Title	DAVE - OFFICIAL COMMENTATOR OF VICTORIOUS FESTIVAL
Brand	DAVE / UKTV
Product/Service	DAVE (BRAND)
Category	C02. Live Shows / Concerts / Festivals
Entrant	GLOBAL MEDIA AND ENTERTAINMENT London, UNITED KINGDOM
Idea Creation	GLOBAL MEDIA AND ENTERTAINMENT London, UNITED KINGDOM
Idea Creation 2	UKTV London, UNITED KINGDOM
Media Placement	GLOBAL MEDIA AND ENTERTAINMENT London, UNITED KINGDOM
Media Placement 2	UKTV London, UNITED KINGDOM
Production	GLOBAL MEDIA AND ENTERTAINMENT London, UNITED KINGDOM
Production 2	UKTV London, UNITED KINGDOM

Name	Company	Position
Nick Russell	Global, The Media & Entertainment Group	Director of Creative Content
Annie Lewiston	Global, The Media & Entertainment Group	Partnership Manager
Francesca Spencer	Global, The Media & Entertainment Group	Account Manager
Elizabeth Pike	Global, The Media & Entertainment Group	Fulfilment Account Manager
Charlie Guy	UKTV	Marketing Lead
Cherie Cunningham	UKTV	Senior Marketing Manager
Sophie Yeoman	UKTV	Design Lead
Aaron Gillies	UKTV	Creative Copy Lead
Dani Liquiri	UKTV	Graphic Designer
Veer Assi	UKTV	Graphic Designer
Harry Mitchell	UKTV	Motion Designer

Why is this work relevant for Brand Experience & Activation ?

When it comes to standing out at festivals, brands can spend a LOT of money outshouting each other. Not all brands have big budgets to spend though. This simple, effective activation for TV channel Dave at Victorious Festival was rooted in brilliant copywriting and the clever placement of it. It showed that a word or two said in the right way, in the right place can be just as effective as a dazzling installation. The activation was its own form of entertainment, adding to the festival experience, bringing cheeky moments of laughter and smiles to festival goers around the site.

Background

As a brand, Dave has a distinctive tone of voice; Irreverent, fun, witty and playful It’s a voice it flexes regularly, poking fun at the world around it through its social, on screen continuity announcements and ATL advertising. Put simply, Dave always has something to say about something. It’s this personality that Dave were looking to bring to life amongst a metropolitan audience. To show off its playful side and build on its comedy credentials. So if Dave always has something to say about something, what would Dave say if it was at a festival? We wanted to find out, so…

Describe the creative idea

We made Dave - The Official Commentator of Victorious Festival. A title that on the face of it seems like a nonsensical category, but what it did was give Dave license to make witty observations on everything from lamp posts to bars, the festival’s surroundings and even the toilets, using cleverly placed, cleverly written signs that passed comment on the location and situation at the festival the signs had been placed in. Effectively, Dave made the festival site it’s playground to have fun with, sharing its amusing take on what it saw, wherever it was at Victorious Festival. Rather than spend their budget on a big-ticket sponsorship such as a stage or building an area to attract passing festival goers, Dave did the opposite and delivered laughs, smiles and nodding winks from festival goers across the weekend – generating huge brand love for the channel in the process.

Describe the strategy

Dave isn’t about exclusivity. If you can laugh and like to laugh, they want you to know about them. Our approach was to entertain and delight where you would least expect it. Where there was an opportunity to share a thought and make a festival goer smile, Dave was on it. It wasn’t about throwing big budgets around and being gregarious about the brand either. This wasn’t Dave’s style. This was about being the fun one that that people warmed to at the party, not the loud mouth one simply screaming for attention. This was also about being part of the fabric of the festival. On the face of it, a TV channel advertising at a music festival might not seem like a natural fit, but this audience was also Dave’s audience, which meant the conversation needed to be timely and relevant to the environment it was being delivered in.

Describe the execution

Pre-festival, the site was visited and scoped to identify opportunities for Dave to pass comment on. All in all, 277 different, Dave branded signs were created and placed around the site, copywritten to be the equivalent of having that witty friend passing comment in your ear as you explores the site together (your witty friend of course being Dave). Be it next to the cash-point, (“Maybe don’t check your balance. Why ruin a perfectly good weekend?”), at the bar (“We wanted to replace this sign with hundreds of sheep announcing this was a bar, but we weren’t allowed”), in the VIP areas (“Please do not feed the non-VIP’s) and in even in the toilets (“Remember, this is character building”), If it was physically possible to attach a sign to a surface and the environment the sign was in provided an opportunity for Dave to pass comment, we made it happen.

List the results

Social tracking during Victorious festival showed 87% positive sentiment towards Dave across multiple social channels. Post analysis amongst those who attended the Festival showed: 97% prompted / 77% un-prompted awareness of Dave as a TV channel that shows comedy 95% listed Dave when asked which brands partnered with Victorious this year 87% agreed that if they were to watch comedy, they would consider watching it on Dave 76% agreed Dave is a brand that offers witty entertainment 46% stated they had now watched shows on Dave post festival