CTV Festival Explores Channel 4’s Branded Entertainment Wins

Rupinder Downie, content solutions leader at Channel 4, joined the CTV Festival with Joe Churchill, digital commissioning editor at the pioneering public-service broadcaster, to discuss successful advertiser-funded content initiatives on linear and social video.

The British broadcaster is seen by many as a model for how “traditional” media companies can evolve their business models—it has embraced YouTube, vowed to tackle the misinformation generation head-on and taken innovative approaches to funding content. Downie and Churchill weighed in on the strategy for branded entertainment in a session you can view here.

“We have set ourselves an ambition that we should put digital first, at the heart of everything we do,” Downie explained. “We’ve obviously had to evolve as a broadcaster. Our ambition is to move 50 percent of our revenues to digital by 2030. Last year, we hit 30 percent, so we’re on track to deliver that. That is taking into account that the broadcast world is changing. Alongside that, we’re ensuring that we’re at the forefront of how viewers want to access our content. And we’ve had a larger focus on working with brands in the branded-entertainment space, increasingly in social. Linear is still very much part of it, but social branded entertainment has become an increasing growth area for us. We’re year five of this journey, so still relatively early days, but very much showing success.”

Downie weighed in on what kinds of content work best on linear versus social video. “With linear, viewers are looking for longer-form storytelling. When we look at the social space, it is generally five minutes; it’s more accessible content. Obviously, you’re thinking about the platforms, you’re thinking about dwell time, you’re thinking about how viewers tune in and how they engage. Also, you’re talking to a younger audience. We’ll always look at how we put entertainment at the heart of our editorial within that space.”

Before drilling down further into branded entertainment, Churchill talked about Channel 4’s overall approach to digital commissions. “We have the same remit as all of Channel 4 commissioning—we’re here to represent unheard voices. We’re to represent the entire U.K. The only distinction in digital commissioning is, as Rupinder says, we do skew slightly younger because obviously younger audiences over-index on social platforms.”

Churchill oversees social branded entertainment at Channel 4, working closely with Downie’s team “to make sure that when brands are coming to us, what we are proposing to them as a solution is something that we would want to make and would be really proud to make, even if that was made as an original show. We don’t see branded entertainment as a place where we compromise any of our values, our editorial values and our kind of remit as a public-service broadcaster. Instead, it’s just a new way of making different kinds of content and making more content than we might be able to if we were just working with our originals budget. One of the things I love about it is that there’s a huge variety of brands out there, which means there’s a huge variety of genres that we can play in in the branded-entertainment space. It often gives us opportunities to make shows that are digital-first and made with the grammar of those digital platforms at the heart of them, but still bring through that heritage, craft and production values that everyone knows Channel 4 for on linear.”

Successful branded entertainment involves meeting the needs of multiple stakeholders—the audience, the client and, crucially, Channel 4’s public-service remit. “When we get it right, it’s a win-win for everybody,” Churchill said. “The audience gets some fantastic content that they can enjoy that they might not see otherwise. The brand gets to connect with that audience in a meaningful way. Channel 4 gets to make a show that we’re really proud of. So, when it lands, and it does more often than not, it can be valuable for everybody.”

The team uses a variety of approaches, Churchill said, with briefs coming through from the ad-sales department. “There is a brilliant strategy team that figures out where that brief should go and whether it should be answered as a commercial ad campaign or a social branded-entertainment series. On the other side of the commissioning department, we are being pitched ideas by production companies. When we find ideas that we think are exciting and where there is an opportunity to find a brand partner to come on board with that idea, we keep them on our slate and try and find the right brief to match them with. In certain instances, strategically, we might go out proactively to the market and say, We’ve got this great opportunity, who wants to come on board and be our brand partner for it? And so, whether that’s a kind of inbound brief or it’s a proactive thing, we’ll work very closely with the sales team and the strategy team to make sure that we are developing it into the most robust and well-thought-out proposal so that we can see where we might be able to integrate brands. We know where the guardrails on the editorial are. Because we do a lot of work up front to define what this idea is and how it’s going to work, once we get that brand partner on board, everyone has a very clear idea of where we’re going and what we’re trying to achieve. The push and pull of brand integration and not becoming overly promotional and making sure that we’re abiding by the spirit of Ofcom and that this is editorial content, not advertorial—if we do that kind of hard graft up front to make sure it’s really clear what we’re making, then it makes the whole process all that much smoother once we get into production and then the edit.”

