The Great British summer & changes in the Big Brother house
Nick Bampton, commercial sales director at Channel 5, on why, in Channel 5’s definition, partnerships are the antithesis to the old way of trading…
With the rain forecast to continue pouring down like the end of times, Wimbledon around the corner and the housemates firmly ensconced in the Big Brother House, the Great British Summer is upon us.
Obviously the bad weather remains constant – it wouldn’t be summer without the heating on in June and the roof perpetually closed in SW19 – but if you take a closer look at Big Brother, there are some very important changes happening.
Most notably a number of housemates have taken to dying their hair pink, a direct result of the marketing partnership between Channel 5 and Henkel Schwarzkopf, which includes broadcast sponsorship and licensing as well as product placement in the house.
These product placement opportunities have all come about because of the industry’s growing desire to create effective and profitable partnerships.
When executed well, partnerships are an engaging seamless piece of communication, with a central theme running across different consumer touch points.
And because this is starting to happen more regularly there has been a real step change in the attitudes towards partnerships and what they can offer – from clients, agencies and consumers.
We all understand tangibles – the everyday spots and spaces bought and sold that are clearly defined and measured. But sometimes in special circumstances you need to go further beyond the everyday to intangibles.
These are “money can’t buy” access points to everything in the Northern & Shell portfolio including access to talent, product placement, social media, editorial integration, bespoke offers, licensing of our assets and use of our creative services and/or proprietary research across the whole TV, print and on-line portfolio. And so on.
With so much on offer now the Great British public has developed a real eagerness to take on new and engaging forms of communication. Because of this marketers are on the hunt for more effective strategies and forward thinking agencies are welcoming this attempt to enhance the value of their service.
And this is being seen and taken up by clients. Just from our own stable this year we have integrated campaigns for advertisers such as British Gas, Disneyland Paris and Very.co.uk as well as Nokia Lumia and Disney in the latter half of 2011 – some of which had innovative approaches, such as Paramount UK’s Paranormal Activity 3, where we held the world Premier of the film in the BB house.
To make partnerships relevant it has to be more than individuals in the organisation delivering marketing partnerships with advertisers and their agencies. It’s about consideration, listening and understanding the client objectives. To achieve this, however, it is imperative that you have a can do approach. You have to say: “We will do business together, now let’s shape a mutually beneficial strategy, underpinned by the way we trade together and brought to life by some great ideas rooted in behavioural insight.”
Partnerships also mean we can begin to evolve some of the established roles and behaviours in our business; the “buy” and “sell” hats – the days of confrontation and winners and losers are passing (gradually).
However, in TV, this by no means covers everything. There is also the historical pillar of the agency share based trading model – a model that in one breath offers the marketing stability but in the next removes growth potential.
If we are serious about expanding our market share we need to disrupt this trading model and find a fresh approach with innovation, flexibility and flair at the heart. A partnership’s mentality offers this. In Channel 5’s definition, partnerships are the antithesis to the old way of trading.
In an environment where everyone is fighting for diminishing margins partnerships are very much about returns – not just for us, but for our clients as well. This has to be the view – if partnerships don’t deliver ROI, then they just won’t work and the support we are receiving from clients and agencies will disappear – especially agencies who are feeling the constant pick, pick, pick of procurement departments.
Without being too blunt, we’re all in this business to make money – and some people have made huge successes in doing that, but the changes in the media landscape mean that the old methods are not particularly the right methods. We need to create new revenue streams, and the partnership philosophy does this.