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Last week, Channel 4 announced a £1m fund to en-courage food advertisers to run campaigns on its channels. The scheme offers financial assistance with the production of the ads, as well as the opportunity to use C4's endorsement on products.

The broadcaster has deliberately targeted the food sector at a time when raw-material price inflation, coupled with additional factors such as high demand for wheat in the Far East, has forced manufacturers to cut promotional spend.

It is not the only sector being targeted, however. Chris Braithwaite, strategic sales group manager at C4, says it is also seeking to boost take-up in the recruitment and gaming industries, which have traditionally focused on print advertising, to bolster revenue. Indeed, brands in the latter sector have been able to advertise on TV only since September of last year.

'In terms of investment, this is the biggest initiative we have taken in luring brands to try out TV advertising,' says Braithwaite. 'We are asking for 50% of their TV ad budget for an agreed period, so we're not asking them to sign over their souls. A lot of small brands have been prohibited from TV ads by their sheer scale, and we hope to bring more to the medium.'

Agencies and rival broadcasters have been quick to applaud the C4 initiative, but incentive packages are nothing new in the UK's TV market. Smaller broadcasters such as Turner and Viacom have been offering advertisers incentives to run campaigns on their channels for some time, while ITV and Five also target new advertisers through the lure of their multichannel platforms.

Two years ago, Nick Bampton, managing director of Viacom Brand Solutions - the sales house for MTV, VH1, Nickelodeon and Paramount Comedy - oversaw a highly innovative brand incentive. It offered children's snack manufacturer Ella's Kitchen ad space on its Nickelodeon channels in exchange for a percentage of the brand's profits. Ella's Kitchen is now a top 10 advertiser on Nickelodeon, which Bampton cites as proof that working with brands on an individual basis reaps long-term rewards.

'If we offer a brand a variety of deals to get it onto TV, there is a bigger prize for us further down the line,' he says. 'However, we know that it suits some brands to work on a cost-per-thousand basis. If Channel 4 can bring advertisers to TV with this initiative, it will be good news for every broad-caster.'

Jim McDonnell, head of broadcast at MPG, argues that the C4 scheme, in particular, serves to demonstrate the increasing flexibility of broadcasters in the ad market. 'There were times when the bigger broad-casters simply offered standard clauses for brands, but now the industry works on a more bespoke basis,' he says. 'Channel 4 hasn't always been a natural fit for FMCG brands, so perhaps targeting food advertisers will help move it further into this area, too.'

The trend among advertisers to shift spend online, combined with cutbacks to TV ad budgets in the downturn, has left broadcasters with little choice but to regularly incentivise brands.

Channel 4's initiative is just one of many on offer, but if the market continues to decline - and signs suggest it will - such schemes will become more ubiquitous in the months ahead.

Case study    Ella's Kitchen

Sales House Viacom Brand Solutions.

In 2006, children's snack brand Ella's Kitchen signed a deal agreeing to ex-change a percentage of its profits for media space to advertise its smoothies on Viacom Brand Solutions' Nickelodeon channels.

The deal was negotiated by Nick Bampton, managing director at VBS, and Paul Lindley, founder of Ella's Kitchen. The campaign comprised one 30-second ad and two edited 10-second versions, which were created by the Advertising Marketing Partnerships division of VBS and children's specialist agency Prism Entertainment.

Ella's Kitchen is now one of the top 10 advertisers on Nickelodeon.