Marketing Mondays: Integrated Marketing. The Human Touch.

With series 2 of Humans well under way on Channel 4 (if you haven’t seen it, you need to!), I wanted to look at their integrated approach Channel 4 took to market the sci-fi based programme for series one.

​To begin, you should probably know that Humans is a TV show about AI machines living and serving in today’s world. These machines are created by a fictional AI manufacturer called Persona Synthetics.

What was so unique about this campaign was that Channel 4 advertised Persona Synthetics as a real brand and business, not Humans, a TV show.

The level of detail was truly exceptional. They gave Persona Synthetics a logo, website, social media channels, an ebay store, a tv ad and a store in one of London’s busiest streets, Regent Street.

The whole campaign was built to make consumers believe that Persona Synthetics was real.

​All the call to actions were directing the viewer to go onto the website. Once they were they, it was revealed that it was not real and actually that it was all to promote Humans. Channel 4 included a teaser and details of when the programme would be aired.

The multi-channel campaign was a huge success. Their social channels grew 14,000 fans, 7000 people interacted with the store and the website had more than 1 million hits.

​The result? 6.1 million people tuned in to watch the opening episode (3x more than what they had been targeted) and it became one of their highest rating shows ever.

​Now of course, ‘the big idea’ was sensational, creative genius. But I truly believe that the execution had a huge part to play in its success.

​Because Channel 4 had taken an integrated approach, the brand (Persona Synthetic) and it’s message (go to our website) was reinforced – making it more likely that the viewer would go on to their website and see their true advert – Humans.

This style of marketing is so important because of the rise of media fragmentation and information overload for consumers. Think about it, if your brand and message is seen over multiple platforms it is more likely to be remembered and actioned on.

I fully believe in an integrated approach and it’s what I do, day in, day out. And I think Channel 4’s Human is a brilliant example as to why you should take this approach too.

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