TORONTO – The notion that Facebook, digital and Twitter are considered the best ways to connect and share just didn’t sit right with the Television Bureau of Canada (TVB), so they decided to do something about it.
TVB, the industry association designed to market the effectiveness of television, tapped Toronto-based ad agency Red Lion to orchestrate a campaign and subsequent case study in an attempt to prove that TV was more than just passive entertainment, that its formidable storytelling abilities had the power to help connects Canadians' lives. The result was a multi-layer, interactive campaign called TunedIn.
Presenting the results of TunedIn at TV Day on Thursday in Toronto, Brett Channer, Red Lion’s president and chief creative officer, admitted that the task appeared daunting at first blush.
“People don’t even like to admit that they’re watching TV”, he said during his presentation. “They’ll happily admit that they’ve watched 12 hours of content, or social time on a small screen… It’s kind of strange; we really wanted to tap in to that issue and really understand it. So the issue we agreed to (for the campaign) was ‘TV doesn’t get the credit it deserves as a catalyst at connectedness’”.
TunedIn debuted as a 30-second commercial spot that began airing in January across most Canadian TV channels for three weeks. The spot raved about how Canadians love television, promoted a free iOS and Google app, and hinted that some individuals could appear on national TV, if they downloaded the app and tuned in on February 6 at 8:58 PM EST.
When that Thursday night rolled around, the campaign ‘road-blocked’ the two minutes of airtime across many TVB member stations, asking viewers to use the app to post a video selfie that answered two questions: ‘What’s your favourite TV show?’ and ‘What is it about, and why do you love it?’ Viewers recorded their answers and submitted them to an online database using the app.
Channer cautioned that the campaign, which ran for only six weeks, asked a lot of the consumer. Specifically, they had to recall TunedIn, a new brand name; identify with and agree to a statement that had never been asked before (i.e. television connects us); download an app without knowing precisely what it was going to do for them; tune in at a specific time and date; activate and engage in the app; and lastly, create and share their own content.
“The most important lesson we learned from this exercise is, you don’t do digital without doing television if you really want to see mass success.” – Brett Channer, Red Lion
The app and campaign proved to be “a huge success”. Channer said that more user submitted videos were uploaded in the first five minutes than could ever be used, and within the first hour, the upload rate exceeded that of YouTube (it's worth noting, however, that when we at Cartt.ca tried to take part, the app turned us down, seemingly overloaded by requests). The first user generated TV spot ran later that same night, marking the first ever consumer-generated campaign demonstrating Canadians’ passion for television.
Research conducted by Ipsos Reid confirmed the effectivenss of TunedIn: awareness of the campaign was at 85% after just three weeks of advertising. According to Deloitte Consultancy, 80% of branded apps are downloaded less than 1,000 times, but with less than six weeks of TV support, the TunedIn app had 32,000 app downloads and a 35% usage rate. “The only difference was television”, Channer enthused.
By giving viewers the chance to share what they love about TV, on TV, the campaign moved the online conversation back to television and proved that TV is leading the conversation by telling the stories that connect us, Channer added. TunedIn demonstrated that consumers believe in the statement ‘TV tells the stories that connect us’; television can drive immediate digital behaviour; consumers have an intimate connection with TV which they need to share; and TV drives conversation in which people want to take part.
Television makes a difference to marketing in the digital age, Channer stressed. “The most important lesson we learned from this exercise is, you don’t do digital without doing television if you really want to see mass success.”
