We recently designed a campaign using Channel 4 to reach young audiences through TV streaming (video on demand) and social. We were set the challenge of targeting an audience of 18 – 21-year-olds as part of a student recruitment drive for a University.
We could have used any number of streaming services to target the age range and specific areas in the country, but we settled on 4 Streaming for a specific reason. It gave us an opportunity to explore a campaign that combined the content found on C4 while targeting content through Channel 4’s YouTube and Snapchat content.
Channel 4 is the UK’s youngest profiling commercial broadcast video on demand service (BVOD). Boasting shows such as Made in Chelsea and Married at First Sight, being particularly popular with over 16s. What’s interesting about these and other shows popular with this age group is the linear to streaming split. The common theme across TV watching trends in the UK is that linear TV is still watched more than streaming services, however, these types of shows have a split much closer to 50/50. Made in Chelsea boasts a streaming audience of 49% with Married at First Sight and The Couple Next Door showing to an impressive 47% via streaming. So with specific youth targeting options through both viewer consumption and viewing history you can see the alignment for this campaign.
Building on the Channel 4 youth audience, we decided to enhance the campaign within the Channel 4 universe by taking advantage of the station’s social content, specifically using Snapchat and YouTube. The reason to take this approach was because of the exciting opportunity to extend the campaign to a social campaign while maintaining the high standards of broadcast content.
In addition to extending the Streaming campaign it's a smart way for an advertiser to appear next to trusted content online. This is especially important for an educational institution that wants to avoid negative positioning and associations of appearing next to some of the unregulated online content.
When running ads broadly online and across social there is a risk that it might appear between unattractive content. Whereas when targeting C4’s YouTube content, not only can we ensue that it will appear between appropriate videos, we’re keeping it within the channel 4 universe.
What’s really exciting about this campaign as a whole is the relationship between TV and digital advertising. TV advertising works and linear is sill going strong, but it’s great to have the option of running something with slightly different targeting capabilities when possible.
Get in touch if you would like to find out more about how to make TV advertising work for you.