Twelve entrepreneurs were given both seed money and world class mentoring, to launch an investable business in 8 week’s. They were pitted head to head against another entrepreneur to win a cash prize of an additional £20,000 to enable further rapid growth of their businesses.

Three successful business mentors were chosen with proven international business experience in branding, retail and finance to help them navigate successfully through the accelerator period.

The format was designed to foster a positive and supportive environment, while seamlessly integrating the Alibaba.com online buying process, showing how entrepreneurs can source their products from suppliers online.

A highly-experienced production team was assembled in August 2016 with the programme scheduled to air in early December. We sourced candidates from universities, start up clubs, trade fairs and online. From over 1200 potential applicants, we conducted financial and psychological testing to select the final 12.

Day one of filming was at the Royal Institute of British Architects . We filmed all six opening sequences in one day and had five filming areas. The entrepreneurs had to find suppliers from the Alibaba.com ecommerce portal. Two weeks later they were in China to see the manufacturing process and their products being made. Subsequently they presented their businesses to the public as they opened pop up shops. The mentors then judged which was the most investable business. On the final day, all six episodes were filmed to give the production scale and to maximise the budget. The final crew count was 253.

In total, the campaign achieved 607million TV impressions worldwide with 110million unique viewers reached.

An additional brand study was completed showing that brand awareness of Alibaba.com increased by 31% during the campaign, and search volume for brand keywords increased by 250%.