First ‘Advertainment’ Campaign Sees Strong Response

The first ‘advertainment’ campaign to be run on ITV has proved successful for advertiser MFI, which saw around 90,000 responses via text, phone and online over the Christmas period.

MFI’s ‘Best Ever Sale’ campaign invited viewers to enter a competition through text, phone or online, with the £25,000 prize winner announced live on air on Christmas Day during ITV1’s Booze Cruise.

The campaign aired across ITV’s family of channels, using spots in some of the broadcaster’s highest profile shows, including Coronation Street, Emmerdale and Ant & Dec’s Christmas Takeaway.

Explaining the campaign’s attraction, Pete Marsh, advertiser controller at ITV Sales, said: “There is no doubt that MFI’s campaign stood out from its rivals at such a critical time for all retailers. 35% of the UK adult population saw at least one spot and we are delighted with the overwhelming response rates it received from viewers, particularly via text.”

Adrian Marks, client planning director at ZenithOptimedia responsible for the MFI account, added: “It is rare that such a tactically creative idea fits so well within a client’s overall strategic objectives. The large response showed that people were clearly happy to interact with the advertising and the brand. The Advertainment idea had the added benefits of enhancing the impact of the TV campaign, whilst delivering an undisputable ROI.”

ITV recently added mobile interactivity to its portfolio of advertiser offerings as a matter of course, offering text message short codes alongside other interactive methods in an effort to encourage increased use of interactive technology within ad breaks (see ITV Extends Interactive Options With Text Codes).

ITV: 020 7843 8000 www.itv.com