How a next-level paid media strategy helped rebuild love & relevance for the BBC

IPA Effectiveness Awards Case Study 2024

The drifting away of younger audiences from the BBC threatened its claim to deliver ‘value for all’. This case describes a multi-phase, multi-year strategy to make BBC content more relevant to under-35s and increase their use of BBC streaming. Compared to previous years, marketing was concentrated into fewer but bigger paid-for media bursts to make BBC programming more famous and connect it to wider cultural trends using media weighted towards social, out of home, and digital audiovisual platforms. Evidence this strategy was effective includes growth in active iPlayer streaming accounts, and both increased reach and more positive views of the corporation among 16-34-year-olds.

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Client Statement

Chris Mawdsley, Head of Media Strategy, BBC

Nicki Brown – BBC Director Of Media

Over the past few years, the BBC has been on a journey to radically accelerate the impact of our Marketing activity, by boosting our effectiveness culture. This has involved a lot of work, much of which is covered in our submission. It has also involved cultural change, such as ensuring department-wide alignment on targets, upskilling our teams to focus on measurement and effectiveness, developing new measurement capabilities and more.

This coveted award provides independent recognition of our progress on our effectiveness journey. There is no doubt that the BBC is an incredibly creative organisation – and creativity is a critical ingredient in effectiveness – but we also wanted recognition from the Marketing industry, that in addition to being an incredibly creative Marketing division, we also drive significant business impact. We are therefore delighted to be nominated for an IPA Effectiveness Award, which I am sure will only act as a catalyst to accelerate our effectiveness culture transformation.

Chris Mawdsley – BBC Head of Media Strategy

This submission demonstrates our success in boosting the BBC's relevance and increasing iPlayer consumption among previously disengaged audiences. Over the past six years, our strategy has dynamically evolved to meet changing business needs and audience behaviours, all while maintaining a strong foundation. Leveraging first-party data, prioritizing young audiences, and strategically shifting to digital investments based on insights have been critical to our achievements.

The growth highlighted is continuing into 2024, with impressive iPlayer growth, and specifically viewership metrics for flagship programs such as Race Across The World, The Apprentice, The Euros, and the Olympics. Our measurement, including the latest econometric models also affirm the sustained impact of our contributions to iPlayer. Moving forward, our internal focus on digital growth remains unwavering, and it is imperative we keep evolving our paid media activity to ensure the BBC remains a vital and engaging platform for all audiences.