I had the pleasure of heading up to Manchester for the ITV Showcase and tour of the Corrie set! During the behind-the-scenes tour of Coronation Street, the Commercial and Studio teams told us all about the hard work and planning that goes into every single episode. However, what was most interesting was seeing how important some of the storylines are in helping to shape viewers perceptions and in driving conversations around tough topics. Some of the stories were really moving and have a wider social impact outside of the show itself.
After a brilliant start to the day, we then moved onto the annual ITV Showcase, where they told us all about ITV’s upcoming AdLabs innovation agenda, ITVX and their recent ‘What Unites a Kingdom’ research.
This article outlines everything to look forward to in the world of ITV. Read on below to learn more about each of these exciting projects.
1. ‘What Unites a Kingdom’
ITVs latest research gives a broad overview of the 5 positive codes and customs of Britishness today, revealing what unites our nation. Research like this is so valuable, and is something actionable that we can adopt in our agency for future audience work and media planning for clients.
The 5 codes that Britain find unity in are:
- Social graces – which is defined as a desire to ‘keep up appearances’ and abide by particular codes of etiquette
- Knowing their roots – an appreciation of their British heritage and a curiosity around it
- Proud resilience – a strong belief and confidence in the power of the community and the persistence through adversity and hardship.
- Dream Big – The British love an underdog and a ‘rags to riches’ story!
- Everyday Magic – this is where banter and playfulness shine through the slug and repetitiveness of everyday life
As a behavioural planning agency, understanding human behaviour is at the heart of everything we do, making insights like these into audience behaviour invaluable when it comes to planning for a British target audience.
2. AdLabs
AdLabs is a great initiative in the Broadcasting world that clients should be aware of. It is ITV’s commitment to involving agencies and clients sooner in their product development process, to participate in things like beta tests and pilots. There are currently 25+ AdLabs products live and in the pipeline and they sit across 3 areas:
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- Partnerships – focused on opportunities and solutions around their shows and talent
- Product – addressable pilots, data and targeting
- Insights – measurement tools and analysis
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This provides an incredible opportunity for us to test out various projects, which is embedded in Total Media’s key focus on continuous measurement and improvement and to ‘test and learn’ to get the most out of your media campaigns.
3. ITVX
ITVX will launch at the end of this year in November 2022, replacing the current ITV Hub and housing 15,000 hours of content.
ITVX will be free to viewers who are happy to watch content in an advertising-funded tier or they also have the option to trade up to a subscription service which provides the same content in an ad-free environment, pus more content from the likes of BritBox and other partners.
It’s a way in which ITV are adapting to the ever changing TV landscape, adopting a digital-first strategy in which they will be premiering much of their new content first on ITVX and then months later on ITV linear channels.
There will be new types of content on offer such as comedy, films, archive fan-favourite shows and environmental documentaries. There will also be exclusive weekly drama premieres available, meaning they will have 50% more drama than they have ever had before!
The ITVX platform will have a slick new look and feel. It will have new features to enhance the user experience such as improved search capabilities, and they are focusing heavily on ensuring that in terms of the content, there will be a balance between personalisation and curation to offer customers the best of both worlds.
If you would like to know more about these three initiatives and how they can work within your media plan, contact us now.
Author: Katie Sofokleous - Account Director
Katie works within our client services team. You can usually find her binge-watching a new series or searching for her next beach holiday!
