Excuses, excuses

How many brands have embarked on content marketing campaigns without a fully thought through strategy?
 
By contrast, the most recent example is clearly based on a brave strategy that may just work and not simply because of the excellent execution.
 
The issue

TV Licensing estimates that 97% of households own a television, or more likely, multiple televisions.
 
They also estimate that they are losing £195 million in lost revenue from people who watch television but do not buy a TV Licence.
 
There have been a number of ‘big brother’ scare campaigns over the years, normally aired around Christmas time, to frighten people into getting their TV Licence. Last year more than 400,000 people were caught watching TV without a licence. This was despite the government’s efforts to impress upon us that we are legally required to have a licence, if we watch or record TV at the same time as it is broadcast, or we face a fine of up to £1,000.

But there has been a growing amount of vitriol on social media platforms emanating from those angered by the history of rigged phone-ins, perceived bias towards political bodies and businesses through to the more recently questionable journalistic standards and alleged child abuse among high profile BBC employees.

The potential for these increasingly articulate bloggers and video-bloggers to encourage wider protest among the general public, through withholding the licence fees, needed to be addressed. But rather than confront the criticism head on, TV Licensing has taken an interesting and tangential approach to diffuse the negative ‘buzz’.
 
The solution

Red Bee Creative, who have developed their understanding of the broadcast medium to specialise in Content Marketing for brands, combined their skills with BAFTA award winning animators, White Robot, to come up with a series of short clips for TV Licensing’s new YouTube channel. The genius of the counter offensive is to show, through the animation of genuine consumer excuses, how people actually explain why they have not bought a licence.  
 
This is not a contrived excuse for the conduct of the BBC to support why the TV licence should be paid. Or a marketing ‘sop’ to show how easy it is to buy a licence online. This is a brave, intelligent exposé of how frail and pathetic the excuses offered in the heat of the moment actually are, when heard in the cold light of day. Done with charm, wit and air of confidence. This is a counter offensive that will be hard for the protesters to counter, as long as the law remains, that every household owning a TV and watching or recording live broadcast needs a licence. This is content marketing with real purpose.

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