Title	RUSSELL SPROUT
Brand	SKY
Product/Service	SKY MOVIES
Category	E03. Innovative Use of Social or Community
Entrant	SAPIENTNITRO London, UNITED KINGDOM
Idea Creation	SAPIENTNITRO London, UNITED KINGDOM

Name	Company	Position
Andy Daley	SapientNitro	Creative Director
Sallianne Brown	SapientNitro	Senior Account Director
Sam Edwards	SapientNitro	Senior Account Manager
Andy Sams	SapientNitro	Associate Creative Director
Liz Faber	SapientNitro	Strategy
Martin Zoutendyk	SapientNitro	Art Director
Karen Reed	SapientNitro	Copywriter
Louise Gray-Murray	SapientNitro	Agency Producer
Ryan Alagar	SapientNitro	Agency Producer

The Campaign

We took a humble Brussel Sprout – the nation’s most polarising vegetable – and created a dare-devil ‘Lead Stunt Sprout’ to become the core of our campaign. Voiced by comedy actor Peter Serafinowicz, ‘Russell Sprout’ was launched in a ‘behind the scenes interview’ to coincide with the launch of the brand TV spot. We created a several-week-long Story System spanning social media channels and a bespoke digital hub to engage the nation. First with Russell’s interview and follow-up series of ‘movie stunt masterclass’ films. Then we invited Britain to get involved. Initially, by creating their own humorous ‘fruit & veg’ inspired actor names and film titles. Ultimately, by re-creating famous movie scene films and stills, using sprouts and other vegetables as the stars, in the worlds first ‘Golden Sprout Awards.

Creative Execution

The implementation of the campaign ran in two phases. The first was designed to achieve Reach & Awareness of Sky’s Christmas TVC, which was successfully achieved through a Facebook Reachblock & Promoted Twitter Trend. The second phase was designed to deepen the level of engagement with consumers who engaged with the first phase. Those who engaged were retargeted with our Russ Sprout on Facebook, and through custom audience targeting on Twitter. Within the second phase, we aimed to drive engagement with the Russ Sprout video content (x1 90sec and x3 15sec videos) creating a story-driven narrative around Russ. This transitioned into inviting our audience to participate on a deeper level, through posts designed to drive conversation and participation, before introducing a UGC competition where we asked fans to create their own #SproutMovies for a chance to win a great prize – just in time for Christmas.

Overall reach 29.3 million   Organic reach 9.5 million   36% uplift in positive brand sentiment    Top performing organic posts:   Facebook peak engagement rate 79%   Twitter peak engagement rate 37%

Christmas is a crucial trading period for Sky Movies. We needed to engage with 3 distinct audiences; families and movie fans open to pay TV, existing Sky customers, and Sky Influencers. The campaign had to do two jobs; increase the reach of the TVC and content premiere’s, and drive engagement and participation through a social activation. The campaign had to encourage interaction beyond the TVC into the social space. It should also have a strong element of talkability to enable Sky to stand out from the noise of the festive time of year and excited people with a fresh approach to Xmas advertising with Sky. The social journey needed to deliver moments of delight as activity built towards bringing the family together at Christmas time.