The UK’s regulatory body for branded content is OFCOM. OFCOM was set up as an EU initiative; however the UK has traditionally been stricter than other member states in the application of these rules.

OFCOM does not allow undue prominence for a brand, undue product placement, strictly no calls to action or product references in branded content.

Initially, we partnered with a range of surfing sites, such as Mpora (Europe’s largest action sports network), to drive awareness of the Endless Winter with the surfing community. This online activity drove to the Endless Winter blog where visitors could watch webisodes of the final content as it was being filmed and follow the journey. By the time our films aired, the community was engaged with Ford and the Endless Winter; from within that, our niche target audience tuned in to the feature film – the main activity. A competition spot and YouTube pre-rolls advertised the broadcast.

Significant sales increase for one of Ford’s most expensive vehicles during the recession:

January – September 2011: 6,836 units.

January – September 2012: 7,571 units.

A sales increase of 735 units and 11% over 2011. With a base-level model costing from £22,800 this is a revenue increase of at least £16,758,000 on this model during the time of the campaign.

The Channel 4 broadcast recorded 14 million broadcast impressions, with the 4OD activity generating a further 2.7 million impressions. For a campaign targeted towards a niche audience, Channel 4 reported that this “hugely outperformed a campaign of similar size, scale and genre”. E.g: Unique users 48,000 v 5,378; ABC1 Men 15.2% reach v 5.2%; page impressions 57,000 v 6,674; competition entries 3,871 v 2,247. As this was an earned piece of media, it represented a media value of £222,218.

Digital display elements received over 27 million impressions online, demonstrating a good engagement with the surfing community early on in the campaign and maintaining their attention throughout. Also shown by the webisodes receiving 556,127 views on Mpora and 472,347 views on Youtube; a total of 1,028,474 views before the final film was completed.