Channel 4

Channel 4 : Black Friday

The Campaign Objective

Friday 28 May - one of Channel 4's biggest days of scheduling, ever. The end of massively popular sit-com 'Friends' and the start of Big Brother 5. Channel 4 wanted to reach huge numbers of key audiences in a timely, cost-effective manner whilst also benefiting from accompanying editorial exposure. They called their campaign ‘Black Friday’ due to the ‘upset’ caused by the last-ever episode of Friends and the start of the ‘evil’ Big Brother 5 show. They wanted to make a big splash in London and target people as they travelled home. The campaign was not necessarily to increase ratings (although this would be an obvious bonus), but rather to give extra impact and add excitement.

Newspaper editorial fuels and leads topics of public interest - as shown by the number of column inches newspapers dedicate to TV shows such as Friends and Big Brother. Channel 4 is a canny advertiser and they know newspapers are good for many things - entertainment being one of the more light-hearted of these. They decided to publicise 'Black Friday' with insertions in national newspapers, many of whom devoted several pages of editorial to the programmes but they wanted to think beyond just pure press advertising to be cleverer - in other words they wanted to add ‘theatre’ to their advertising.

They were also using outdoor and ambient media so our proposal had to complement this.

Our Proposal

• Polybag ES Magazine - to portray a ‘Black Friday’ cover
• Different advertising sites with key positioning including the back page of ES Magazine
• To put a wrap around the Evening Standard (like a mock cover) to incorporate their slogan ‘The end is like so nigh’- this tied in with their key strategy of doom and gloom and ‘evilness’
• Give out to people at 12-3 and 5-7 at all mainline stations
• Also distributed at Covent Garden, Charing Cross, Leicester Square and Trafalgar Square
• Vendor boards to offer their slogan authenticity and give it news value
• Stakeholder advertising to help the Channel 4 staff to become more excited by the campaign we set up an Evening Standard stall in their reception and hand out the wraps

We believed that these solutions met Channel 4’s needs:

• Channel 4 benefited from the brand values of ES Magazine and the Evening Standard by using a wrap they could in effect ‘hitch a ride’ with our editorial to drive awareness to their massive days scheduling
• It created a big splash in London
• It complemented their outdoor advertising
• It tied in with their ambient advertising - they had men in sandwich boards wandering around with the same slogan as the wrap giving it greater authenticity.It made the news story look ‘real’
• It hit people at the right time of day on the day of the event - timing is everything!
• Ultimately it created a spectacular and gave the impression of theatre

The Final Product

• Full run of polybagged ES Magazines
• Back page advertisement on ES Magazine
• 20,000 wraps around the Evening Standard like a mock cover

This edition of the Evening Standard included relevant Channel 4 editorial including:-

• Front Page: Friends story
• Page 23: Big Brother editorial
• Page 27: Friends full page editorial
• Page 39: Pick of the Night - Friends
• Page 44: Pick of the Night - Big Brother and Friends
• Page 46:Digital Highlights - Friends

We also offered:

• Vendor boards to offer their slogan authenticity and give it news value
• Trade marketing/stakeholder - wraps taken to the Channel 4 building and given out to both staff and their visiting clients. We even managed to get Friends character ‘Gunther’ and presenter Vernon Kay to read a copy!

Result

We established a better relationship with both the agency and the client and we are now a preferred media partner. The client was very happy with the outcome and the Evening Standard is now featured in E4’s new television ad campaign for their ‘Long Dark Summer’ season.

For Black Friday we wanted to dominate every medium we advertised in. The Evening Standard produced a package that was both impactful and uniquely answered C4's brief. Every Evening Standard reader could not help but see our advertising adding to the theatre and impact of the campaign.

Through the insights of the Evening Standard team we also knew that this was the right press vehicle to utilise, ideally targeting our upmarket audience on their way home when they would be planning their evenings viewing.

Paul Gilshan | OMD