Our young target audience has an insatiable demand for content and loves nothing more than binging an entire box sets in one sitting. Our idea was simple: we would reduce the tantalising wait between episodes of the hottest TV programmes by giving our customers early access. With some of the most popular programmes on television and a target audience that matched our Priority profile, Channel 4 was the obvious partner to make this happen. O2 already had an established mechanic to give customers 48 hour early access to gig tickets. We wanted to build on this and extend 48 hour early access to video content. Teaming up with Channel 4’s launch of its cross platform digital offering All 4 gave O2 customers exclusive access across their entire digital estate and the opportunity to view the most contagious content earlier than anyone else all though one click on the Priority app!

The logistics of this partnership are mind boggling! In order to deliver the partnership both corporations had to work more closely than for any previous commercial project. Delivering premieres to O2 customers required building a bespoke VoD delivery system from scratch and a unique code generator to prevent the codes from going viral, plus enormous ongoing tech development between O2 and C4’s operational teams. To stay relevant we’ve been as targeted as possible by rotating creative against different demographic and interest-based audience segments and data-matching O2’s customer base and C4’s registered users. To augment the native media placements we used O2 Priority custom audiences to run targeted paid social placements. Using keyword targeting we ensured Priority was part of the social conversations and hype surrounding the shows. This also allowed us to reach the superfans who would become advocates, spreading the word amongst their friends to generate earned media value.

Early access to must-see video content consumable across mobile, desktop and tablets has proven to be as hotly demanded as we hoped it would be. Audience research has shown how much O2 customers value the content that the partnership delivers, with 69% regarding the offer as a genuine treat and 74% intending to watch shows via Priority in the future. Importantly this has translated into business results. Current active users stand at 215,000, smashing our 100,000 year-end target by 40%, this is the equivalent of filling the O2 stadium 11 times over. Crucially Channel 4 content now drives more new and returning active users than any other offer in the Priority app (including £1 Lunch). The churn benefit of making Priority customers heavy users will be worth £48m by the end of the sponsorship period.