BBC Sounds is the BBC's biggest product launch since iPlayer over a decade a go. Its purpose is to revolutionise both the way audiences listen and engage with BBC audio, but also audio more broadly - specifically: music, radio and podcasts.

The marketplace for audio platforms is highly competitive, so whilst our overall brief was about driving awareness and interest in the product (in order to encourage downloads and trial), to do this, we needed to give audiences a reason to believe, with the big question being "Why download BBC Sounds when I already have Spotify, Apple Podcasts and iPlayer Radio/iHeartRadio on my phone?". So the brief was two fold 1/ Introduce the nation to Sounds 2/ Show them the benefit of Sounds in a highly competitive landscape with loyal audiences.

The objectives were simple - get downloads and encourage trial (amongst U35s).

The idea: show the nation what it means to listen without limits

The U35s target audience is broad, but we wanted to find universal truths that transcended age (16-35). The first was that listening is habitual, with most repeatedly listening to the same sounds – mostly for convenience or feeling overwhelmed by choice, despite seeing discovery new as very important.

The second - our audience's interests/music tastes are increasingly crossing multiple genres (79%). No longer are people listening only to music and engaging with issues from one subculture (e.g. punk), now people belong to many subcultures and enjoy moving freely between diverse content (i.e. grime and politics aren’t mutually exclusive).

Knowing this allowed us to find a unique positioning; enriched discovery that allows audiences to move between all of their interests, no matter what they are; listening without limits.

The BBC Sounds launch was a multi-platform national campaign, carried out across the months of November and December 2018. The campaign included film, OOH (billboards, digital and flyposters), social, digital and experiential.

The campaign kicked off with a hero film (TV and social) that charts a young listener's audio journey through music, radio and podcasts over the course of one star-studded day.

This was supported by a day of experiential, with BBC Sounds taking over the London Eye, filling various pods with music, live radio and podcast recordings.

Then came OOH in the form of posters, digital and optimised flyposters. The flyposters all connected to NFC technology which enabled passers byers to instantly sample/download the app with one tap.

We then populated social with a mix of talent films, cuts from the hero film, and later, content specific films that gave audiences a flavour of the content on the app.

The results were some of the best the BBC has seen in terms of reach, downloads and usage, and creative performance:

- 17million people reached on launch day alone

- 92% of the all British adults reached across the campaign

- 1.8 million downloads achieved

- 6 million weekly plays and counting

- Time spent on BBC audio up by 150%

- The best performing campaign film the BBC has ever created (amongst target of U35s)