Inspire:In a media first Mindshare worked with ITV Creative, developing bespoke spots reflecting the themes of ITV1’s top weekend programming, whilst weaving in a variety of Argos catalogue products. We negotiated 100% last in break positions, pulling through association with the programme. Spots were seeded to Argos’s 100,000 Facebook fans, for an advance preview and driving views virally prior to broadcast.Motivate: Promotional trailers across the launch weekend and following week directed viewers to a bespoke competition spot in the centre break of Friday night’s Emmerdale. Households needed a catalogue to participate and for a chance to win thousands of pounds worth of Argos products. A scene was actually written into Emmerdale before the centre break of the programme where a key character was given a watch. The first ad in break was our competition spot asking viewers to identify the catalogue page number in which the watch features.

Results from the opening weekend were excellent. There was a 3.7% increase in catalogues picked versus July 2010, which equates to a massive £28m extra revenue for that catalogue. In addition, an estimated 35.2m saw the ads and thousands more have seen them subsequently on YouTube and the Argos Facebook page. The competition secured 185,000 entries, which is more than a branded competition within X-Factor.