THE SUPPORTING ACT

Short List
TitleTHE SUPPORTING ACT
BrandBBC
Product/ServiceBBC ONE
Entrant BBC CREATIVE London, UNITED KINGDOM
Idea Creation BBC CREATIVE London, UNITED KINGDOM
Production BLINKINK London, UNITED KINGDOM
Credits
Name Company Position
Laurent Simon BBC Creative ECD
Aidan McClure BBC Creative ECD
Arvid Harnqvist BBC Creative Senior Creative
Amar Marwaha BBC Creative Senior Creative
Ken Rodrigues BBC Creative Producer
Astrid Reiner BBC Creative Project Manager
Jenny Broad BBC Creative Production Manager
James Wood BBC Creative Head of Production
Mike Lean BBC Creative Head of Planning
Kerry Moss BBC Head of Marketing
Harriet Gunning BBC Marketing Manager
Elliot Dear Blinkink Director
Bart Yates Blinkink Producer
Benjamin Lole Blinkink Producer
Stephen McNally Blinkink VFX Supervisor / Lead

Why is this work relevant for Integrated?

This campaign ran as a TV ad, as idents, in digital, on radio and editorial.

Background

BBC One is the Nation’s biggest broadcaster – bringing more people together to share a moment than any other. But the BBC One brand’s scale can make it lack humanity and warmth. Its challenge is to show that it’s relevant and of the people. Our brand idea is Oneness – the feeling of a kinship with others over a shared moment or passion. With Christmas, the opportunity was to bring this idea to life at a time when being together is so important.

Describe the creative idea

Against the backdrop of the country feeling divided, our idea was to tell a simple story of togetherness that would resonate with everyone in the country, whether you are a parent, child or remember growing up.

Describe the strategy

. BBC One is a mainstream brand, for all audiences – meaning our targeting strategy was less about a particular demographic and more about ensuring that we achieved two things. 1/Maximise the reach and influence of the BBC’s influencers and brands The ‘Supporting Act’ film was broadcast across the BBC’s network of channels, streamed on iPlayer and given early to talent and content brands within the BBC. This included Radio 2 DJ’s create a film showing their reaction, reaching Xmillion people. 2/ Targeting Mainstream press to create buzz We released our film on December 1st – creating a gap between our film and the earlier release of other major Christmas marketers. This allowed us to tap into Christmas ‘proper’ (not commercial Christmas, but the season when the festive feeling really kicks in) and get press coverage that didn’t have to compete with other marketing campaigns.

Describe the execution

On the 29th November we began to tease the campaign. We then gave the BBC signed in users a preview via email. This reached 2.3m people and turned them into early advocates. The campaign launched during the BBC’s biggest show – Strictly Come Dancing with over 10m viewers. The channel then ‘switched on Christmas’ adopting the whole look and feel of the campaign including idents, backgrounds, and graphics. The film was cross-promoted across the BBC network as was the film, discussed on The One Show, Radio 1 Breakfast, Radio 2 and many more. Social listening was used to react to the most in influential people with bespoke replies, which kept the conversation going.

List the results

It tracked as the most successful BBC campaign ever for novelty with 40% of the audience believing it to be stand out and new for the BBC. This scored higher than the likes of John Lewis and Marks & Spencer. It was also the BBC most engaging campaign ever, scoring 77% amongst the BBC’s most challenging demographic of 16-34yr olds. 33% of the audience felt that following the campaign they believed the BBC made a difference to enhance their lives. The scale of the campaign was also unprecedented. It had a reach of over 116million thanks to social pick up and press coverage. The film had consolidated views across digital platforms of 65 million – that’s before accounting for the reach of the film through the BBC’s owned broadcast network. It was the most watched, most liked and most commented on Christmas film of 2017.