Shark Week Reels in New Marketing Partners

The powerful pull of Discovery’s Shark Week has attracted several new marketing partners, including the Association of Volleyball Professionals, DJ Jauz, Pintril, The Ritz-Carlton Fort Lauderdale, Tarte and USA Swimming.

They join returning partners Southwest Airlines, Great Clips, Pledgling, Ubisoft and Georgetown Cupcake.

For Shark Week, Discovery is also running a campaign to benefit groups that protect sharks and their habitats. There will be a text-to-donate campaign for the non-profit group Oceana. Shark Week will also be hosting shoreline cleanups with Ocean Conservancy around the country, including efforts at Rockaway Beach in New York, the Santa Monica Pier in Los Angeles and Tyson Park in Knoxville.

The AVP is creating the Hermosa Beach Open at the Hermosa Beach Pier July 26-28. There will be integrated branding and Shark Week activations in the sand. Shark Week’s first movie, Capsized: Blood in the Water, will be screened after tournament play on July 27.

The Ritz Carlton Fort Lauderdale will be showing Shark Week episodes and feature a special Shark Week menu and cocktails in its restaurant and Shark Week treatments at its spa. Proceeds benefit the University of Miami’s Shark Research and Conservation Program.

Pintril is making a collection of limited-edition Shark Week 2019 pins. Tarte cosmetics company, is teaming up with Discovery Channel on a sweepstakes offering a trip to Costa Rica as a prize.

With USA Swimming, Discovery is creating a Shark Week section during the 2019 Phillips 66 U.S. National Championships. Discovery is making a donation to USA Swimming to help promote opportunities for swimmers and coaches to advance the sport.

DJ Jauz is working with Shark Week on a clothing collection and will donate a portion of the proceeds to Ocean Conservancy. DJ Jauz will appear on a special edition of Cooking With Mello, which stars his friend Marshmello, and will DJ during the late night show Shark After Dark. Jauz’s remix of Baby Shark will be used during Shark Week on air and on Discovery’s programming for Snapchat.

Pledgeling, a charitable giving platform, is handling the text-to-donate campaign for Oceana.

Ubisoft’s Hungry Shark Evolution and Hungry Shark World games will feature in-game Shark Week content. The game's social media accounts will feature content promoting Oceana’s work.

Southwest Airlines is hosting a Dare to Dive sweepstakes during July. The winner gets a trip to Nassau, Bahamas. Southwest passengers will be able to watch a Shark Week TV channel while in the air. Programming on the channel includes one episode that won’t premiere on TV for a month. Southwest is also offering an augmented reality experience that lets users swim with sharks.

Great Clips will be working with Shark Week for the seventh year in a row. For every Great Clips online check-in app downloaded in July, the haircut chain will donate $1 to Oceana, up to $10,000. There will also be co-branded signage in Great Clips salons.

Georgetown Cupcake will be celebrating Shark Week with a new dozen cupcakes that includes four Shark Fin Vanilla cupcakes topped with ocean-blue buttercream and fondant fins, two Shark Head Vanilla cupcakes, two red velvet cupcakes with Puffy fondant and four chocolate and vanilla buttercream cupcakes topped with the Shark Week logo.

Jon Lafayette

Jon has been business editor of Broadcasting+Cable since 2010. He focuses on revenue-generating activities, including advertising and distribution, as well as executive intrigue and merger and acquisition activity. Just about any story is fair game, if a dollar sign can make its way into the article. Before B+C, Jon covered the industry for TVWeek, Cable World, Electronic Media, Advertising Age and The New York Post. A native New Yorker, Jon is hiding in plain sight in the suburbs of Chicago.