Media that creates drama

Agency: Goodstuff with Uncommon Creative Studio

"Back in 1998, Google launched itself to the world, Sky started mounting mini dishes, DVDs hit our shores, 14% of the country was enjoying dial-up internet and ITV commanded a 32% share of terrestrial viewing. Twenty years on, ITV’s share had hit a low of 15.2% as these nascent technologies matured, transforming the entertainment marketplace.

In 2018, we were tasked with returning ITV to growth; reversing the decline in linear viewing by improving perceptions of both the ITV brand and its programming. We isolated ITV light viewers as the main drivers of viewing decline and created a strategy to win them back: “Media that creates drama”.

This meant creating programming-led activations as compelling as the shows, focussing the bulk of ITV’s programme marketing budget on quality drama and investing in brand marketing and social good initiatives to shift perceptions of ITV.

Whilst the fight against new entertainment giants continues, our combined programming and brand strategy has made huge strides. Bucking the declines seen by the BBC and every other commercial broadcaster, we’ve seen ITV’s spontaneous consideration increase; a 49% increase in minutes viewed, improved drama perceptions and favourability towards ITV as a result of the ‘Britain Get Talking’ initiative."