Shadow
10-09-2010, 23:07
The BBC is to launch a major advertising campaign tomorrow backing the launch of the new-look online video catch-up service, the iPlayer.
Since launching in 2007, the iPlayer has been marketed using the strapline "Making the unmissable, unmissable". However, now the concept of the catch-up service is established, the BBC is dropping the strapline and replacing it with "The Next Level".
The new-look iPlayer, which officially went live on Monday following beta testing since June, has had various social media features and a recommendation engine built into it.
Simon Lloyd, director of marketing for the BBC's Future Media & Technology division, said that the old marketing strategy, which used clips of popular BBC programming to promote what can be watched, "wasn't really conveying what's so good about BBC iPlayer itself". He added that the new campaign also needed to "move on from the tag of 'catch-up'".
"Three years ago it was a major selling point, but now it's a commodity in a crowded market," he said. "Some people thought it [the campaign] was just another programme trail. This campaign needed to be about the experience."
The ads, the first of which breaks on TV tomorrow, are based on the theme of the iPlayer as a portal to an experience.
"We are trying to tell people how using BBC iPlayer makes you feel, beyond simply what it does," Lloyd said. "At this stage, we're simply trying to attract a bit of attention to the fact that BBC iPlayer has changed."
In two weeks time more TV ads will break, as will a radio campaign, that will explain "what's on the other side of the portal, explaining the benefits of the features audiences told us they wanted the most".
An online marketing campaign will also launch to back up the TV and radio ads.
Source: MediaGuardian
Since launching in 2007, the iPlayer has been marketed using the strapline "Making the unmissable, unmissable". However, now the concept of the catch-up service is established, the BBC is dropping the strapline and replacing it with "The Next Level".
The new-look iPlayer, which officially went live on Monday following beta testing since June, has had various social media features and a recommendation engine built into it.
Simon Lloyd, director of marketing for the BBC's Future Media & Technology division, said that the old marketing strategy, which used clips of popular BBC programming to promote what can be watched, "wasn't really conveying what's so good about BBC iPlayer itself". He added that the new campaign also needed to "move on from the tag of 'catch-up'".
"Three years ago it was a major selling point, but now it's a commodity in a crowded market," he said. "Some people thought it [the campaign] was just another programme trail. This campaign needed to be about the experience."
The ads, the first of which breaks on TV tomorrow, are based on the theme of the iPlayer as a portal to an experience.
"We are trying to tell people how using BBC iPlayer makes you feel, beyond simply what it does," Lloyd said. "At this stage, we're simply trying to attract a bit of attention to the fact that BBC iPlayer has changed."
In two weeks time more TV ads will break, as will a radio campaign, that will explain "what's on the other side of the portal, explaining the benefits of the features audiences told us they wanted the most".
An online marketing campaign will also launch to back up the TV and radio ads.
Source: MediaGuardian