Initials Marketing helps Five go to Rehab
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Gold, part of UKTV’s network of award-winning channels, is backing the launch of Comic Strip Presents’ latest offering, Five Go To Rehab, with a multi- channel campaign through INITIALS Marketing.
The show, which celebrates the 30th anniversary of Comic Strip Presents and airs on Gold next month, features Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders, Peter Richardson and Adrian Edmondson. The campaign comprises experiential and digital activity to build awareness for what will be the 41st Comic Strip Presents adventure since Five Go Mad in Dorset first aired in November 1982.
The INITIALS’ devised campaign targets an audience who will have seen the original Comic Strip series to promote the reunited cast, as well as seeking to draw in a younger audience and increase spontaneous awareness of the channel. The creative is focused on viral footage<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11UVjasSTa8> filmed in London’s Victoria Station earlier this month.
The set was built in the middle of the operating station and took the form of a large timber vertical structure, wrapped and shaped to look like three books. The covers visually mimicked the nostalgic ‘lashings of ginger beer’ style of the original Enid Blyton tales of the five adventurous kids in the 1940’s and 50’s, on which the Comic Strip Presents spoof is based. Members of a brass band, painted to blend inanimately into the front cover of the book, sat within the structure. As unsuspecting commuters passed-by, the band would begin to play a rendition of Amy Winehouse’s ‘Rehab’, before returning to their original poses. The surprised reactions of passersby were recorded and used to form the viral film which is accompanied by The Champs track, Tequila.
Hik Sasaki, senior marketing manager for Gold, said: “Five Go To Rehab forms part of Gold’s multi-million pound investment in content for the channel. INITIALS’ has captured the spirit of Gold with a creative that combines the visual style of the original Blyton books, with the irreverence of Comic Strip, to target two diverse audiences.”
Chris Wareham, director and head of experiential at INITIALS, added: “With the activity in London Victoria, we wanted to create talkability and make people laugh. The appeal of the viral is that what the viewer is watching is real, so the reactions they see are genuine.”
Mat O’Brien, creative director at INITIALS, commented: “We worked with some exceptional talent in putting the stunt together and through Rubber Republic have been able to create some sharable content which we feel captures the nostalgia and comedic values encompassed in the new show.”
Five Go To Rehab airs on 7 November at 9pm on Gold, preceded by a 2 hour ‘Best Of’ documentary on 3 November at 9pm.
