• by Larissa Faw , July 16, 2014

Last year, talk show host Craig Ferguson and Dairy Queen initiated a product placement deal for the fast food chain's Blizzard. Ferguson is an unabashed fan of the treat so it was a natural alliance. 

Now, Ferguson and Dairy Queen are once again introducing an endorsement partnership that supports DQ's S'More's Blizzard. Kansas-City based Barkley is the creative and digital agency that created the effort and is behind the digital push for this partnership. DQ's media agency Spark partnered with the creative team at Barkley to execute, and a social layer was added to boost engagement.

On last night’s edition of the program, Ferguson interacted with a S’mores Blizzard and endorsed the dessert after the opening monologue, but before guests were introduced. In addition to the product placement and product discussion, the show has reconfigured a DQ S’More’s song to become a specific jingle that sponsors the emails and tweets portion of the show. Viewers are also directed to visit the song's website to remix the song and judge a video contest where other fans created their own version of S’More’s song. 

Meanwhile, to help continue the engagement, DQ Twitter will be responding to fans in real time before and during the show, and will respond back to Ferguson if there is any interaction from him as well.

Last year, Spark developed similar type product promotions with Jimmy Kimmel and Arsenio Hall. For 2014, however, Ferguson is the only Late Night partnership.