What is a media channel any more?
Any venture into the world of social network marketing is going to throw up a whole bunch of learning – not least because every campaign takes on an uncontrollable life of its own. Making an ad and putting it onto a TV channel feels a curiously plain and removed thing to do now, when as a creative you can follow the twists and turns of your creative product as it is poked, prodded, twisted, made over and occasionally applauded out there in cyber space.
Our ongoing campaign The Hunting Moon for the charity Malaria No More has already provided a whole book load of learning for the next time we try to create a fake film trailer to raise awareness of a deadly disease. And alright…some of it is applicable beyond that.
We’ve learnt that you need to “media plan” tweets from people with big following to prevent site overloads, we’ve learnt that the Sun Online is becoming a great rich media environment to be screened in, and we’ve learnt that it’s possible to make Wormwood Scrubs, London W12, double for the African savannah.
The single most striking takeout for me, though, has been the “channels” that we have been able to promote our message through. Most notably, the moment that David Beckham posted the trailer on his personal website and Facebook page with its five and a half million followers…
As an airtime buy that would be an impressive audience figure, not even accounting for the value of his peer endorsement. Or the moment when Jack Dorsey, the founder of Twitter, posted a link to our site to his 1.4 million followers. Again, a good peak time Channel 4 share…but a message not hidden amongst a mass of other things shouting for attention, but a one-off targeted piece of content.
As more and more internet connected TVs roll off the production line, will the thoughts of Jack Dorsey fight for eyeballs even more directly with the last moments of Jack Duckworth? Is David Beckham becoming as much of a TV channel as Dave?
Charlie Mawer, Executive Creative Director