主播大秀

Reaching out to younger audiences on the social platforms that are part of their everyday lives is an important objective for the 主播大秀. Jenny Chapman, Digital Producer in 主播大秀 Learning, explains how The Mind Set Campaign created an initiative to target a specific age group on one such platform.

We recently produced some 主播大秀 campaign content on Snapchat and it is performing well. And Snap told us it was 'stand out and cool'. I am ridiculously pleased. And here’s why.

is a new 主播大秀 Learning campaign, which offers wellbeing support to the 740,000 15-16 year olds in the UK who are currently enduring the exam season. We know this group value peer advice, so our core offering is a series of videos featuring practical advice from last year’s exam sitters. We are working alongside partners such as , and the to offer as much support as possible.

This new content forms part of our Bitesize site - a 主播大秀 Learning product that offers curriculum content to 3–16 year olds.

Our research shows us that while Bitesize is well valued for that curriculum support, this age group tend towards social media for emotional support. It seemed clear that if our content was to benefit these young people then we needed it to appear in their social media feeds. We’re used to putting content on and driving to our 主播大秀 sites with , but you don’t need to study the data too much to see that this age group are massive Snapchat users.

The MindSet team decided to take our content to those users and place it natively on Snapchat in the form of three ten second videos inviting users feeling the pressure of exams to swipe up for our longer form content.

The 主播大秀 may embrace new media but when it is too ‘new’ for internal protocols, it can require some tenacity...

1. Our content is TV shaped. Snapchat users hold their phones upright. So our first challenge was to see if we could create high quality, on point, vertical video content (9:16) from our existing (16:9) campaign content. This format issue is actually quite a big deal for the 主播大秀 in giving younger audiences access to our archive. We got lucky on The Mind Set with our main campaign content having been shot widely with the young contributors physically in the centre. It was hard work finding other 主播大秀 content which allowed us to crop the sides mercilessly without losing impact or parts of the image itself.

2. Our campaign content is suited for 主播大秀 sites. It needed reappraising for Snapchatters’ expectations. Successful content on Snapchat is eclectic but what is clear is that it is fast, loud (sound on), colourful and very efficient in delivering a short message. (Not for Snapchat the ‘authentic’ ramblings of the YouTube vlogger)

We know the rules - content on social media needs to be made for social media. However, we had no budget to commission new content (and this was an experiment) so we ruthlessly chopped, edited, paced up, annotated and turned up the sound with what we had. 

Creating this content was actually great fun and a salutary reminder while immersed in PROCESS that content is what we do here.

3. Content on a non 主播大秀 site is nick-able. More seriously and less interestingly, there are legal agreements with the people who made and performed in it. I expect paperwork will change in the future but for now we had to approach the makers, writers and actors (apart from the bats) and negotiate new permissions.

4. We like people to come to the 主播大秀. They’ve paid for it. Our social media protocols assume it. Placing content natively on social media doesn’t necessarily push users to the 主播大秀 sites and we have to weigh this up against the benefit of reaching new audiences where they are.

5. We like data. We’re public service and like to show we can spend the licence fee efficiently. Snapchat’s entire USP is based around privacy. After all, their core offering is to delete your snap as soon as it is seen and that is a key part of the fun of the app. Placing 主播大秀 content on their app meant accepting that while a new audience might benefit from it, we would not have the luxury of the statistical analysis our own site offers.

6. Have I mentioned the 9:16 thing?

The stats are still coming in, but we already know the first of the ten-second Top Snaps got over a million views, with 12% of viewers swiping up for the longer-form content beneath. Snap consider 3 – 5% a good performer (smiley face emoji). Those who did swipe up watched the long form content way longer than average.

So what did 主播大秀 Learning learn?

In the end value for our audiences depends on what it always has - high quality content when and where they need it and here at the 主播大秀 we are exploring what that ‘where’ might mean.

The Mindset audience are about to become licence fee payers. Increasingly this age group do not find content. It finds them.