How a next-level paid media strategy helped rebuild love & relevance for the BBC

The drifting away of younger audiences from the BBC threatened its claim to deliver ‘value for all’. This case describes a multi-phase, multi-year strategy to make BBC content more relevant to under-35s and increase their use of BBC streaming. Compared to previous years, marketing was concentrated into fewer but bigger paid-for media bursts to make BBC programming more famous and connect it to wider cultural trends using media weighted towards social, out of home, and digital audiovisual platforms. Evidence this strategy was effective includes growth in active iPlayer streaming accounts, and both increased reach and more positive views of the corporation among 16-34-year-olds.