NO ONE DOES A PLUS ONE LIKE VIRGIN TV

TitleNO ONE DOES A PLUS ONE LIKE VIRGIN TV
BrandVIRGIN MEDIA
Product/ServiceVIRGIN TV
Category E04. Real-time Response
Entrant RAPP London, UNITED KINGDOM
Idea Creation RAPP London, UNITED KINGDOM
PR RAPP London, UNITED KINGDOM
Production RAPP London, UNITED KINGDOM
Credits
Name Company Position
Jeffrey Osborne RAPP UK Head of 3D and Motion Graphics
Hiten Bhatt RAPP UK Creative Director
Lee Jarrold RAPP UK Designer
James Nawka RAPP UK Designer
Adam Rolfe RAPP UK Creative Director
Ben Fegradoe RAPP UK Art Director
Laura Tohtua RAPP UK Copywriter
Sam Millburn RAPP UK Copywriter
Kinga Wawrzyniak RAPP UK Art Director
Chiara Trecchi RAPP UK Senior Producer
Katherine Dove RAPP UK Producer
Katrina Bain RAPP UK Business DIrector
Jamie Marks RAPP UK Account Director
Ben Phillips RAPP UK Account Manager
Michael Ogundare RAPP UK Social Strategist
Darren Cushway RAPP UK Customer Strategist
Oliver Easthope RAPP UK Art Director
Catherine Crocker RAPP UK Creative Director

Background

Hosted by BAFTA, The Virgin TV British Academy Awards is a star-studded event and the highlight of every TV fan’s awards season. Partnering with this most prestigious organisation representing the UK TV and Film industries, would bring credibility through association, fame reach and advocacy through unique assets, access and experiences. However, with the decline of award shows’ viewership, social media has become the go to source to capture all the glitz and glam, the big wins and surprise losers. As headline sponsors, Virgin TV wanted to go beyond standard awards coverage. We wanted to bring fans closer than ever before, covering the BAFTAs as they would themselves, by developing an end-to-end campaign that put the superfans at the heart of everything. So, we made the fans our exclusive plus ones, inviting them to get their virtual glad rags on and experience a night rubbing shoulders with the stars.

Describe the strategy

Fans are driving the current TV revolution. They don’t want to be constrained by linear schedules, they want to consume content whenever and wherever they want, on any device. They want depth, more access, more meaningful experiences and more control. Our strategic campaign positioning of ‘Championing Fan-tastic TV’ allowed us to highlight the entertainment industry’s best and engage the fans who are integral to their popularity. Most brands were covering award shows in the same passive way. We wanted to get active and give fans the chance to get closer to the BAFTAs. Enter our creative proposition, ‘as if the fans covered the BAFTAs themselves’. We were going to put the most important people at the heart of our campaign, making them our exclusive plus ones.

Describe the execution

To keep the fans engaged in the complete BAFTA experience a key element would be reactive, real-time engagement. Ahead of the awards, fans could judge the #MustSeeMoment of 2017 on native social voting. Then, as the stars arrived, fans greeted them through our bespoke 9- foot Last-Minute Mirror, with a built-in screen showing highly personalised, reactive messages to the celebs as they walked past, prompting spontaneous reactions. Viewers enjoyed playful interaction with big names and this was beamed directly to our social platforms. We also drove fans to a world-first Red Carpet 360+ LIVE experience, where they were transported to the heart of the event through three discreetly positioned, live 360° cameras along the carpet. Finally, we took fans backstage to interact with the award winners. We encouraged the stars to complete personalised messages with Winning Words, which were gamified and used in reactive social posts.

List the results

The campaign generated over 6M video views (8% increase on 2017), over 21.5M impressions (11% increase on 2017) and 1.9M engagements (34% increase on 2017). We achieved an average engagement rate of 34% on Facebook, and 14% on Instagram. There was a £0.02p CPV, a 50% reduction in CPE compared to our benchmarks and last year’s activity. Virgin TV were the first UK Telco to use the Instagram stories carousel lead generation. Adoption of new sponsorship packages and 100% SOV takeover products ensured we were at the heart of the BAFTA conversation, and our activity garnered 6 press publications.