Why göt2b jumped to sponsor ‘Dancing With The Stars: The Next Pro’

The mirrorball universe has expanded—and so too have the brand sponsorship opportunities.

The spinoff competition dance series Dancing With The Stars: The Next Pro has kept Dancing With The Stars franchise fans fed this summer, and as its official presenting sponsor, hair-care brand göt2b is part of the choreography. The competition reality show, which airs Monday nights on ABC and hits Disney+ and Hulu the next day, features a group of 12 professional dancers who compete to eventually become the next pro to join the main cast of Dancing With The Stars in its upcoming 35th season this fall.

Leading up to its August 31 finale, The Next Pro has served as a hype machine for general audiences of the main show—and for göt2b, it’s provided a prime place to build relationships with dancers and a Gen Z audience.

“We are known and beloved by the dance community, so as a result, we’re always trying to find our ways in with that community, just increasing engagement and connection,” Jacqueline Amorello, senior brand manager for göt2b at Henkel, told us.

Alongside performances and judging sessions typical of the main show, the spinoff series also gives a bit more of a look into the day-to-day life and preparation that goes into training to be a pro dancer, offering a natural opportunity for onscreen brand integrations, Amorello said. As sponsor, the brand appears in five of the eight episodes in various moments, and it features in social content with Dancing With The Stars cast member and pro dancer Daniella Karagach.

Bop to the top

Göt2b’s media agency brought the brand the opportunity to be presenting sponsor of The Next Pro in February, Amorello said, and while she didn’t get the feeling that competition was exceptionally fierce for sponsoring the spinoff at that time, time still felt of the essence.

“We had a feeling that once that excitement started to drum up about the show, I think everyone probably would have wanted to attack on the opportunity,” Amorello said. “Because we felt like it was such a good brand fit, we jumped on it right away.”

She was onto something. John Campbell, SVP of entertainment and streaming solutions at Disney Advertising, told us in an email that the excitement around DWTS’s most recent season helped drum up interest. The series saw its highest finale viewership in nearly a decade, broke voting engagement records, and leaned into social buzz thanks to Gen Z cast members like Rylee Arnold and Ezra Sosa.

“What we’re increasingly seeing is that brands want to come in early on the big bets we’re making, and The Next Pro is a great example of that,” Campbell told us. “DWTS Season 34 was a cultural hit, and brands saw an opportunity to build on that energy with the existing fandom while getting in early on something new. That’s a powerful combination.”

For the göt2b team, making the onscreen product placement feel authentic was essential, Amorello said, which entailed showcasing the versatility of göt2b’s products in different natural scenarios with contestants.

“There’s a moment where Stephani [Sosa] is back at the house touching up her brows, and she’s chatting with another contestant in the bathroom,” Amorello said. “Or you have Erik [Linder] right before he’s taking the floor with Selena [Hamilton], spraying his hair one last time before he hit the floor.”

The sponsorship also involved streaming media ads and three pieces of custom social content posted on Karagach’s personal Instagram account and the official Dancing With The Stars Instagram and TikTok pages. Amorello said these posts have been resonating and generating positive sentiment.

“Göt2b sponsorship is frying me,” reads one comment on Instagram. “This is how we know it’s ballroom for REAL.”

Dancing shoes

A spinoff show is not always guaranteed to have the same success as its originator. But The Next Pro has become ABC’s strongest summer premiere in six years, with 5.3 million total viewers after three days, per Nielsen data cited in a Disney press release.

It’s a welcome result that Amorello said is due to instinct and trusting in the momentum of the Dancing with the Stars franchise. “We know how loyal the Dancing with the Stars community is, and also, based on their social following, I think there was something in our gut that knew that this has legs,” she said. “We were also just willing to take on the risk.”

It’s unclear whether The Next Pro will get a second season, and while Campbell noted that Disney and ABC are always having conversations, he was tight-lipped about the spinoff’s future. From a logistics standpoint, viewers have to wonder: Can the main show realistically hire a new pro dancer every year?

Even if The Next Pro is fated to be a single-season experiment, Amorello said getting göt2b in early was worth it.

“From the positive sentiment that we’ve seen and just our way in, I don’t think [the sponsorship’s success] it’s really dependent on following seasons,” she said. “I think what we were able to accomplish with this season alone has been really positive.”