To launch a digitally-powered Brand Identity in Latin America for the new BBC Studios.
In 2018, the global production and commercial distribution arms of the BBC became one company. A year prior, in Latin America, we closed our channels and began focusing exclusively on content distribution & licensing. With the advent of the merger and the new global masterbrand architecture, the Latam team saw an opportunity to revive its defunct digital ecosystem (that relied mainly on tune-in messaging of its networks' programming) into one focused on establishing BBC Studios as both a producer of the finest British content in the world, and, as a distributor across Latin America and Brazil.
With a newly redesigned and targeted digital strategy for the region, we could re-engage with our fanbases but this time with a more modern narrative that would also appeal to our growing portfolio of B2B clients ranging from traditional free-to-air broadcasters and Pay TV channels to an expanding roster of OTT new entrants as well as other influencers in the trade community.
By utilizing a masterbrand-led social marketing approach, our strategies were to:
- Build our Brand Equity: Maximize the value of our IP to our social audiences through in-language storytelling of our end-to-end creative process from production to distribution of our IP in Latin America.
- Grow key fanbases & deepen engagement: In a world of highly fluctuating and ever-increasing distribution platforms, create a consistent hub for aficionados of BBC content and for loyal and new fans of Doctor Who, Top Gear, and BBC Earth (Natural History) content.
- Establish value for our B2B distribution partners – By curating our own narrative as purveyors of the best British content and cross-promoting back to our regional client broadcasters & streamers, we will create significant value for them by engaging and directing our fans to these specific destinations.
- Enable major commercial and marketing partnerships - By providing an "always-on" engagement even when shows are on hiatus, we maintain top-of-mind awareness and the opportunity for continued conversations with potential partners.
Implementation/Tactics:
- Reactivate defunct 500K+ strong Facebook community ( of network-focused, Spanish & Portuguese-speaking fans) and convert them into brand ambassadors of BBC Studios across the Americas.
- Create an Instagram community of Spanish-Latam and Brazilian trade & consumer fans.
- Craft an editorial narrative that speaks to B2B customers using B2C engagement tactics that promotes our global franchise brands, returning series as well as blue-chip premium titles.
- Drive awareness of BBC Studios' IP in local co-productions (a.k.a "Formats") within our social communities, with the goal of showcasing their viewership success in local markets and to create new co-production opportunities in additional territories.
- Formulate a sophisticated shoe-string media plan that targets B2B audiences and aficionados of the BBC with bespoke content designed to drive engagement and new fan acquisition in key markets such as Mexico, Brazil, and among highly influential users with propensity to view and promote our content.
In four short months, our digital brand plan showed impressive results. Qualitatively, we achieved key objectives, among them:
1) Launched a new content narrative which establishes BBC Studios as the purveyor of the best British content
2) Added monetization value to our key global content franchise brands like Doctor Who, Sherlock and Luther.
3) Successfully added value to our channel partners through positive reach & engagement
4) Quantitatively, achieved very solid performance growth as per the metrics below:
Social Performance Metrics August - December 2018
| LATAM | Brazil |
Engagements with our content | 9 Million | 4 Million |
Views on our Video Formats | 8.6 Million | 3.3 Million |
New fans | 12,000 | 9,100 |
B2B Estimated Reach: | 1.4 Million | 620K aggregated reach |
Partner Support | 6.1 Million | 2.77K aggregated reach |
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