home Depot’s media agency OMD USA, and orchestrated by The Content Collective, OMD’s content marketing division.

Vizio’s recently launched Branded Content Studio unit has been tasked with creating data-driven, programming with relevant messaging across multiple formats. Wilson said they are continuing to tackle that challenge with this partnership.’

Home improvement retailer, The Home Depot, is launching a shoppable content series, ‘Merry & Bright’, which will air exclusively on Vizio. The series, produced by Vizio, is hosted by Grammy-nominated American Idol winner Jordin Sparks, who Vizio brought on for the project.

“It’s exciting to partner with such an established and innovative brand like The Home Depot, who is taking advantage of these opportunities to deliver emotion-led storytelling, centered around Vizio’s audience interests like holiday content and DIY.” said Katlyn Wilson, director of branded content sales and strategy at Vizio.

Another consideration for Home Depot was Vizio’s ability to integrate the retailer’s first-party data for campaign targeting, which not all streamers offer yet.

In an epic deal, Golf Nation officially debuted its Free Ad-Supported Television (FAST) golf-lifestyle channel on the home screen of VIZIO’s tens of millions of Smart TVs in living rooms everywhere.

NBTV Channels’ video entertainment network Golf Nation is set to officially debut its Free Ad-Supported Television (FAST) golf-lifestyle channel on VIZIO Smart TVs.

“Thanks in large part to VIZIO, Golf Nation will boast one of the largest golf-oriented audiences in the U.S.,” says Nick Buzzell, Chairman and CEO of Golf Nation. “The significant distribution lift excites our brand partners who authentically sell products featured in our shows.”

VIZIO Smart TV users in the US will be the first to stream Golf Nation programming at no cost on WatchFree+ channel 612 and on demand. Golf Nation content was initially previewed in December 2022 on GolfNation.com as a VoD provider of commercial-free, golf-lifestyle shows.

Golf Nation said it will launch its first free ad-supported streaming television channel on Vizio’s WatchFree Plus platform. Content from Golf Nation, created by NBTV Channels and NBTV Studios, will also be available on demand on Vizio smart TVs.

Shoppable capabilities for Golf Nation don’t yet extend to Vizio smart TVs or the FAST channel, a Vizio spokesperson confirmed to StreamTV Insider.

Still, in the announcement Golf Nation CEO and Chairman Nick Buzzel touted distribution on Vizio as helping brand partners that sell featured products.

New pharma brands are tapping into old tried-and-true pharma ad strategies and investing big in TV advertising, according to the latest tracking report from iSpot.tv.

Next in Media spoke with Mike O'Donnell, Chief Revenue/ Strategic Growth Officer at Vizio about the company's evolution from a TV manufacturer to an ad sales firm/programmer. O'Donnell talked about the challenges in shifting a company's entire business model while trying to build credibility in a fast changing marketplace.

Bitcentral, the provider of award-winning efficient media workflows for broadcast and digital video, today announces that SalemNOW, a leading streaming service covering family, faith, news, and culture is now available on leading Smart TV manufacturer, VIZIO (NYSE: VZIO) Smart TVs.