Virgin Media, 360 Launch
Virgin Media
Launching 360 from every angle
TV became more important than ever in 2020. As the nation locked down, people across the country turned to TV to stay informed and entertained, making the launch of Virgin TV 360 even more relevant.
Launching the service during a global pandemic meant we had to reimagine how we would ordinarily engage media as a hands-on event wasn’t an option. To tackle this, we needed to take our event virtual, offering the media a unique experience to discover the news of our TV offering from the safety of their own sofas.
Ensuring we engaged the right media was particularly important as the TV platform had already launched in Ireland and other Liberty Global (Virgin Media’s parent company) territories, so we wanted to create an ‘ownable’ moment to reveal the news in the UK and generate a positive wave of coverage. We needed to give media a reason to attend the event and not just wait for the news to land in their inbox.
The launch of Virgin TV 360 was Virgin Media's chance to shine a light on its latest and most advanced TV platform and prove it could match other pay-TV platforms.
We created the ‘Virgin TV 360 Takeover’ - a virtual product launch event held to celebrate Virgin Media's new TV platform. Using ‘real life’ use cases peppered in between video content, demos and live conversation, to demonstrate how Virgin TV 360 would fit within the household and bring to life the user benefits.
As part of the concept, we created a mock TV show that featured a family ‘The Smiths’ and followed their experience as they got to grips with the new service. We wanted this to feel authentic and engaging but not too heavily scripted, so we brought in actors and crafted scenarios in order to portray real life situations which highlighted how Virgin TV 360 could be used by families, friends, housemates – anyone who loves TV.
The event was fronted by Virgin Media’s Chief TV and Entertainment Officer, and took media through a series of pre-recorded scenarios with The Smiths and live discussion with Virgin Media representatives so attendees could interact and ask questions in real-time.
Media attended the event via a bespoke platform, enabling them to tune in from the comfort of their own homes. The event combined HD broadcast with real time audience engagement – literally bringing the attendees on screen and into the action. Each attendee was sent an 'event pack', filled with items to aid and enhance their experience including coffee and a cafetiere, event guidance cards, envelopes which allowed media to engage and interact during the event and champagne to celebrate Virgin Media’s new service. Attendees also had the opportunity to win a prize through a competition called ‘Find the Golden Remote’ which was created to drive engagement from the start to end of the launch event.
During the event we saw brilliant engagement from attendees, with 100% of the audience watching the full broadcast and only 15% dropping off for the Q&A. 60% of attendees engaged with the Q&A chat function and contributed directly to the live conversation.
Following the event and related press announcements, Virgin TV 360 received a wave of positive coverage from the media with journalists from leading media titles such as BBC, Express, The Independent and Tech Radar attending the virtual event.
Coverage sentiment was 95% positive (5% neutral), with a Media Quality Score (MQS) of +6* and key messages about Virgin TV 360 appeared in all articles. This success was driven by the product itself, but also by the way in which we packaged information and assets for media through the event.
In the first 4 weeks following the launch of Virgin TV 360, 6,339 customers had signed up or upgraded to Virgin TV 360 (no ATL or direct customer marketing had started at this point – it was simply media coverage and information on Virgin Media’s website).
articles
positive sentiment score
customer sign-ups
Media Quality Score
The event was a huge success, generating a wave of positive coverage to help drive consumer awareness.
Media outlets were engaged during the event, with all attendees publishing an article about Virgin TV 360 in the coming days afterwards.
The event definitely delivered on our ambition to reimagine a product launch event when in-person gatherings weren’t possible and provided an alternative way to engage media.
After months of Zoom calls, FaceTimes and conference calls, we took the standard launch event model and reshaped it to a digital-first, interactive, engaging and TV-focused virtual event. From invitation to attendance, we strived to deliver a slick experience that the media wanted to engage with.