The BBC client was highly engaged with our philosophy of organic marketing: using data and content to maximise campaign effectiveness. By placing greater emphasis on owned and earned media channels, paid media could then be used to maximum efficiency to amplify the best & most engaging content. This represented innovation as it moved away from the way previous series had been supported, with paid media being the principal route to market. With the BBC on board with that approach, we needed to ensure it delivered on this brief.

This Organic approach was a perfect fit for The Apprentice as we knew that there’s a clear link between online conversation and programmes like this, with 87% of viewers now second screening and 25% accessing Twitter during live TV (Source: Nielsen & eMarketer).

Our implementation process was called “Conceive, Create, Connect, Collect”:

• Conceive: We activated social listening to identify what conversations the audience were having around The Apprentice and when they were having them. We also viewed forthcoming episodes ahead of their live date, allowing us to predict what the biggest talking points would be. We were then able to propose content ideas and recommend optimal distribution timings.

• Create: We created weekly content based on our learnings.

• Connect: We adapted paid media amplification in line with how content was performing organically, as well as what the audience were saying online.

• Collect: After each episode we analysed the data from the social activity to inform content for the next transmission, with our insights building week on week.

Facebook and Twitter were the main platforms we used, as these resonated best with the audience, although content assets were atomised across all platforms to maximise reach.

We smashed our two key objectives, making both us and the client extremely happy:

1) Objective: Make owned and earned content for The Apprentice work more efficiently on Social platforms.

• There was a 60% increase in engagements on Twitter.

2) Objective: Through earned and paid media, increase reach and engagement whilst decreasing CPE

• When comparing vs. a standard, paid media only approach, the organic first activity reduced CPE by 50% across both Facebook and Twitter.