MAGnet #08 16/07/21
Magnet #8
Welcome to another week of Magnet. With the Euros over, we’re getting geared up for the Olympics.
Campaigns: Olympic TV ads
Channel 4 / Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games: Super. Human.
In spirit of the upcoming Olympics, Channel 4 launched a major new advertising campaign for the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games yesterday. It’s titled ‘Super. Human.’ And it’s made by Oscar-nominated cinematographer Bradford Young. Super. Human. explores the many sacrifices made by Paralympians to pursue their dreams of being crowned Paralympic champions.
Unlike previous iterations of the Superhumans campaigns, this focuses on the fragilities and day to day struggles facing elite athletes; putting the emphasis on human over super.
The ad opens with Paralympian Kadeena Cox in a dream sequence facing the pressure of repeating her gold medal performances from Rio 2016. But a starting pistol shakes her out of the dream, and reality bites. It was conceived by Channel 4's multi award-winning agency 4Creative.
BBC
BBC Creative launched their Tokyo 2020 Olympics trailer titled Let’s Go There, ahead of the channel’s coverage, which kicks off next month. The title itself refers to the pandemic, acknowledging that whilst it’s going ahead- people won’t be able to travel to be there in real time.
Tokyo hasn’t hosted the Olympics since 1964, and while this time might feel a little different – having already been delayed for a year – this promo hopes to create a buzz of excitement for people watching the coverage at home.
Created in-house with the help of Nexus Studios and director collective Factory Fifteen, the trailer sees Tokyo taken over by the Olympics with street signs, shops, arcades, Gashapon parlours, and a J-Pop music video crammed full of references to the Olympic sports, athletes and BBC presenters.
ITV to launch shoppable TV:
ITV is launching shoppable TV, (allowing viewers to discover and shop items from its programmes directly on screen), the first service of its kind in the UK. Viewers can initiate the shopping interface at any time by using their LG remote but they must actively opt-in to use the service.
The service is during Love Island on ITV2 with Boots UK as the first confirmed launch partner.
The interactive system uses AI technology from The Take, a contextual product discovery company; the technology is built directly into LG TV sets in the UK.
Using the on-screen shopping interface, viewers can scroll through products, which will refresh when different products and characters are shown during a programme. Additionally, users can also choose to view all products available from the episode of the show that they’re watching.
ITV also plans to roll-out the service on other programmes across different genres throughout the rest of 2021. The Take technology is already live in the USA on 2021, 2020, and 2019 LG TVs.
Data: Euros Viewing stats
The audience for the final (England v Italy) peaked at 30.95 million viewers, figures show.
Ratings peaked during extra time in the match between England and Italy at Wembley Stadium (broadcast on both the BBC and ITV), whilst an average of 29.85m watched the whole game, according to the figures. The combined figure makes it the highest TV audience since the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales, in 1997.