Hosted by BAFTA, The Virgin TV British Academy Awards is a star-studded event and the highlight of every TV fan’s awards season. Partnering with this most prestigious organisation representing the UK TV and Film industries, would bring credibility through association, fame reach and advocacy through unique assets, access and experiences. However, with the decline of award shows’ viewership, social media has become the go to source to capture all the glitz and glam, the big wins and surprise losers.

As headline sponsors, Virgin TV wanted to go beyond standard awards coverage. We wanted to bring fans closer than ever before, covering the BAFTAs as they would themselves, by developing an end-to-end campaign that put the superfans at the heart of everything.

So, we made the fans our exclusive plus ones, inviting them to get their virtual glad rags on and experience a night rubbing shoulders with the stars.

We wanted fans to feel part of the complete BAFTA experience from nomination buzz to the big night and all the afterglow and glory.

So, before award day, fans judged the #MustSeeMoment of 2017 on native social voting and relished the pre-BAFTA prep with radio presenter Roman Kemp in our Roman Camp video series.

On the day of the awards, superfans were there to greet stars through our bespoke 9-foot Last-Minute Mirror. Guests thought were just straightening their ties and fixing their hair, but our cheeky interactive and reactive mirror got more than just a wave from our favourite celebs before sending them down them carpet…

…which our fans also walked via our Red Carpet 360+ LIVE experience, rubbing shoulders with the stars. They even joined us backstage to share the post-awards elation with winners scribbling their Winning Words, later used for gamification and reactive social posts.

Fans are driving the current TV revolution. They don’t want to be constrained by linear schedules, they want to consume content whenever and wherever they want, on any device. They want depth, more access, more meaningful experiences and more control.

Our strategic campaign positioning of ‘Championing Fan-tastic TV’ allowed us to highlight the entertainment industry’s best and engage the fans who are integral to their popularity.

Most brands were covering award shows in the same passive way. We wanted to get active and give fans the chance to get closer to the BAFTAs. Enter our creative proposition, ‘as if the fans covered the BAFTAs themselves’. We were going to put the most important people at the heart of our campaign, making them our exclusive plus ones.

The campaign generated over 6M video views (8% increase on 2017), over 21.5M impressions (11% increase on 2017) and 1.9M engagements (34% increase on 2017).

We achieved an average engagement rate of 34% on Facebook, and 14% on Instagram.

There was a £0.02p CPV, a 50% reduction in CPE compared to our benchmarks and last year’s activity.

Virgin TV were the first UK Telco to use the Instagram stories carousel lead generation.

Adoption of new sponsorship packages and 100% SOV takeover products ensured we were at the heart of the BAFTA conversation, and our activity garnered 6 press publications.