Almost blanket national print coverage, as well as broadcast coverage on the Radio 4’s Today Programme, BBC Six O'Clock News and GMTV
The challenge
A key goal was to challenge the erroneous perception that preparing for digital switchover is an expensive process, which requires people to throw out their existing television. Also, we used this campaign as a platform to take the Digital UK message to the final one in ten people in the country who have not yet switched.
Our response
We launched a national competition to find the oldest television in the country, and show how it could be converted to receive digital television. We secured TV expert Iain Logie Baird.
We launched the hunt for the oldest TV in the Daily Mirror's 'We Love Telly' TV supplement, as well as sending out a call to action in the regions via local papers and radio stations. After receiving over 100 entries, Iain Logie Baird judged the oldest telly to be a 1936 Marconiphone, in North London. We organised a press day, involving broadcast interviews and an open house, to reveal the UK’s oldest known telly, which was also connected to a digital set top box.
Results
The launch of the competition was well covered, reaching 3.3 million via local radio stations alone.
There was widespread national coverage of the oldest set, with pieces on BBC Six O’Clock News, Today Programme, BBC News Online, Daily Mirror, Daily Mail, Telegraph Online and Radio Times. An article on BBC News Online had over 200,000 views and was one of the ‘most read’ that week. We created regional publicity around runner ups ensuring a range of local coverage.
