• O2 extends its musical relationship with naming rights for 11 venues across the UK
• Music fans love Skins and the telecoms giant signed up as sponsor for the third series of the show
• With no other activity running, awareness of the deal hit 48% among the core target audience

The challenge

O2 wants to be seen as a lifestyle rather than a utility brand. After the success of its naming rights deal with the former Millennium Dome in London, the project was going national.

A deal with Academy Music Group meant its 11 venues would be renamed the O2 Academy while O2 customers would get advance purchase rights to all gig tickets.

The target audience was predominantly male and 18-26-years old and the message also needed to reach live music fans who were not O2 customers. The aim was to showcase how O2 could enrich their world without really advertising.

The TV solution

Analysis of media consumption revealed that E4’s Skins incited more fervent fandom than any other programme. More 16-24-year-olds talked about Skins in a positive way to their friends than any other show. They loved it because it showed how they really lived and the life-changing issues they had to deal with.

O2 signed up as the show sponsor, integrating the brand into every aspect of the programme.
Sponsorship idents appeared on premieres on E4 and the repeat showings as well as time-shifted viewing on E4 +1. Creative featured Zak and Jim, two employees of the O2 Academy Brixton. Based in their broom cupboard office and surrounded by memorabilia found backstage, they spend their time bickering about music trivia.

The message also went online with the O2 Academies logo across every page of the E4.com/Skins site, pre-roll ads whenever the show was watched online or via the 4oD service.
The brand was also integrated into Skins newsletters and there was a special area of the Skins site dedicated to all things O2 and Zak and Jim. This included interviews with the Skins cast and bands discussed by Zak and Jim, all filmed backstage at the O2 Academy Brixton.

Finally an IM Bot was launched, designed to fire out trivia about the show whenever it was on air, building in mentions of who was playing at the O2 Academies.

Results

Nearly four million people watched the Skins series, its best-ever performance and the E4 website had 500,000 unique users every week. Zak and Jim’s interviews with Skins cast members were watched 190,000 times and 25,000 signed up as a friend to the messenger Bot.

With no other activity prior to the physical rebranding of the Academies, the sponsorship helped drive awareness of the deal to 48% among the core target audience of fun loving socialisers.