Channel 4 Launched Cross-Platform Social Media Campaign To Promote New Series Of Skins

written by: Gianluigi Cuccureddu

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Published on Wednesday, 18 January 2012 08:52

Channel 4 has launched a social media campaign to promote the new series of Skins, driving interest in the show's characters and plots, according to MarketingWeek. The social media campaign across platforms is built up as following: a Facebook page created for each of the show’s characters who will use them to interact with fans on both storyline-specific and non-storyline related conversations between every episode. Characters will also post comments on Twitter, pics and blogs on Twitter as well as videos on YouTube.

All the activity from the various social media sites will then be pulled together on one dedicated website for users that aren't committed to following every character on Facebook.

On Econsultancy, Tamar's digital marketing director Henry Elliss said social media has become the best way to target the 16-24 age demographic, particularly when tied to a mobile campaign.

As well as allowing for the sort of interaction and viral-spread that traditional campaigns didn’t, it makes most sense – advertising in a subtle way in their own 'natural environment'. Very little effort required by the audience, with maximum connection to their social graph and network.

While this is quite a high-profile example, I don’t think the character-interaction element is particularly unique to Skins or TV, with several big movies having used this to great success in the past few years. Provided you have a plan to follow through and maintain interaction throughout the series, I think other shows will see this and decide to give it a go themselves – the intrigue and cliffhangers obviously lend themselves well to drama, though there’s certainly scope for sitcoms or more niche shows to try this themselves."

The firm Something Else is responsible for developing the campaign, executive producer of digital at the production company, Michelle Feuerlicht, said:

“For fans who are signed up to the characters’ profiles, they’re constantly reminded of the show everyday because the updates are appearing in their news feeds.”
Feuerlicht went on to add that it was important for a show like Skins to offer fans the chance to get involved in interactive campaigns.

Results

A three-minute version of the party trailer achieved 250,000 unique views and more than 20,000 total friends signed up prior to the show, with around 5,000 of them posting the Skins banner as the background on their own profile.

Interesting example of a full "Attain-Entertain-Retain" process in relation to the content itself and extension (characters and non-storyline interactions).