Chill Insurance has come on board as the sponsor for Fair City. With an average per episode viewership of 500,000 the RTÉ soap has proven itself something of a brand magnet.

In 2011, Christy’s tiny corner shop becoming a well-appointed Spar (the three-year product placement cost Spar parent BWG €900,000) and a branch of the credit union appeared in Carrigstown.

Product placement

The figures for that produce placement haven’t been released but it’s likely to be a fraction the Spar deal because (as yet, in soapland you never can tell) no one has actually been into the credit union: it’s just a façade.

The Chill sponsorship sees the insurance broker making soap-themed stings – the first aired this week – with the tag line “Insurance without the drama”. Over the coming weeks new characters and plot lines will be introduced.

Chill created its current TV advertising campaign featuring Jennifer Maguire in-house, and are once again bypassing an ad agency for the Fair City stings, which will be developed with the company and RTÉ Ad Lab. The sponsorship is for eight months.