Downie noted Channel 4’s pitch to advertisers is bolstered by the fact that it is home to “award-winning digital commissioning teams. They can support a brand with tone of voice and trust, with entertainment always at the heart of it, even when it’s a difficult subject matter. It’s always done with a Channel 4 tone of voice.”

The Channel 4 advertising teams are in constant contact with clients, Downie noted. “We’ve got a big footprint. We’re always thinking about who this idea might be relevant for. They talk to us all the time about what their challenges might be and what they’re trying to achieve. So, again, in the background, we’ll talk to Joe and the team and say, Is there anything in this space? Is this an area that perhaps you’ve not considered? Editorial is first, but, of course, ideas can come from anywhere, and the [digital commissioning team] are very open to considering areas that they might not have explored previously.”

Working with producers on existing IP is also an opportunity, Downie continued. “There are formats that you might be familiar with in the linear space but wouldn’t work on linear anymore. We’ll tap into brands; maybe [a format] would work so much better in this day and age in the social space. It’s very much about a constant dialogue. We’re working with more brands. We’re working with brands that we wouldn’t necessarily have thought of originally. We might not have thought about the government, for example, or banks and building societies. Brands are coming to us because they want that trust, that confidence in the content, but also what Channel 4 can bring to the party.”

Channel 4 is beginning to build up a roster of returning clients in the branded-entertainment space, including the U.K.’s Department for Education. That relationship started with How to Love Your Job, created to meet the department’s brief of encouraging people to enter the world of early education and childcare.

“With a brief like this that’s so specific, we try to think about how we can create an evergreen format that could exist beyond this one specific brief, but will make perfect sense that it’s focusing on this,” said Churchill. “How to Love Your Job could be an original series about finding people the job that they love—it just so happens that this three-part series is focusing on early years education.”

The success of that prompted the Department for Education to return with another brief: encouraging young people to become teachers. That resulted in Teachers on Tour. The most recent initiative is Undercover Education, spotlighting further education vocational institutions.

Churchill and his team also dipped into the well of well-known factual-entertainment brands when they brought The Secret Life of 5 Year Olds back as a digital property.

“We aren’t in the business of reheating old formats—Ian Katz has been quite clear that we don’t want to be the channel that’s just bringing back shows for the sake of it. We want to be innovating and making new stuff. That still stands in social branded entertainment. But certain formats are just too good not to work with. This was quite a strategic process of looking at ideas that still have audience resonance and are well-loved. And [something that] could be adapted to social naturally. We alighted on Secret Life because it really does still ring out. We built this out as a proactive deck, ready to take out to market at the beginning of last year. But actually, just before we managed to take it out the gate, we got a briefing that it was perfect for, from E.ON Next.”

The Secret Life of 5 Year Olds: Next Generation worked perfectly for the energy supplier, Churchill said. “Talking about climate change and sustainability and saving energy in the home can either be very technical and jargony or very bleak. Having a format where it’s about cute kids being cute kids, questioning and exploring the world, but teaching them about how to have a positive impact on the world and feel empowered. That format gives you natural entertainment.”

The session wrapped with Downie and Churchill each offering advice for broadcasters, platforms and producers embarking on the branded entertainment journey.

“When we’re talking to brands, we always say, Trust us, we know content, we know how to drive viewers,” Downie said. “And that’s where it works at its best—when you trust us. Editorial entertainment is always at the heart. That’s where we found most successes: when brands are willing to go on that journey. Brands are actually reaching out to us because they might not have the confidence, but they also want the safe space and environment and trust that Channel 4 creates. That would almost be key to any other broadcaster: What’s your unique USP? Brands will be looking to engage with viewers and consumers based on what your unique USP might be.”

Churchill added, “Broadcasters don’t need to be suspicious or wary of working with brands in this way. My experience with brands is that they’re excited about this space, and a lot of them know more than you might expect. The more brands and broadcasters and media owners are working together on content, the more everybody’s starting to share that knowledge and feel more confident in the space. The quality goes up as the amount of it being produced goes up. When it works, it is a win-win for everybody, so we should be embracing it.”