Eight new sponsors sign up for Nine’s The Voice

Nine Network announced that eight new major brands have signed up as sponsors for the 2016 season of its flagship entertainment show The Voice.

It returns for the fifth year this Sunday at 7pm with former The X Factor judge Ronan Keating replacing Ricky Martin and joining Jessie J, Ronan Keating, Delta Goodrem and the Madden Bros on the big red chairs.

Those on the commercial partners list are Mazda, iSelect, NIVEA, Pandora Music, KFC, Sage, Woolworths and Auto Masters. There are more integrations and digital footsteps through 9Now, social, The Voice app and Pandora.

iSelect’s The Voice app allows viewers to be the fifth coach during the blind auditions and battle rounds, as well as instant voting during the live shows.

New partner Mazda will feature coach Jessie J in an ambassador-style role in its TVC for its new Mazda3 model.

Pandora will launch a digital content series on artists and music firsts and house unique video content from The Voice.

NIVEA will sponsor the red carpet, and offer viewers the chance to attend the Grand Final and meet the coaches.

Nine’s Director of Innovation, Partnerships and Customer Experience, Lizzie Young, says, “We are incredibly excited to be working with such a diverse and high calibre of brands on the fifth season of The Voice, a true testament to the confidence advertisers have in the format.

“Thanks to our ongoing collaboration with Endemol Shine Australia we are continuing to evolve the opportunity The Voice presents for brands to tell their own unique story.

”More so than ever before we are empowering consumers to connect with The Voice when and how they want as our engagement with consumers expands across new platforms.”

The Voice was Nine’s top light entertainment show last year, with an average of over 1.8 million viewers for each episode and 2 million for the grand final. For each episode during the live shows, The Voice got an average of 50,000 tweets and

22.2 million page views across the series.

Nine is following up The Voice’s return with Adele’s Live From New York City. She was filmed last November at Radio City Music Hall performing Hello, Set Fire to the Rain, All I Ask, Skyfall, Someone Like You, Million Years Ago, When We Were Young and Rolling In The Deep.

Among those in the audience were Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper, Emma Stone, Daniel Day Lewis, Jon Hamm and Irina Shayk.

In the meantime, Seven Network has begun five weeks of auditions around the country for its next series of The X Factor. Today (Friday) these are being held on the Gold Coast. Seven has yet to reveal who the judges are or when the series return on-air. Dannii Minogue has already announced she won’t return in 2016.

Seven is yet to confirm when the new series will air — or who the judges will be.