How Channel 4 used newsbrand tablet editions to increase awareness and drive viewership of its new TV show, The Taste.

1. CHANNEL 4: THE TASTE
NEWSWORKS AWARDS | CHANNEL 4: THE TASTE | TABLET AWARD
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Our tablet advertising campaign for C4’s ‘The Taste’ led to 88% viewing conversion on the day of launch. Our
interactive ad, built by Adnostic, launched across all Newsbrand tablet apps on Christmas Day 2013 and used
a combination of the A-list talent of Anthony Bourdain, Nigella Lawson and Ludo Lefebvre and some market
leading creative features. This campaign proved not just how engaging the tablet format is, but (contrary to popular
opinion) that it can also deliver on mass-reach after delivering an audience which outperformed the slot by 28%
for the target ABC1 segment.
BACKGROUND
January 2014 saw Channel 4 launch a new and unique new food programme, ‘The Taste’ - an entertainment show
with a competition format, featuring judges Anthony Bourdain, Ludo Lefebvre and Nigella Lawson. Like The Voice,
the show would strip cooking down to its most basic form and contestants would survive purely based on the taste
of their food, served on a single spoon. The key premise for this show was ‘Nothing matters but The Taste’, which
became the creative platform for 4Creative and our campaign, leading with various comical facial expressions from
the judging trio as they reacted to tastes.
OBJECTIVES:
• Our core campaign objective was to maximise linear viewing to episode 1, offering greatest commercial yield
to Channel 4 from the property
• Delivering an upmarket profile for the programme was vital, as was aligning with PR to ensure synergy, elevated
impact and reach for the promo
After the success of C4’s involvement in the Newsworks tablet project and C4’s ongoing marketing objective to
move away from static advertising, tablets would naturally feature prominently in this campaign.

2. INSIGHT
We identified three targets, defined by their programming passions and addressed the role for paid media in
relation to each:
• Fervent Foodies
• Fans of food programming
• Lifestyle Lovers
• Fans of lifestyle-led factual programming, such as food,
homes and health
• Entertainment Enthusiasts
• Fans of competition-led entertainment shows
All target groups were ABC1s, and our campaign needed to appeal
to male and females equally.
Newsworks’ Tablet Project taught us that advertising on tablet was
perfect for reaching an ABC1 audience of men and women equally
and would bridge the gap between our 3 audience groups.
Source: Reuters Institute for the School of Journalism, Newsworks
Project, IPA Touchpoints
THE PLAN
With our tablet production partner Adnostic, we created a rich, immersive tablet creative heavily influenced by the
trailer to build anticipation prior to launch. An enticing creative hook was key to exciting readers and enhancing
the user experience with additional content on the mentors and their reactions from the show.
The ad itself opened with stills of the three mentors from the show with images of spoons ‘wiggling’ along the
bottom of the ad to catch the user’s attention.
The user was encouraged to select a spoon and drag it over an image of a mentor where it would then trigger a
video clip of the mentor reacting to a taste, before ‘flipping’ to display a biography of the mentor. Users could also
watch the full trailer and add the show’s timeline to their calendar with a single tap.
This “Add to Calendar” function had never been included within an in-app tablet creative before and allowed
users to easily include the show in their digital diary - vital to ensure that users never missed a show.
The show’s talent guaranteed broad appeal but context was essential - we needed to

3. appear in premium tablet environments and maximise reach. To achieve this we chose the Guardian/Observer,
Telegraph, Mail Plus, Times and Metro.
We launched on Christmas Day when core titles had special Christmas editions, offering great platforms for quick
campaign traction with the prevalence of tablet Christmas gifting. We knew that Christmas 2013 was going to be
“Tabtastic” with 7% of all adults intending to buy a tablet for that time (Source: YouGov).
The activity ran across all editions in the lead up to and 1 week after the first episode. To maintain messaging
traction pre- and post-TX, we executed multiple copy variations from “Starts Tues 7th Jan”, to “Starts Tonight 9pm”.
Newsbrands’ tablet editions allowed us to reach each of our target audiences, complementing the wider campaign
activity across digital display, commercial TV, cinema and DOOH.
RESULTS
The tablet campaign succeeded in driving and maximising linear viewing to episode 1 and creating an upmarket
profile for the programme via our ad placements.
The Taste opened with an audience of 2.1m/7.9% share which is +20% above the C4 Tuesday 9pm slot average.
In numbers:
• 88% of viewing to the opening episode (1.9m) was on the day of TX
• There were an additional 89k views via 4oD (0-7 days)
• The profile of the series was more ABC1 than the slot (63% vs 49%) and under 55+ (75% vs 69%)
• The biggest peak in tweets was seen in-episode, with 14,000 tweets about the show!
• Massive reach: over 1.3m ad views across; Guardian, Mail Plus, Observer, Sunday Times, Times, and Telegraph
• Trail views were a key objective. We exceeded the target with over 11k views.
Our tablet campaign outperformed all Newsworks project averages and proved how powerful newsbrand tablet
audiences are within the marketing mix. The campaign and the ad build set the standard for future C4 campaigns.
CLIENT VIEW
“At Channel 4, we recognise that our promo is our strongest asset and are always looking for means by which
we can to extend its reach to new audiences beyond our owned platforms. Tablet was integral to the campaign
for this reason, as it allowed us to align our video asset with relevant, quality newsbrand content and engage
an older, upmarket demographic that we had identified as key, doing so in a playful and innovative way that
conveyed the tone and novel format of the show.”
Laura Ward, Group Marketing Manager, Drama, Acquisitions and Film4