Co-branded trailer spots on Channel 4’s entire portfolio over a period of six weeks from 10th April – 21st May 2009. PR and online activity supported the campaign.

Summary

• The challenge was to encourage book lovers to watch more films and vice versa
• A deal between Waterstone's and Film4 brought classic books and their screen adaptations together
• Waterstone's increased footfall against a backdrop of high street gloom and Film4 viewing figures rose by 10%

The challenge

Set against the backdrop of the recession, Waterstone's and Film4 decided on a collaboration that would see both brands mutually benefit from the close relationship that exists between films and books.

Waterstone's customers weren't watching much on Film4, despite 90% of them saying they regularly watched films on TV. Waterstone's customers did, however, show a strong preference for the Channel 4 network as a whole, with Channel 4 reportedly their favourite terrestrial channel and E4 their second favourite.

Meanwhile 48% of Film4 viewers reported having visited a bookstore in the past three months, with 8% considering themselves to be heavy buyers of books.

By creating a season based around book adaptations, Waterstone's would be able to promote its back catalogue of adapted books to over two million people per month on air and online. In addition, Film4 would gain promotion in Waterstone's 300 stores nationwide. The challenge, therefore, was to persuade consumers to make the journey from sofa to sale and from bookshops to the TV.

The TV solution

The campaign comprised a season of 34 films of book adaptations shown on Film4, alongside a six week promotion of book adaptations in Waterstone's.

On air, a series of co-branded trails entitled Great Adaptations was aired in both 40" and 60" formats across the portfolio. The trailers, which ran for four weeks, detailed the season of films running on Film4 as well as giving details of both Film4's and Waterstone's websites. Viewers were also directed in store and encouraged to enter a competition to win a full set of the books from the Great Adaptations season.

The TV activity was supported by a range of other campaign materials.
The partnership was promoted nationwide in Waterstone's stores, with all books featured in the campaign promoted in store or online as a 3 for 2 offer. Online activity included specially created sections on both Film4 and Waterstone's websites, with both sites including homepage presence to promote the campaign. An email was sent to 852,000 Waterstone's customers who were specifically targeted for their high interest in film. Forum pages were also set up on both sites encouraging debate over 'which is better, the book or the film' and 'what makes a good adaptation'.

The season also launched with an event at Waterstone's flagship store in Piccadilly, London which gave the campaign an additional PR boost. Chaired by high profile figures from the worlds of film and literature, the event received national newspaper column inches and was tweeted about by journalists present.

Results

The Great Adaptations campaign reaped significant gains for both Waterstone's and Film4.

Perhaps most significantly, Waterstone's achieved an increase of 1.4% in store footfall - despite overall footfall on the high street being down by 3.4% during the period. This translated to an extra 26,000 customers walking through the doors throughout the campaign. It saw strong sales, not only on the books that formed part of the Great Adaptations range, but also on other books included in the 3 for 2 price promotion. Its email communication also achieved an open rate and click through rate that outperformed the industry average by 10% on both counts.

Viewing of Film4 rose by 10% for individuals and 8% for 16-34s versus the same period in the previous year during the campaign period, and traffic to the website rose by 25%. The Great Adaptations competition received 58,626 entries, compared to a site average of 7,000 entries per competition.

The campaign was deemed such a success that both parties are looking to continue the relationship. In fact HMV (Waterstone's parent company) have just gone live with a similar campaign in order to promote their 'World Cinema' season.

"We were delighted with the collaboration with Film4 - it was an ideal fit for both our customers and their views, and allowed Film4 to get their schedule and brand in front of millions of readers, and gave Waterstone's a platform to engage with its' audience on TV in an entirely new way.

It genuinely helped us build our brand, and also provoked our creative thinking to the extent that within a few months we had radically changed the visual identity of our brand. We sold thousands of books as a result, so it made commercial sense too."

Jon Woolcott,
Head of Marketing,
Waterstone's

"The channel had a record-breaking month for 16-34 viewing during the initiative, whilst film4.com achieved some of its best ever figures - so the project definitely delivered for us."

Sarah Martin,
Group Marketing Manager,
Film4

Source: Thinkbox

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